Airing of Grievances 2014 - Arkansas Razorbacks Festivus Edition

As per tradition, we begin Festivus with the Airing of Grievances.  Here are some of mine.

Now, granted, life as a Razorback fan does seem to be in a better place right now than at this time last year, so the general mood isn't so negative. That being said, there were still things that bothered us this year. Many of those things were discussed ad nauseam throughout 2014, so let's just briefly acknowledge them before we move on: basketball road losses, tripping penalties, the ECU 247 site that reported we were playing in the Birmingham Bowl, fumbled snaps, the baseball team on offense, fumbled pitches, the SEC basketball tournament (again), death certificates, Bielema's "dancing like schoolgirls" tweet before promptly whiffing on Solomon Thomas and Demetrius Jackson on Signing Day, did we really need that many passing plays?, most of the terrible points made in the Great Stadium Debate (again), the word "branding", fans begging for Austin/Rafe, or for begging Ty Storey to start next year, Club BERT, anyone who complained that Bill Walton wasn't a great announcer during the NIT, the NIT, trying a reverse sweep...with a tight end, the 10-second rule (the proposed one for football, not the backcourt one in basketball - that's the best turnover in the game!), and as always - Hogville - this year for taking SB Nation's Steven Godfrey to a Larry's Pizza Buffet (where the buffet comes to you! seriously you don't even have to get up) for the Hogville summit.

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People who have a problem with BERT

Make no mistake, we're winning this war. People are coming to our side.

Yet, it never fails. If we make a reference to BERT we get people coming out of the woodwork to harass us. We've been unfriended, unfollowed, and even cussed out by fans who feel like we're being disrespectful by referring to Coach Bielema as BERT.

People, get over it. As we've said many times, BERT may have been a term of derision when it was coined before Bielema came to Arkansas, but we've embraced it as a term of endearment. It's fun. Our Feel The Rhythm author Trent Wooldridge has written a basic thesis statement on this I can share later if you've never seen it.

We love him. We're big fans. Anyone who reads any of the stuff we write here should know that. BERT's our guy. We're also not going to pretend he's some holy figure beyond caricature. We strive to have fun here because sports are supposed to be fun and BERT is fun for us, so that's what we're going to do.

If nothing else, when Jeff Long is retweeting a BERT line, I feel like that should be a mic drop:

/fin

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Practice Reports

Practice reports are almost always useless. But since the offseason lasts nine months we always put way too much emphasis on them. In previous years it was always about how great the quarterbacks have looked with near-perfect outings, followed by some pretty atrocious defenses during the season.

I don't recall getting that this year. But I do remember Drew Morgan catching five passes in one practice including a touchdown or two and everyone thought he'd have a breakout year. He caught 8 passes this season.

We all know what happened with Korliss Marshall. He was going to be no worse than "1C" on the Hogs "1A, 1B, 1C" trio of running backs this year after a big spring game and another big run to close one of the preseason scrimmages. Some thought he might have passed by Alex Collins, even. Yeah, about that. Even before his suspensions, Marshall was never at that level. He did have crazy speed, yes, but was never as productive as Collins and Williams once the season started. He did show flashes at times, but obviously, well, you know.

Otha Peters was having a great beginning of preseason camp at linebacker, until he got pushed low enough on the depth chart they tried him out at fullback and he announced he was transferring later that day.

You get the idea. If there was anything else worth writing about in April and August that would be great. Hey, quit looking at me like that, April. I didn't mean it like that. Don't get crazy ideas.

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The new ArkansasRazorbacks.com

It looks great, really, it does. It's sleek. It looks very Nike.

Using it is a little different. It's a pain. There's not much way around it. It's basic stuff, like when I'm trying to scroll down the page and the scrolling stops when the cursor hits the horizontal scrolling bar in the middle of the page because then it scrolls that bar left to right. That's just bad UX.

I use the site enough to find the basic things I tend to look for, like stats or game notes or schedules, but it seems like many are still struggling.

The thing that really bothers me though is that all the old photos seem to be gone. The old site had a massive archive of photo galleries dating back to the mid-2000s or so. Many of the photos we've used on this site of players like Darren McFadden came from there, and now they're gone. Or at least I can't find them anywhere, in which case, I guess I'm one of the people still struggling to find things. Old press releases have been published on the site but the accompanying photos are gone.

This is basic. Make stuff findable and/or don't delete historical archives. FOR SHAME.

Seriously, that needs to be fixed.

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Whoever typo'd the wifi password at War Memorial

YOU HAVE ONE JOB.

Ok, maybe you have more than one responsibility with your job, but THIS IS IMPORTANT.

It's not like we need to create new reasons to give anyone for not wanting games in Little Rock. Like we've said many times before, as far as we're concerned, the debate is over. But for these next (last?) four games, let's just type in the correct password for the wifi network.

If you're not familiar, the gathering media for the Georgia game in Little Rock had difficulty with wifi access in the press box. There were two networks available. One had extremely spotty access at best. The other no one could log into. In the fourth quarter, our own Scottie Bordelon notified me that he realized there was a typo in the password on the media sheet, and that's why no one could get into it.

So for the last few minutes of the game, wifi access was fantastic.

It wasn't any better at the Razorback basketball game at Verizon, except the wifi password was correct. Access was just bad.

LITTLE ROCK, I WANT TO HELP YOU. QUIT MAKING IT HARD.

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Texas

Because Texas. This of course will be little Corliss McFadden Harper's first Arkansas vs Texas game. I don't care if it's the only time they ever play or that she won't remember it. She'll know what it means. I'll make sure of it. #parenting

Feel free to air your grievances below, and good luck in your feats of strength.