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Hogs have best chance of winning league game against Kentucky
No introductory quote this week … just a factual statement: If Arkansas wants to win an SEC game on the road, this is their absolute best likelihood.
I have not given up the right of latitude to believe the Razorbacks could still win a conference game at home.
This week does afford us a solid opportunity to earn Chad Morris his first victory over an SEC East opponent … or any SEC member for that matter.
We showed improvement against Texas A&M, yet we did not turn the page. Playing the Wildcats at home presents a bent page corner so easily to grab and pull over on the book of this season.
However, would a victory in Lexington really amount to anything for Arkansas’s identity?
When you have not won a conference game in two seasons, yes. No win is truly ever a bad win, especially now.
At a high school football game I was approached by a good number of people, and all had the same question: “What is your pick for tomorrow?”
Good question.
On a side note, I deduced quickly all three of my readers are from my hometown. Mom, Dad, and lady with the wrong-colored foam finger, thank you.
There are aspects that concern me as well as push me in the direction of whom I am going to pick in in Week 7.
• Bye weeks be damned. Both Arkansas and Kentucky are coming out of a weekend off, so both have had the same amount of team to study and prepare for the other.
• Kentucky has a quarterback situation folks, and it is not one to be desired. Fourth-string or fifth-string, I am pretty certain their starting signal caller is listed as a wide receiver.
Perhaps … PERHAPS … Arkansas can exploit this as our defense continues to struggle stopping big plays early in the game as well as towards the end of it.
• Nick Starkel is in good shape, and Ben Hicks played well enough against A&M to ensure there is a QB competition. Hopefully this keeps the junior sharp and the senior on high alert as we may need both.
• I am not certain why Mark Stoops and his team are on the decline this season, but I feared last season we would fall into the traditional “Kentucky Trap” — they get hot right around the time they roll back onto our schedule.
• The Hogs have talent. Today those skilled players can learn how to utilized their abilities on the road. Chad Morris will surely make this a point of emphasis.
• WE MUST WIN! The fans know it. The coaches know it. The players know and feel it. Any chance of a bowl game is on the line, and the players must feel both a sense of urgency (on their careers) and a strong will power to win. Let’s right the ship, men.
On a closing note, Kentucky will honor Jared Lorenzen this week. Anytime a team plays for a fallen member it concerns me. And yet I will also pay homage to the great No. 22.
I remember once watching a news broadcast of him getting off of Kentucky’s team bus. I had such disdain for that young man.
I will never forget when in 2003 he turned to the Kentucky fans departing the stadium versus Arkansas and declaring, “Hey, where are y’all going?! You’re going to miss one hell of a football game!” I have liked him ever since.
Furthermore, I recently watched some interviews with him regarding his weight struggles, and in doing so I grew quickly to respect and admire him. Jared, from a lifelong Razorbacks fan, you are cherished and missed. God Bless you and your Family.
The game must go on, and this week it is in Arkansas’s favor: Hogs, 34 – 17.
Be sure to listen to the game at 6:30 via HitThatLine.com and on the air at ESPN Arkansas 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home.
Andy Hodges confessed to me he is scared of this season’s pick’em contest. No, he did not express it verbally, yet I can see the fear in his eyes despite his besting me by one-game last week as he now possesses a plus-two lead.
Fear not, fans, I still aim to beat the tyrant on your behalf and claim what is rightfully mine … I mean ours.
• South Carolina at (3) Georgia: Twenty dollars to the first person who tells me South Carolina will win this game today. Twenty-five dollars if they actually do. Bulldogs by 24.
• Mississippi State at Tennessee: I received a message the other day criticizing my picks. They say I am anti-Volunteers. No, my friend, the Tennessee football team is anti-Volite. Bulldogs by 18.
• (1) Alabama at (24) Texas A&M: Thank you, Aggies, for ensuring only one SEC team will fall out of the Top 10 this week. Actually, even if the home team in College Station could pull off the upset, the Crimson Tide (who passed Clemson in the rankings for the coveted No. 1 slot) would most likely remain listed as one of the current echelon teams in the NCAA. That unlikely scenario said, Alabama should be able to pull away midway in the third quarter. Tide by 20.
• UNLV at Vanderbilt [SLOPFEST OF THE WEEK]: Who else remembers the early 90’s rap song about the Razorbacks basketball team which included the line “So everyone, start runnin’ like Rebels”? Sorry, I got nostalgic for a moment. This game will not ever be listed as a classic, but the Commodores get their second victory of the season as UNLV is only runnin’ slop now. Vandy by 14.
• Ole Miss at Missouri: I think the Rebels are starting to find themselves as a team. On the flip-side, Missouri was catching on how to utilize Kelly Bryant, however, a possible season-ending knee injury has created a public chess match between the two coaching staffs of “will he or won’t he” play. If he does, Tigers by 21. If he does not, Tigers by 11.
• Arkansas at Kentucky: See the top-notch analysis above…. No, the article above this one. However, Arkansas by 17.
• (7) Florida at (5) LSU [GAME OF THE WEEK]: The only thing about this game I do not like is a callback to the above statement – one SEC team will fall out of the top tier of the NCAA rankings. This will be a fantastic game… possibly. LSU’s defense is better than it was last year in the Swamp, and I do not think backup Florida’s QB (Kyle Trask) will be able to ride the emotion of knocking off Auburn last week into a night game in Death Valley long enough to upend the Tigers. LSU by 9.
That is it for this week! Enjoy yourself, Razorbacks fans and everyone else who happened to stumble across this piece.
Find me on ‘Twitter’: @PeterMorganWPS
Go HOGS!!!
