Not many positive realities for Razorback fans going forward after this one

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — This Arkansas team just might be worse than the 2-3 record they now have getting literally blown out totally and completely by Notre Dame, 56-13.

A general feeling from the average Razorback fan is the off week is the time to pull the plug on Sam Pittman, go ahead and make offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino.

That might not be as easy as it sounds.

Petrino is the one everybody assumes will be next, but that may not be as doable as everyone is thinking.

He was fired for cause and the fact his starting quarterback, Taylen Green, threw into five-man coverage even frustrated highly-placed donors against Tennessee.

Nothing much has really improved. Green has been dragged down from a Heisman Trophy conversation to possibly not even finishing the season.

Maybe the most alarming thing for Hog fans is even Notre Dame people understand this is an off-year for the Irish. They were laughing about the fact that Arkansas was so bad it made Notre Dame look great.

It's not going to be a fun few weeks. When you realize that Pittman's goofy buyout on his contract may directly lead to the agony for Hog fans to be prolonged a few weeks. They can save money by waiting until it gets below .500 for the season.

As former Arkansas linebacker David Bazzel told KATV's Steve Sullivan, this team can't be saved by simply making a coaching change. That won't fix a thing.

No coaching change is going to matter at this point with a team that couldn't even pull off looking like winners in the limited amount of practice time the media could see. Most of them just appeared to be there for whatever money they were getting.

Nothing much has changed five games into the season. If there are problems behind the scenes, I'm not aware of them but it may not quiet things either way. The players look good, but there have been a ton of questions around this team and not finding answers.

We now have some of those answers, but a warning is that none of them are good:

• The offensive line is not fixed despite assurances from coaches they were confident it was going to be vastly improved. Some of the media were buying into it, but they don't have much depth and even the starters aren't up to winning SEC games.

• Wide receiver has some talent, but was likely reduced by Jalen Brown's injury that looked bad when it happened. Just a non-medical guess but those quite often will end a season for a player. The others have mysterious problems hanging onto the ball after a catch. That is probably trying to make a play so bad they forget the most important thing is holding onto the ball. Former coach Lou Holtz pointed out in a press conference before the game they named the game "football" so it's probably an important part of the game.

• Defense isn't improved and may actually be worse than last year. The secondary can't cover anybody, the defensive front can't stop the run consistently and the linebackers can't make a play when they have the chance. Change as many guys at the top of a coaching swap as you want, but it's not going to improve things.

• Running backs can make a few plays here and there, but it's not consistent. Maybe that ties back to the offensive line problems. The guess here is it's a combination of both things. Again, coaching can't fix that at this point of the season.

• Quarterback was thought to be the most consistent part of the team, but Green's inconsistency hasn't been fixed by the Great Playcaller. He can still usually hit wide open receivers on the crossing routes, but Notre Dame showed SEC defenses how to shut that down Saturday.

The Razorbacks still have massive question marks and the only answers coming are that this team hasn't improved over last year.

Somehow, it may actually be worse. A lot worse than even the most negative were predicting.

HOGS FEED: