New Reported Razorbacks' WR Coach Unknown to Fans

If anybody had the name of Ronnie Fouch among the likely candidates to be the new wide receivers coach, I don't recall seeing it. Like everybody else, it was a scramble to see just who this guy is to realize we obviously don't know much of anything.

He was Bobby Petrino's co-offensive coordinator at Missouri State. Under Petrino, that is probably more of a way to provide a title to justify a little bump in salary. It's hard to see anybody having that much influence of a lot to do with the offense under him, which is not necessarily a bad thing. It's managing the room and teaching technical stuff if you had to make a wager.

Fouch was an offensive analyst at Louisville when Lamar Jackson was winning the Heisman Trophy and reading about it, he was probably just a buffer to Petrino. Exactly how close any analyst can get to developing a Heisman winner is anybody's guess. Fouch was an unheralded backup quarterback at Washington who transferred to Indiana State.

None of that is intended as a slight. The best coaches usually weren't the biggest names playing at a position. Raymond Berry, the guy who invented most of the technical stuff wide receivers do now when catching passes from Johnny Unitas, was a good coach, but not great. He did coach the wide receivers at Arkansas (1970-72). You can ask folks like Chuck Dicus and Jim Hodge how good he was coaching.

There is nothing in Fouch's background I can find he's coached wide receivers directly, although he did coach tight ends at Florida State for a year. How important that is does leave a question, though. Especially with already a lot of questions at that position and no obvious No. 1 guy to catch passes from whoever ends up throwing the most.

It's about the way things are going to be nearly everywhere on this Razorbacks' team. Until they line up against Oklahoma State in the second game in September, we aren't going to have any substantial answers. A lot of hope is pinned on what Petrino has done. The view here is that's probably going to continue.