Razorbacks Manage to Achieve What Wasn't Possible Before

Expansion of SEC has sunk Arkansas to spot that didn't exist prior to 2024 season

Author:
Andy Hodges
Updated:
Jan 4, 2024 7:43 AM EST
Original:
Jan 3, 2024

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Maybe the biggest problem is it's hard to find anyone except the most loyal Arkansas fans finding fault with ESPN's Peter Burns' "early vibes" for the SEC. I talked with several folks across the country who weren't surprised in the least coming in at No. 15.

Has the Razorbacks' football program fallen to the same level as Vanderbilt? It's so bad the number of wins that once were taken for granted are now the hope for fans. In the last decade, a 9-win season in 2021 and 7 wins in 2015 were the ones that got fans the most excited. Here we go again.

Before the expected cry to bring back Bobby Petrino as the head coach instead of the offensive coordinator to start, just remember his first time here it wasn't this bad. That was the first year of a new athletic director and following an 8-win regular season.

We could argue the reasons for all this, but that's for a different time and place. Needless to say, expectations aren't really high for 2024. When the Razorbacks came into the league in 1992, there were only 12 teams. The Hogs won 57.2% of their games over the 20 years in the SEC. It got worse bringing in two teams from the Big 12 in Texas A&M and Missouri.

Now it may get even worse than that average of 4-5 conference wins per year. Texas and Oklahoma knocked the Razorbacks down a spot or two in these rankings, both in wins and recruiting. For older fans, it's unbelievable what the hope is now being so far below former expectations.

Arkansas wants to reach the level of Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Missouri. Nobody even thought losing to those teams would happen more than maybe once a decade or so. The Razorbacks lost to all three last season. Even the Bulldogs, who were so inept on offense they could manage just a single score, were able to beat the Hogs, who only managed a single field goal.

Things aren't particularly good now. The usual folks who like to make excuses for failure will be spinning this latest round of recruits, and there are some really good players. Just nowhere near enough. The goal right now may be to just keep the hole from collapsing on them.