Arkansas, LSU to still play rivalry game despite fans on both sides forgetting

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — There may never have been a more unimportant, off the radar Battle for the Golden Boot between Arkansas and LSU.

The Hogs are coming in perhaps well rested from an off week. No one particularly knows because most Razorbacks fans processed the season as over after the Mississippi State loss and moved into full off-season coaching search mode with a nudge toward college basketball season, although that feels a little forced, even for a long time basketball/baseball school so early in November.

Meanwhile, over at LSU, they have their own interim coach doing his best to get noticed as a potential candidate. At least one would assume. So many people have thrown their name out of the hat at LSU because of the psychotic political feel of it all with the governor throwing his weight around at every turn, so perhaps Frank Wilson doesn't want it either.

Besides, the news at LSU isn't about the usual rivalry game against Arkansas. It's about whether there's a coaching search going on at all because, thanks to the quagmire the governor and his cronies have thrown the program into, it seems Brian Kelly is, and always has been, the Tigers' coach this season.

At this point, it wouldn't be surprising to see LSU try to force Kelly to be on the sidelines against Arkansas with the intent of tempting his with every booze, drug, punchable face and hot house wife in the state of Louisiana to squeeze a quick actual "cause" to formally fire him.

Back at Arkansas, the Hogs are supposedly preparing to make this yet another one-score loss, just without the opportunity to actually win at the end, which has become customary since Sam Pittman quietly headed to the lake without having AI write a fake goodbye letter to post on the internet to satisfy Frank in Fordyce and a handful of others mad about much of nothing.

Perhaps the one good thing about the ESPN vs. YouTube TV spat is a portion of the Arkansas fans might accidentally see the game, or at least a highlight, as they stay glued to the internet, digging deep into the darkest portions of social media, huffing the dark web for its hallucinogenic properties. There their dreams of the Hogs acquiring "a coach who is going to stun the nation by coming to Arkansas, but I can't tell you his name yet" can come true over and over to their personal satisfaction.

I heard from Bill in Batesville, deep off the record so please don't tell anyone, that his friend who works in Las Vegas talked to John Gruden and he has been hired for weeks. Hunter Yurachek just can't announce it yet because of a few contractual complications Gruden has that require him to wait until the season is over before he can be associated with a college team.

However, Josh in Junction City has a source, a really good source who allowed him to break news once several weeks after a coach had been caught taking photos of high school players in the showers, that he would eventually be fired, so it's hard not to believe he's right about Urban Meyer having signed a contract for the job. I mean, how can we not believe he's got the scoop after that last bombshell he dropped on everyone.

Of course Charles in Centerton has a cousin in Virginia who knows with certainty James Franklin told Virginia Tech he wasn't taking the job because they couldn't match what Arkansas is going to pay after a big fish booster jumped in. Then, Yelena in Yellville backed him up with information from her sister who works for a particular real estate mogul in Northwest Arkansas who secretly led Franklin around Fayetteville discreetly looking at houses.

With all of that quality breaking news pouring into the interwebs, how could Arkansas fans possibly have the head space needed to remember there's a football season still going, much less a specific football game that will be followed by (checks notes) two more games against rivals Hogs fans won't care about?

Never have Razorbacks fans wanted a stretch of football games against LSU, Texas and Missouri to be cancelled more than now. They just want to get past the required formalities and name the next coach already.

They have been suffering through a coaching search, complete with a horribly failed tryout by Bobby Petrino sandwiched in between, for a month and a half now. It's driving them insane.

Even SEC Shorts is jumping in on the absurdity of how all over the place fans are in regard to the next coaching hire at Arkansas.

It really is time to end this madness and name a coach already. However, conventional wisdom says Razorbacks fans need to take three rivals and check back after Thanksgiving.

As for LSU, good luck convincing Frank Wilson to be the lone person willing to take the job after the mess that's been created in Baton Rouge. Although, perhaps Kelly will still be the coach going into the Battle for the Golden Boot again in 2026 like he technically is now.

It just all depends on the whims of that nut job governor and how far over the line of where his powers should stop he's willing to continue to trudge. So, since no one will remember, much less watch this game, we'll let you know how it goes this Saturday.

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