Arkansas’ opener against Florida A&M won’t be much more than a scrimmage televised live by the SEC Network.
Well, it will count in the standings. There is that.
But not much more.
The Rattlers opened against Texas Southern on Saturday and the 29-7 final score sounds closer than the game actually was.
Really.
Watching it, I started thinking how many high school teams could beat Texas Southern There were more than one or two on the list … and those were just some Northwest Arkansas teams.
Now FAMU comes to Little Rock to play an Arkansas team that hasn’t played particularly well there in Bret Bielema’s four previous years.
You get the idea Bret wasn’t particularly fond of the games there.
The guess here is this will be the next to last year the Razorbacks play in Little Rock. I wrote in 1978 they should expand Razorback Stadium and play all the games in Fayetteville because War Memorial Stadium deserved to be imploded.
Okay, I may have been going a little overboard. I prefer to call it having some foresight. When Frank Broyles increased the stadium capacity in Little Rock to 55,000 by lowering the field and squeezing the seat sizes, I lost all interest in War Memorial for Razorback games.
After the interstate was opened in January 1999, it suddenly became easier for folks to make it to Fayetteville. It was about that time when Broyles told some that Northwest Arkansas was the only area the Hogs were really interested in.
While that ticked off some, it was the truth. I don’t care what Jeff Long or anybody else says, that is the truth. They know the rest of the state will still love the Hogs and put up with whatever they give them.
It’s kinda like selling the regular seats. Outside of the seats between the 40-yard lines and the luxury boxes, the only other thing that matters is ESPN’s SEC Network. Now what happens as ESPN’s implosion continues is anybody’s guess (and there are a lot of those, both within the walls in Bristol and on Wall Street).
But that’s for the future.
The now is a game against a Florida A&M team that will roll into Little Rock after a 10-hour bus ride from Tallahassee, Florida, jump up and down a couple of times and play a night game against an SEC team.
It won’t be close.
So the fans shouldn’t read a whole lot into it. Don’t be shocked if the Hogs take the opening kickoff, the first punt or the first play to the house.
Bielema hopefully won’t play anyone with the slightest hint of an injury concern. Jared Cornelius will probably see a few plays, simply because he missed all of fall camp and his first action probably shouldn’t come against TCU on Sept. 9.
We’ll hear Arkansas’ coaches and players talk about the respect they have for the Rattlers. We may even hear from a media wag or two about Toledo in 2015.
The first is understandable. That’s coach-speak and players-speak they have to say, mainly to convince themselves.
The second would be ridiculous.
Toledo was a good team. Florida A&M may be a good FCS team in their league, but Toledo was a good team in their world where the Rattlers would be lucky to be in a game in the fourth quarter.
No, this one won’t be close. We won’t be shown a whole lot by the Hogs, mainly so TCU won’t get much for the scouting report.
The only sign could be the halftime score.
No, seriously.
If Arkansas is not up 28-0 at halftime, that’s a red flag. Not warning bells and sirens understand, but a red flag.
Yes, this one should be easy.
And probably will be.
