Stinchcomb Says Arkansas Most Likely Team to Upset Alabama

SEC Network host laughs when graphic shows Texas most likely upset according to FPI

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Aug 5, 2022 2:42 PM EDT
Original:
Aug 5, 2022

Arkansas came within a possession and 2-point conversion from getting off the list of six schools to never beat a Nick Saban led Alabama team in Tuscaloosa last season.

With the Tide coming to Fayetteville this year, the SEC Network has picked Arkansas, along with Tennessee, as the team most likely to pull an upset of Alabama, which would remove the Hogs from the list of six.

KJ Jefferson looks for an open receiver against Alabama. — Butch Dill/USA TODAY Images

SEC Now lead host Dari Nowkah read off the list of teams that have a chance to beat Alabama according to FPI. When he noted that the FPI indicated Texas was the team with the best chance to pull an upset, co-host Matt Stinchcomb couldn't help but start laughing off camera before muttering "Oh, God."

Before explaining his natural reaction to the news that Texas, one of the worst teams in college football record-wise over the past decade, is considered the best chance to upset Alabama by the FPI, he went on to talk about the two teams he thought actually did have a shot.

Arkansas Razorbacks running back AJ Green (0) rushes for a touchdown in the second half against the Texas Longhorns at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Arkansas won 40-21.
Nelson Chenault-USA TODAY Sports

His first criteria appears to be that it must be a road game within the SEC for there to be the slightest hope.

"Did you see the way [Alabama] played on the road last year against teams that weren't that great?" Stinchcomb asked. "Did anybody thing A&M was gonna beat Alabama. Even they have a couple of foul balls in their at-bats over the course of the season. They didn't play well in the red zone."

Hostile environment and proof a team can hang with the Tide factored in next. Arkansas went into Tuscaloosa and narrowly lost, 42-35 last season and Razorback fans were over the top from September to June as some of the older crowd learned how to stand up and get involved again.

"You go into a hostile environment [in Fayetteville]," Stinchcomb said. "Now I'm not counting Texas, by the way, in the opener. This is [Alabama's] first true test I am going to say.

"On the road versus Arkansas, they're gonna be 'Woo Pig Sooieing' like a bunch of lunatics down there and they've got a game player in KJ Jefferson who can find ways to make those plays when your defense thinks they're getting off the field. You love what Sam Pittman can do when he's getting his team to play.

"They were only a one-possession game last year. Now they had to score late to get it to one possession, but it was a tight ball game."

Curious about the statement regarding not counting Texas, Nowkah pressed his partner to elaborate.

"You say you're not counting Texas," Nowkah said. "Is that just because you think Bama goes in there and beats the brakes off Sark and the Horns?"

Stinchcomb responded as clearly as possible, bringing up something college football fans have suspected for the past decade. Texas is only ranked at the beginning of the season because television networks need them to be so they can claim to have a big game before the Longhorns fall off the map again and take their potentially massive ratings with them.

"I do," Stinchcomb said. "I don't think Sark will be on the field so I think he will come out unbruised and unscathed. I just think 'What do we always do?' We want Texas to be something, right, so it needs to be a big game in that opener.

"I think the Longhorns are going to struggle there in that opener against the Tide. It will get tougher for [Alabama] down the road."