Auburn game won’t be pretty, but progress may be made

Arkansas should have blown out Colorado State and North Texas.

They didn’t, however, exposing a lot of problems none of us knew existed and it’s not something Chad Morris will be able to fix in one week, so let’s not get giddy about anything with Auburn this week.

The Razorbacks have 16 four-star recruits, a five-star and a whole bunch of high three-stars, so don’t tell me the other teams had better talent.

They did have talent that outplayed all of that higher-rated talent the Hogs have who basically wallowed around for the last six quarters they’ve played.

Publicly, Morris isn’t going to come out and throw everyone under the bus. Coaches can’t do that anymore.

But this is the result of a steady slide in a program that hasn’t had much accountability, discipline or direction for several years.

Morris is doing the only thing he can, which is take things back to the basics and literally start rebuilding from the ground up. I didn’t see it until the last two weeks, but I wasn’t the only one that missed it.

In looking back, Arkansas’ last 10 years in the SEC are the worst since joining the league in 1992, winning just 40 percent of the games.

From 1992-2007, the Razorbacks won 47 percent of their games. The best 10-year period was during the Houston Nutt decade, winning 51 percent of the games at a time when the power of the league was in the East.

Nutt won 60 percent of his games against West opponents. Since then, Arkansas has won just 37 percent of the games against the West, although Alabama’s rise to maybe as big of a dynasty as we’ve seen is a big part of that.

Part of it has been other programs blowing past the Hogs. Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Mississippi State have blown by in recent years, 13-16 in the last decade (the Aggies throw the numbers off because they didn’t pop on the schedule until 2009).

In the previous decade, Arkansas was 16-4 against Ole Miss and State.

What changed? Just about everything. A new athletic director starting with the 2008 season and three coaches if you want to count the John L. Smith caretaker season.

Now the Hogs face one of the teams they have been 5-5 against over the past 10 seasons, but they don’t have a 50-50 shot of winning down on The Plains on Saturday.

The only question is how ugly will it be? Auburn will likely call off the dogs and let the Hogs get a score or two late.

Auburn 56, Arkansas 14

Last week we were dead wrong on the Hogs’ game with North Texas and Auburn losing to LSU for a 9-2 week, dropping the overall season to 31-5.

This week things get a little more interesting as we get into SEC play and the only gimmes are Ole Miss over Kent State and LSU over Louisiana Tech.

Texas A&M at -26 Alabama

Some are seriously giving the Aggies a chance in this game. Granted, most of those people are the Aggies themselves who have never gone into a game thinking they weren’t going to win by at least two touchdowns.

This Crimson Tide team may be the best in school history and that’s a big milestone to reach.

I’m not sure there’s anybody in college football that can even stay close to Alabama for a half, much less an entire game and it would be more interesting if they would just give the Tide the trophy, create one for second place and everybody play for that.

This one won’t be close and Jimbo Fisher will have some motivation for A&M against the Hogs the next week in Arlington.

Alabama 49, Texas A&M 14

-14 Georgia at Missouri

Okay, the Tigers have started off 3-0 and the best team they’ve played was Purdue and they won that game by a point.

The Bulldogs are rolling along and in most years would be considered the top team in the country, but there is that Alabama thing we’ve talked about.

Georgia rolls to keep pace setting up what everyone anticipates will be a huge showdown in Atlanta that may be Championship Game 1 with the Crimson Tide.

Georgia 42, Missouri 21

-2.5 South Carolina at Vanderbilt

Are the Commodores for real? Is Derek Mason the best coach in college football? The answers, in order, are not really and close, but not quite.

Vandy will make a game of this, but the Gamecocks are angling for a runner-up finish in the SEC East, which really isn’t a bad spot to be in.

South Carolina 28, Vanderbilt 24

-9.5 Mississippi State at Kentucky

We’ll find out about both teams from this game as both teams have climbed into respectability (Kentucky) and outright respect (Mississippi State).

But it’s a road game for the Bulldogs, who beat Kansas State on the road, and the Wildcats are riding high after beating Florida a couple of weeks ago for the first time in 31 years.

When I saw the schedule earlier in the year this looked like a trap game for the Bulldogs, who play Florida and former coach Dan Mullen next week.

Which is why I’m taking the Wildcats in an upset.

Kentucky 24, Mississippi State 21

-4 Florida at Tennessee

This one used to be a huge game with national implications. This year I don’t even know if there’s division importance for this game.

The Vols appear to have bought in more to new coach Jeremy Pruitt than some other first-year coaches while the Gators are improved offensively, but the misfires are spectacular at time.

Still, though, I think Florida finds a way to win this one, although it’s not the most confident pick to make.

Florida 21, Tennessee 20