Arkansas football in current position due to decommitment to winning

Razorbacks had chances to win again, weren't willing pay price to compete and ending up with frustrating loss

Arkansas Razorbacks athletics director Hunter Yurachek on the sidelines during game with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark | Ted McClenning-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Close losses don't mean anything in sports.

Like the great Ricky Bobby said in Talladega Nights, "If you ain't first, you're last."

One too many times over the past 14 football seasons, the Arkansas Razorbacks have failed to recapture the spirit of winning that's eluded them.

Fans have become accustomed to six wins being acceptable. Being close enough is an excuse to give a coach more time get things right in years four, five and six.

The fire that once brewed for a fanbase that saw Arkansas nearly breakthrough every single week in 2014 under Bret Bielema would soon dull once they realized he couldn't get it done.

Former Arkansas Razorbacks coach Bret Bielema celebrates after the game against the TCU Horned Frogs at Amon G. Carter Stadium. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Then, when Chad Morris was fired for being the worst coach in modern day football history, the search committee decided it wasn't worth paying Lane Kiffin an extra $500,000 to bring the Arkansas program back to life.

If that wasn't enough, the same committee thought then Washington State coach Mike Leach would say something "stupid" at a press conference.

The same fanbase that grew tired of "we're close" under Bielema, the same one endured a heavily scripted press conference with Morris and always being told that they "have a good team" with Pittman were told absolutely not because Leach might have a presser clip go viral on social media.

Kiffin has won 10+ games at Ole Miss in three consecutive seasons, which is a feat never accomplished before in school history.

The late Leach was building a program in Starkville rather quickly with back-to-back winning seasons in a place that's historically been among the toughest jobs in the nation.

Arkansas opted for Pittman as a stopgap option after deciding not to win six years ago. Things worked at first, including a 12-4 mark from 2021 through the first three games of 2022, but went sideways quickly once quarterback K.J. Jefferson's superman leap from the 4-yard line resulted in a scoop and score for Texas A&M.

The Razorbacks became a fragile group that's incapable of winning and it doesn't help when recruits, transfers and even fans can't walk through the concourse of Razorback Stadium to see trophies and memorabilia on display any given day.

Former Arkansas linebacker David Bazzel said it best recently during an interview segment at the Little Rock Touchdown Club.

"So, so all these guys up here [on stage], if they've won any trophies, any plaques, any jerseys, they're all sitting in a storage unit somewhere in Rogers. And Dean Weber told me, he said, 'David, I feel like,' and this might have been under Jeff Long. I don't know, and I don't really care. He says, 'I feel like we're sort of, they're dismissing everything that was done before 2000.

"So I don't know where the Grantland Hill trophy is. I don't know where the Cotton Bowl trophy of the 60s was. I think they're all in a storage unit somewhere. So here's the deal. I'm just telling you, I don't care if Hunter Yurachek wants to do it or not.

“But, Chancellor [Charles F. Robinson], here's the deal. These guys and all of us who've played for the last 60 years, 75 years, we're coming for that stuff. And if you don't want to put them in the athletics department, we'll find a place to put them somewhere."

Many in the athletic department don't have a true feel for what it was like from 1998-2011 when Arkansas was at its best on the gridiron inside an extremely tough SEC. A BCS appearance, multiple Cotton Bowl wins, often finding itself ranked not only in the top 25, but the AP Top 10.

Former Arkansas Razorbacks football and basketball player Houston Nutt, who also was the head football coach from 1998-2007, was in attendance. | Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Images

Newer Arkansas staffers and fans are more familiar with the Razorbacks 16-42 record in one possession games than its 109-65 (60-53 SEC) overall record from 1998-2011 under Houston Nutt and Petrino.

Through recruiting and hard work, the Razorbacks proved to be fixtures in the SEC with the program beginning to find its footing in 1995 with a surprise SEC Championship game appearance.

That opened the door for Nutt to elevate the Razorbacks with two conference title game appearances, a ten win season, four nine-win campaigns and a pair of rebuilding years sprinkled in.

Petrino was even better with back-to-back double digit win seasons and a 34-17 overall record. Even 2009 was special even with a couple of questionable officiating decisions in road losses to Florida and LSU.

Expectations of Sugar and Cotton Bowl's have turned into Memphis' Liberty Bowl or bust.

Arkansas' leadership seem content that its cash cow is 69-99 overall, 32-85 in SEC play.

The Razorbacks' 14-50 mark against SEC competition since the hiring of athletics director Hunter Yurachek shows exactly how careless things have gotten in the football department.

It may take a revolt from the Arkansas fanbase comparable to Tennessee's petition of a hire in 2017 in order to take the Razorback football program back.

If not, then it shows contentment in mediocrity for years to come because winning comes at a cost.

Whether it the next coach is Eric Morris or Nick Saban himself, it'll take an all hands on deck approach to get this program rolling again.