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Rare case of Razorbacks being at top of SEC standings now
It’s not often you can look at the SEC Football standings and see Arkansas sitting at the top. If you check out the SEC’s official website, that is where we are today.
Granted, we are one game into conference play and I am certain the list of the 1-0 teams is in alphabetical order, but I will take it with a lighthearted laugh. It is about how everyone will stack up as the season deepens, and that is another conversation for a later day.
There is a long way to go in conference play and you can already see the end results of the season may be harder to predict than normal. Yes, this week went about as expected in the wins and losses columns, but the scoreboards and on-the-field play have been somewhat unexpected. Week 4 was no different from Week 3 in that aspect.
Here are three key results followed by the rest of the results in order of importance.
Three Takeaway Games
Vanderbilt 27, (7) Missouri 30: On my agenda for today is taking time to watch this game from start to finish to get a better analysis on why it took two overtimes to provide us a winner when it should have only taken one half. Just based off the scores and the stats, it seems as though both teams’ defenses played average, both perhaps giving up too many yards per play. Each offense racked up over 5-yards a snap. In retrospect, allow me to offer my apologies for deferring watching this one in favor of other contests; however, I just honestly thought this game would be more one-sided despite the Commodores playing either at a pinnacle or at an all-time low in the first three weeks. The Tigers control their own destiny, so this does not impact their long-term goals for 2024. They will need to hope Vandy plays well throughout the season … unless the voters did what I did and put this game on the backburner, only looking for a ‘W’ or an ‘L’.
(6) Tennessee 25, (15) Oklahoma 15: The game was not as close as the score looks, and even that is not impressive. The Vols owned the Sooners in every aspect of the game. Josh Heupel’s return to OU showed two things. One, he is the better coach. And two, he has the team with the most talent, especially given the game was played in Norman. There were a couple of shining moments by the Sooners too late in the game to make a difference, but apparently none worthy of remembering the next day. Brent Venables is a good coach. He just needs to learn what it takes to lead a top-tiered, historical program like Oklahoma. Tennessee will take this upcoming weekend off while it prepares to travel to Fayetteville to play Arkansas.
Bowling Green 20, (25) Texas A&M 26: Two things to question were revealed to me in this closer than expected contest. Why are the Aggies so inconsistent, and will this carry over into their matchup with Arkansas next week? And why on God’s “Bowling Green” Earth do the Falcons not have a trace of green within their school colors? Their Ohio hometown does. I looked this up, and I learned their city was named after a city with the same name in Kentucky. Stop me now, I have to get back on track here. A&M will probably fall out of the Top 25 this week – a ranking I feel is too high – but a small percentage of voters seem to love them. Given they pull a couple of upsets and win the ones they are expect to, they are still only a bubble’s chance of being ranked high enough at season’s end to make the playoffs, and this close win at home hurts that possibility.
Remaining SEC Results for Week 4
Arkansas 24, Auburn 14: I have not looked, but the six interceptions thrown in this game may have been more than or equal to the rest of the SEC combined yesterday. I am tongue-in-cheek with that comment of course, but it is a possibility. These are two teams who struggled in the West last year and now both hope they are on the rise, but it was the Hogs who took the next step towards validating their mark in the conference. Also, I lost a lot of respect for Hugh Freeze in this game. I have frequently rooted for him in the past, yet there was far too much crying from him on the sideline, and his comments regarding Arkansas not stopping the Tigers was a bit low-rent. By the way, if you have not seen the girl singing while crying late in the game, it was very entertaining.
Florida 45, Mississippi State 28: Florida coach Billy Napier may still have his job, but his dismissal will take place. Everyone just wonders when. And Jeff Lebby will be called into the Mississippi State Athletic Director’s office tomorrow. Not to be fired, but to have the future and progression discussed. Picture Hunter Yurachek talking with Chad Morris.
UCLA 17, (16) LSU 34: Good for the Tigers. This is a quality win over a Power 4 conference member, but, outside of a sigh of relief from a few LSU fans, it was not impactful.
Akron 7, South Carolina 50: Who knows how Shane Beamer will have his Gamecocks perform next week seems to have been the running question. We may have an answer as they are playing well and could POSSIBLY crack the Top 25. They will have this upcoming weekend off before they host Ole Miss.
Georgia Southern 13, (5) Ole Miss 52: The lopsided score only signifies Lane Kiffin’s squad is a consistent powerhouse thus far in conference play as they fight to earn a berth into the playoffs.
Ohio 6, Kentucky 41: Mark Stoops may be back in the good graces of the Wildcat fans. We will find out how they will fare against another highly ranked opponent on the 28th of September when they travel to Oxford to play Ole Miss.
ULM 3, (1)Texas 51: Outside of Arch Manning throwing two touchdowns and two interceptions while starting for an inured Quinn Ewers, there was no significance to this game.
We will be back here next week on HitThatLine.com to recap the more intriguing Week 5.
Razorbacks’ Sam Pittman just glad to get out of Auburn with a win
Reminds everyone they still have lots to work on, but happy to come away on top in first SEC game.
Hogs’ defensive back TJ Metcalf, offensive lineman Fernando Carmona
Metcalf on multiple interceptions and forced turnover plus what the line did against Auburn defense coming from everywhere.
Razorbacks’ Slaughter, Jackson, Sategna on getting win over Auburn
Defensive back Doneiko Slaughter, running back Ja’Quinden Jackson, wide receiver Isaiah Sategna on big plays in getting road win.
LIVE BLOG: Razorbacks get past error-prone Tigers, 24-14
AUBURN, Ala. — Arkansas co-defensive coordinator Travis Williams was obviously pumped to return against his alma mater. His defenders played like it, too.
The result was a methodical 24-14 win over Auburn on Saturday that wasn’t particularly a thing of beauty, but did show an opportunistic Razorback team. The Tigers also had five turnovers.
If there was a difference this year, the Hogs were able to take advantage of opportunities.
Read our live blog below:
Two teams looking to show they are better than a lot of people think in the SEC get their shot today.
Arkansas and Auburn are both 2-1, have a loss they feel they should have won and more questions than answers on both sides of the ball. At least for one weekend they’ll have a chance to show something.
Or generate more questions.
Nobody can blame the weather. It is a sun-splashed stadium at Jordan-Hare as kickoff approaches. Stick with us to keep up with views and highlights from the game as it plays out.
FIRST QUARTER
Crowd noise starting to play a role in game. Razorbacks get delay before runnning a play, then drive down and Kyle Ramsey pushes a 41-yard field goal attempt wide to the right. Hogs’ offense completely driven by quarterback Taylen Green, who is just taking off and running like he did a lot against UAB. Tyrone Broden and Andrew Armstrong dropped a couple of passes in the drive that ended on a sack by Dorion Mausi for a 7-yard loss.
2Q 14:47: Green leads the Razorbacks on a 15-play, 81-yard drive that was capped by Jackson bulling his way over the goal. Offense moving methodically and chewing up clock, keeping the ball for 11:41 of the first quarter, but they have the lead. Hogs 7, Tigers 0
For a game that’s only seen one touchdown, there’s been a ton of things going on:
• Armstrong was nearly cut in half making a catch in the first quarter, but returned to action and resumed being Green’s primary target.
• The player that delivered a completely legal and clean hit, Champ Anthony, was injured moments later and it appeared serious as he was carted off the field. It was more serious than what he delivered on Armstrong.
• Auburn quarterback Hank Brown took momentum away from the Tigers with a pair of draining interceptions. Those looked to be inexperience as much as anything else.
• The Tigers have turned the ball over four times in the first half, including one where running back Damari Alston was either going to be in the end zone or down inside the Hogs’ 5-yard line when it was knocked loose by TJ Metcalf and recovered in the end zone by Stephen Dix.
• The Razorbacks have one turnover, an interception by Green. We’ll see if anything like this turns into points in the second half.
Q3 5:44: Auburn makes a change at quarterback and Payton Thorne starts connecting on some passes and making key runs. Arkansas’ defense starting to show some holes and they look a little tired, which is the problem with depth that’s been discussed forever. The Razorbacks brought Malachi Singleton in for Taylen Green for a series before the Tigers put together a 77-yard drive in six plays with a big pass to a wide open Keandre Lambert-Smith for 54 yards. Hogs 7, Tigers 7
Q3 2:03: Razorbacks get a prayer answered when wide receiver Isaiah Sategna disappeared from the Auburn secondary while Green scrambled around and found him open for a 58-yard scoring bomb. Hogs 14, Tigers 7
FOURTH QUARTER
Q4 12:04: Razorbacks have another drive stalled as offensive line continues to force Green to scramble and deliver passes early as he’s getting blasted by defensive lineman and linebackers, but Ramsey bails them out with a 31-yard field goal for a two-score lead. Hogs 17, Tigers 7
Q4 9:50: It didn’t take Auburn long to answer the field goal. On a fourth-down play, Thorne found an unbelievably wide open Lambert-Smith running right down the hashmarks for a 67-yard score where he high-fived a teammate the last 5 yards … and still no Razorback defender was close. Hogs 17, Tigers 14
Q4 6:12: Razorbacks may have just sealed their third win of the year with a 1-yard run that was reviewed and the ball just grazed the goal line, but that counts as a touchdown. Hogs 24, Tiger 14
Democrat-Gazette’s Bob Holt previewing Razorbacks’ game at Auburn
With Tigers playing inexperienced quarterback, Hogs need to stop running game first to keep him from getting comfortable.
Morning Rush Sit Down: Jacob Goins – ESPN 106.7 Auburn-Opelika
Jacob Goins is the host of On The Line on ESPN 106.7 Auburn-Opelika. He sits down for a chat with Tye to discuss the Razorback’s first SEC opponent from a Tiger perspective.
ANDY’S PICKS: Do we finally get a chance to see ‘real’ Razorbacks this week?
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas is 2-1, but you don’t find an awful lot of confidence brimming over talking to fans over that. It’s almost like they keep waiting on something to happen … one way or the other.
With SEC play starting at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN, Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman is proably wanting to find out whether he’s got Jekyll or Hyde with this team. Even he probably doesn’t know right now, despite his repeated stated belief he’s confident. What else can he say?
Besides, he’s probably still trying to find a way to explain why a 37-27 win over UAB last week is not a loss. The way Hogs’ fans have treated it this week, you’d think they were on the short end of that thing. It was a win.
Arkansas still has questions, though, and a lot of them. Most of it is about depth.
They do have some good starting players and are a couple of players of quality depth at some positions. Not in the line, though, on either side of the ball. There is no other positon where you want to get a lot of players stacked up because folks are goig to get banged up.
While Taylen Green is showing signs of being a solid quarterback, he does have this habit of throwing to one wide receiver (Andrew Armstrong) more than anybody else on the team or taking off and running.
Now that he’s getting to SEC copetition, the speed and size of the linebackers on the other side may make that a little more difficult. It also could lead to another problem that is bad luck to even talk about and we really don’t know what the other folks can do in an SEC team.
Now that is an interesting subject because it’s actually the first SEC game for Green or any other quarterback on the Hogs’ roster that gets into the game. Or the top two running backs, Ja’Quinden Jackson and Rodney Hill or the third guy, freshman Braylen Hill.
Get the point? A lot of youth and a questionable secondary behind an offensive line not particularly inspiring confidence protecting Green leads to a lot of questions in search of an answer. We’ll start getting those Saturday afternoon.
Now at Auburn, the place where crazy things tend to happen over the year, we’ll see what the Razorbacks have against a team with maybe even more questions right now and a quarterback making his second collegiate start.
Auburn 31, Arkansas 29
Florida at Mississippi State: Despite the fact Pete thinks this is a loser leaves town type of game he’s not understanding they can’t buy out a coach with livestock these days. Jeff Lebby’s only three games into his tenure and that wouldn’t get anybody fired. On the other hand, Billy Napier knows the wolves are outside his door, but that simply isn’t going to help him on this one. Just flipped a coin on this one. Mississippi State 31, Florida 27
Ohio at Kentucky: One of several good grief games. The Wildcats could have a hangover from the missed opportunity against Georgia last week It might be a little closer than the 19.5-point spread, but shouldn’t be that close. Again, though, let’s not forget what Northen Illinois showed us against Notre Dame. Kentucky 29, Ohio 17
UCLA at LSU (16): The Bruins are now playing in the Big Ten and Los Angeles, but I’m not exactly certain they know much more than that. A once-proud football program has nosedived the last few years and there’s not really an answer to the tailspin. LSU has actually been playing below their talent level or nearly going 0-2 against the USC schools in college football isn’t showing us everything. They should right the ship for this one. LSU 42, UCLA 14
Vanderbilt at Missouri (7): I’m still waiting for an explanation from some people who didn’t think Missouri would really competitive in SEC football for over a decade would explain to me a couple of division titles and now in the Top 10. As they say on sports radio, “I’ll hang up and listen.” The Commodores haven’t really played anybody that good, but Missouri has far more talent. Missouri 31, Vanderbilt 13
Akron at South Carolina: This one actually made me yawn. Unless the Gamecocks just fall into a coma, this is one of a primarily boring weekend across the league. South Carolina 48, Akron 3
Bowling Green at (25) Texas A&M: Another example of the quality we have going on with majority of games this week. The Aggies played Notre Dame close, but couldn’t beat them. Northern Illinois did a week later. It’s been that kind of year across college football and coaches don’t panic about it because it’s a good bet one or two losses doesn’t automatically rule you out of the playoffs now. A&M has better players and more of them. Texas A&M 29, Bowling Green 7
(6) Tennessee at (15) Oklahoma: While a lot of Arkansas fans still want to believe the Sooners aren’t really worthy of being in the SEC, this OU team is better than most people think. The Vols are going to be walking into hostile territory and OU is probably going to bring out every legend that can still walk for this SEC home opener. I’ll give Pete a shot at picking up a win in this one. Oklahoma 44, Tennessee 42
Georgia Southern at (5) Ole Miss: Here we go again. The most talked-about aspect of this game is both coaches were fired by USC. Lane Kiffin said earlier this week he found out about Clay Helton from his dad, former Razorbacks defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin and they’ve known each other for years. Now they meet on the field and the Rebels have not given up a touchdown while lighting up scoreboards in three games. Ole Miss 42, Georgia Southern 9
ULM at (1)Texas: Pete nailed this one, giving it the “Good Grief” game this week.The Warhawks will go and play anybody for the right amount of money. The headline on this one is already about the first start for Arch Manning at quarterback for the Longhorns. Why do I keep having this nagging feeling he’ll be the quarterback when they play the Razorbacks in November. No idea yet whether that’s good or bad for the Hogs. Texas 63, ULM 7
