Some Simple Truths Behind Numbers in Razorbacks' Loss

Just because Hogs' offense has bigger numbers, doesn't guarantee any type of win

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Sep 17, 2023 8:47 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Just because Arkansas coach Sam Pittman wasn't exactly answering questions directly the way many in the media wanted doesn't mean he necessarily knew what happened with all the penalties. That became clear when he was yelling at offensive line coach Cody Kennedy during the game.

Don't read that much into it. Coaches holler at each other all the time and it's often containing a lot of words that they would never use in polite company. As I was telling someone this weekend, if you get offended don't get close enough to hear what is said on the benches and in locker rooms.

Pittman knew something wasn't working early in the game. The 38-31 loss to BYU looked like three complete games before we got out of the first quarter with all the momentum shifts and changes. It didn't exactly improve which says the problems weren't necessarily coaches, which everybody wants to blame first.

Nobody in history has ever been able to turn hamburger meat into a tender ribeye. Just about anybody with the right equipment or patience can turn any ribeye into hamburger meat. It's probably simplifying things too much, but you get the point.

It's not just with the Razorbacks these types of things are happening. If nothing else, college football is clearly showing it's an entire new world and the old way of handicapping these games and entire seasons is different. That's the transfer portal at work. Now players can be on the field in a game that counts just four months from coming here.

No coach will say any of that, of course. It's not something they feel plays well with possible future players or their families. Nobody really knows what they've got with players until they start playing games, regardless of how they look in practice. Everybody just assumes they can do the same thing at a new school and it doesn't always work that way.

Many of the pieces in the offensive line are freshmen that haven't played a lot or newcomers to the Hogs. Maybe no position on the football field requires more coordination and playing together than the offensive line. You don't see a lot of freshmen there, regardless how they end their college careers.

Of course nobody wants to mention if things come together after six games it's going to be really hard to compete for much other than trying to get into a decent bowl game. The transfer portal is affecting every position on the field it's impossible to say how many games it will take to sort things out.

Forget the way you handicapped teams week to week. Forecasting a season is almost impossible. Pittman and his staff will get things sorted out. Whether it's in time to salvage much this season is anybody's guess. You won't get one here.