ARKANSAS VS. NO. 7 TEXAS : Bouncing back fast
Posted on Thursday, September 25, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE - For two weeks, Casey Dick was a football hero on the Arkansas campus.
The senior quarterback, who had never been allowed to be a playmaker of great consequence in three previous seasons, had been given the keys to the Bobby Petrino offensive machine and had made it purr at crunch time.
Dick had sparked a pair of fourth-quarter rallies with clutch passing and key fourth-down conversions, and he was leading the SEC in passing and total offense.
He's still atop those statistical categories, but the vibe isn't as perky today.
Not after Dick's three-interception day in Arkansas' 49-14 loss to Alabama last Saturday.
Not after Dick repeatedly described as "stupid"two of his throws that were picked off and returned for touchdowns in that game.
Not after Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino admitted Monday that "we've got work to do to regain confidence"with Dick.
Dick is still shouldering the blame for the throws as the Razorbacks prepare for another top 10 opponent - No. 7 Texas in Austin on Saturday - but he is trying not to dwell on that disappointment.
"My confidence is fine,"Dick said. "It's still high. I'm still ready to go."
His teammates maintain Dick has handled the adversity in a healthy manner.
"He took it on the chin, just like a leader is supposed to, and put it behind him,"junior tailback Michael Smith said. "He'll put it in his back pocket so that he doesn't forget it, but we're going to move forward, and he's ready to."
Said senior tackle Jose Valdez: "We've just got to be there for him when he needs us and have his back and not let him get hit. He'll respond good."
Dick's experiences at Arkansas, from his back injury, through the drama of the Mitch Mustain season of 2006, to his subsidiary role in the Darren McFadden & Felix Jones show last season have helped prepare him for times like this.
"I've been in a situation like that, basically, since I've been here, facing everything imaginable,"Dick said. "You've just got to be able to move on from it, not let it bother you."
Texas defenders have seen Dick's lapses of last week.
"After seeing that, it tells us that we have to put pressure on Casey [Dick ],"Texas defensive end Brian Orakpo said. "He's been a great player for them, and he's a senior leader for them. I feel like if we put pressure on them, we'll be able to create some turnovers and create some havoc."
Dick said watching the video of his mistakes against Alabama was painful but necessary.
Petrino's take on the fateful interceptions: "Both of them he was kind of sitting on his back foot.
"He had looked one direction and tried to come all the way across the field. One of them, he just didn't locate the receiver and know what the receiver was doing. So those were not good plays."
The interceptions that went for touchdowns both came on throws into the flats on option routes, where his receiver reads the coverage and turns one way or the other based on that read. Dick appeared to rush the throws.
"We've got to wait on the guy to make his break,"Dick said.
"I tried to anticipate it a little too fast and ended up throwing it a different way than he was coming out of his route.
"It's my fault. I've got to wait for him to pick a direction he's going to go, then throw him the ball and not hang the ball up in the air and throw it out in the flat way up in the air."
Arkansas quarterbacks coach Garrick McGee was not available for an interview this week, but even after Dick's successes of the first two weeks McGee maintained a broad view of what is needed from the quarterback in Arkansas' system.
"He's still got a long way to go,"McGee said two weeks ago. "I think every quarterback in the country is a long way away from doing all the things right. It's really a tough position to play.
"There's a lot of things we've got to get cleaned up because here coming up in the next part of our schedule, we've got teams that are going to expose mistakes that we make."
One of Dick's mottos since he's been on the Arkansas campus has been to have fun and get better each week. The early reviews on Dick's rebound this week have been OK.
"I thought he bounced back pretty good,"Arkansas offensive coordinator Paul Petrino said. "He did some things better in technique that were hurting him the other night, and his mind seemed good. He had a pretty good day."
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