Every state doing something different is going to make college athletics the wild, wild west with the Name, Image, Likeness stuff starting July 1.
Winning eight games could turn Hogs around … and there is a crack
Arkansas’ football fortunes for a decade have been a combination of bad decisions piled on top of incompetence mixed with a healthy dose of arrogance.
As a result, the Razorbacks have never won eight games in a season. That should be the minimum standard for the program, even in a down year.
They have gotten away with it because other people keep making excuses for failure and too much time talking about what “almost” happened. It’s hard to measure “almost” because “almost” doesn’t matter.
That’s why every year looking at the possible path to winning eight games is interesting. Granted it assumes a lot of things happening, but outlining that path does provide some perspective.
The Hogs have gotten so far behind everybody else in the SEC the primary goal is to simply catch the middle of the pack. Just getting better will never get them back where they used to be.
Getting eight wins would signal they are ready to at least get into some conversation about winning a title, which is what should be the goal.
The bar is higher and there’s that nagging little problem that every other team in the SEC (particularly the West) is getting better every year. Lane Kiffin will have Ole Miss better, Mike Leach will probably have a completely different team at Mississippi State after running off a slew of folks. Eli Drinkwitz will even have Missouri better.
Improvement at Arkansas has to be record-setting dramatic combined with some luck to reach an eight-win season.
Plus teams can go the other way.
And that’s the key to what many would consider a miracle of near-Biblical proportions.
The Hogs should win three of their non-conference games. If they don’t have a 20-point lead at halftime over Rice, Georgia Southern and UAPB there’s an issue.
Managing to overcome the M-schools and Texas A&M is the first key to winning eight games. They weren’t so far ahead of the Hogs’ program it’s impossible to catch.
Since SEC expansion in 2012, the Hogs are 6-25 against those four teams and four of the wins have been against Ole Miss. Against the other three teams, the Hogs are 4-21.
The record against all four of those teams has to improve. To get eight wins, Arkansas will have to win at least three. It’s easy to assume the Aggies will be the biggest obstacle, but those have been one-score games five of the last six years. For some reason it’s usually close.
Picking up six wins (three non-conference, three of the four league games) leaves the biggest question marks in the league with Auburn and LSU.
The Tigers are breaking in a new coach in Bryan Harsin, but Chad Morris is gone as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator so that usually results in the quarterback he left turning into the player of the year.
It could be a big year for Bo Nix.
The bottom line to that is nobody knows how to judge the Tigers for this year. Too many questions and very few answers right now.
In Baton Rouge, though, there are a whole host of problems. Be careful of teams in that position because it can go a couple of ways and one would spell disaster and LSU tends to implode when things aren’t rolling along smoothly.
There is a slight crack for eight wins this year.
But they’ll have to get five wins out of the group of Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Missouri and pick off a couple of wins from the Aggies, Auburn or LSU.
Getting eight should be the minimum expectation … every year.
Just being competition should never be acceptable.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast – Will KJ play better than Feleipe in 2021?
Tye & Tommy on the QB comparison, CWS Game 2, What’s Your Beef and Brett Goode!
Goode thinking Jefferson facing much larger expectations than Franks
One of the things former Razorback Brett Goode will be watching this year is how KJ Jefferson handles expectations much higher than Feleipe Franks did last season.
Dawson: Pittman talking football with in-state recruits, not ‘other’ stuff
Hawgs Illustrated’s Dudley Dawson on Ruscin & Zach said Sam Pittman is connecting with Arkansas recruits which is a change in approach.
CBS’ Cobb on Musselman embracing recruiting grind others try to escape
With Penny Hardaway reportedly looking at the NBA because he doesn’t care for the grind of recruiting at Memphis, Eric Musselman enjoys it, says David Cobb of CBS Sports.
McDaniel on Kopps, other Razorbacks’ positions in draft
ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel talked on Halftime about where Arkansas players, recruits, could be picked in July’s major league draft.
Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast: What’s the best show on ESPN Arkansas?
Tye & Tommy on CWS Game 1, creating parity in CFB, advice to student athletes and more!
’Horns not Hogs’ most important matchup from Texas in September
Arkansas fans need to drop the inferiority complex hatred for the Longhorns because they aren’t even the most important September matchup from Texas.
Two of the three will be in the Top 15 and the Longhorns aren’t the most important.
Somehow three teams from the state of Texas landed on the Razorbacks’ schedule this year and all are in the first month of the season.
Rice should be a way to start the season, smooth out some wrinkles and at least identify any problem areas.
Week two the Longhorns come to town, the game will be on the ESPN mother ship (as well as on HitThatLine.com) and the media will have the fans foaming at the mouth for the first really big night game without restrictions on tailgating or how many people can cram into Razorback Stadium.
They should be more focused on Texas A&M, who will be ranked higher when the two teams meet in AT&T Stadium on Sept. 25 where a lot more will be on the line.
Don’t start wailing about how important the Longhorns’ games are. I’ve been to more of them than 99% of the people reading this (I did miss the 1988 game in Austin when my son was born that day shortly after the game ended).
The Aggies are a bigger problem. Texas has won over 70% of the time against the Hogs by an average margin of 8.5 points per game. More importantly, they have better players.
On the other hand, A&M is a longtime matchup where the Hogs have won 57.6% of the time and have a 10-game edge in total wins.
None of those have come since the Aggies joined the SEC West in 2012. Arkansas hasn’t won a single game in the matchup since then. Don’t talk about almost because almost doesn’t matter.
In three regular-season matchups since going to the SEC in 1992, the Hogs have won once (2003 when they stunned Texas in Austin, 38-28). They caught the Longhorns in a couple of bowl games where neither the coaches, players or fan base were particularly interested in playing the game.
While the Hogs’ fan base has fallen to the level where many are just hoping the team can be competitive, Jimbo Fisher is throwing shade at Nick Saban, getting a humorous response from the Alabama coach.
All while Arkansas fans are more worried about the Longhorns.
They are hoping new coach Steve Sarkisian needs some time to get things turned around. Hog fans have become accustomed to coaches asking for time to do that in their first year.
The difference is Sarkisian inherited three straight Top 10 recruiting classes and his first signing (while he was offensive coordinator on Alabama’s national championship team) was No. 15 in the country.
Fisher has three straight recruiting classes in the Top 10 of the rankings while the Hogs have dealt with two head coaches and a world-wide health pandemic that has fouled up everything.
You can whine about recruiting rankings being meaningless and it’s true that doesn’t guarantee you of a single win, much less a championship.
Based on history, though, it does guarantee you won’t have many wins and zero championships if you don’t rank high.
