Sunday Morning Coming Down: Hogs Lookin' All Alone At Bottom Of SEC

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — One of Arkansas' favorite sons, Johnny Cash sang about how bad Saturday night felt when Sunday mornings came crashing down.

Well, the Razorbacks went out West for the second time this decade with a first-year head coach and it featured the same result. This time, it wasn't even close in a 43-10 loss to Utah in Salt Lake City.

Arkansas fans are waking up, scattered out across the country trying to make sense of what their once proud football team has become. All those close losses from the past made everyone calloused to them going all the way back to The Shootout of '69 against Texas.

But there's nothing like getting punched in the mouth by a team that's similarly talented to, but getting run out of their stadium with their tail tucked between the hind.

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Ryan Silverfield reacts to a play during the second half of the team's 31-14 victory over North Alabama in the season opener at CommunityAmerica Razorback Stadium. | Nilsen Roman

Fans feel alienated this Sunday.

All of them feel alone, second guessing the money given to a program in despair.

This program is dying right in front of all of us and it's due to the carelessness of an administration that just wants to make a profit instead of spending to make more. That's just "Sunday Morning Coming Down."

Forget Walmart, and it's "Always low prices, always" tagline because when it comes to Razorback football, the leadership is taking coupons to the register just to get a few cents off the Clover Valley products.

They've become cheap.

All that work Frank Broyles put in to bring Arkansas into a nationally relevant program was thrown into the fireplace with the financing of its North Endzone that just had to be enclosed for suites and such. Something that a decade later hasn't even been full for a single game because the program is in utter despair.

What's it going to take to get this program humming again?

Because nothing is ever going to change unless there's wholesale changes at the head.

I'm not talking about first-year head coach Ryan Silverfield either, who was probably sold a completely different story about the state of the Arkansas football program before taking the job.

Arkansas has become such a penny-pinching program that would rather let a contract expire because the decision-makers are too cheap to cut ties.

Utah Utes running back Wayshawn Parker (1) runs a reception for a touchdown against Arkansas Razorbacks linebacker Bradley Shaw (7) during the second quarter at Rice-Eccles Stadium. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

After settling on the recommendation of former coach Chad Morris when other quality coaches showed interest in the job, the Razorbacks followed that up by letting Lane Kiffin walk to Ole Miss over $500,000 and letting proud Arkansan Eli Drinkwitz's "inexperience" at Appalachian State be reason not to hire him.

Even if the pipedream of courting James Franklin was true, there's hardly any surety that both side could've come to a deal anyway.

After all, Arkansas has been using coupons on Clover Valley products at Dollar General anyways and that's not going to change anytime soon.

That doesn't mean firing another football coach, or burning the program to its studs once again.

Arkansas has tried that when Bret Bielema was fired, again when Chad Morris was sent packing after 18 games, and one more time when Pittman was fired for going 7-19 in one score games.

Each time, fans were sold another wet paper bag of goods, another vision and another reason to believe the program was finally going to operate like the SEC program it claims to be.

Yurachek said last Sept. that "...our football program is far too important to the health of our athletic program for us to take it for granted."

Yet here Arkansas is again.

Ryan Silverfield knows where this thing is headed after coaching only two games. Making him the scapegoat after a 43-10 loss would be convenient, emotional and completely miss the mark.

But he shouldnt be let off that easy either because he preached to everyone that Arkansas would be the best college football team at the controllables. Through eight quarters of football, everyone has seen nothing but the opposite.

The bigger question is why Arkansas repeatedly finds itself needing another rebuild, and that a question only one man can answer. That just happens to be Yurachek.

The Razorbacks play in the richest conference in college athletics. They are the flagship brand statewide without a major professional sports franchise it has to compete with. They have donors with enormous resources, generations of fans willing to drive hours to Fayetteville and an SEC revenue check that schools across the country would love to cash.

Arkansas Razorbacks athletics director Hunter Yurachek on the sidelines during game against the Arkansas State Red Wolves at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Ark. | Ted McClenning-allHOGS Images

But where is that money going?

Because if operating without a deficit is the true goal of running a successful department, then winning isn't a top priority at Arkansas.

It's not.

Saturday night comes to show that Arkansas getting beat like a drum against what could end up being the third place team in the Big 12 should be enough to sound the alarms. It's more than enough to clean house and hit the reset button.

Arkansas fans who have stood beside this football program as it has wasted away into the pit of despair shouldn't be punished for continually having hope. This isn't even mediocrity anymore.

Arkansas was beaten 43-10 by a program in Utah that it should be comparable to or better than.

At the end of the day, this is just the beginning of what the Razorback fans and media are going to witness.

For the next 10 weeks, it's going to look like assault every single week until another team decides to have mercy on them.

Because if Utah could make things look that easy on Saturday night, imagine what Georgia is going to do midway through the first quarter on Sept. 19. Whew, son, it could get ugly.

It could get Texas 2008 ugly.

Alabama 2013 ugly.

How about Alabama 2020 ugly.

Before 2017, there was fight in these Hogs. They weren't going to cower down and let another team roll over them.

That's what makes that Sunday morning hurt considerably more than it being just another number in the loss column.

This isn't about demanding Arkansas being contenders in the SEC every season. Nobody reasonably expects the Razorbacks to suddenly become a top team in the league — fans just want a reason to show up every Saturday.

Even our media outlets desparately want this 15-year run of misery to come to an end.

It all comes down to everyone demanding that Arkansas maximize what it does have, and that's unwavering support from a fanbase that desperately wants to field a winner.

Too many times over the past decade, Arkansas has raised the cost of ticket prices, concessions, and more to compensate for coaching salaries and NIL. It's no longer about surviving until the program hits rock bottom, but alienating a loyal fanbase that's done nothing but stand by them through the peaks and valleys.

The Razorbacks have slowly lost their identity, and it didn't happen overnight or with a singular coaching hire. Just when you think the crossroads have met, one decision is made to prolong the inevitable.

Until the people who really can do the changing receive that 4:30 a.m. wake-up call on some random Sunday morning and realize how far Arkansas has fallen it may very well be too late.

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