Hogs’ Childs Out For The Season

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On Saturday, Bobby Petrino had his starters in the game up 35-14 over Vanderbilt in the fourth quarter.  Unfortunately, his team’s leading receiver — Greg Childs — suffered a patella tendon injury as the Razorbacks attempted to stretch their lead.

The good news: Arkansas scored and went up 42-14 and eventually won 49-14.

The bad news: Childs is out for the season.

One of those stories far outweighs the other.

Petrino was defensive when asked about Childs.  “That was the second play of the fourth quarter.  Every starter on both sides were in the game.

Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean they should have been.

In 2005, Alabama receiver Tyrone Prothro suffered an horrific, season-ending injury while still playing in the fourth quarter of a Tide game against Florida.  Bama was leading 31-3 when Prothro broke both is tibia and fibula.  Mike Shula’s decision to leave Prothro (and his other starters) in the game damaged the young coach’s reputation.

We’ll see how much heat Petrino takes for a similar call.  (And before someone sends me an email, being up 21 points on Vandy is equivalent to being up 75 on Florida.  Vandy was not coming back on Saturday night.)

Now the Razorbacks will head into this weekend’s game at #19 South Carolina looking for other receivers to step up. 

“We’ll definitely miss him,” Petrino said.  “You’re not going to replace his productivity, competitiveness, toughness with just one person.  We feel we do have good depth and different guys we can get the ball.”

Childs led Arkansas in just about every receiving category.  His injury is severe enough that he will likely be unable to go through contact drills in the spring.