Four Goals Hogs Must Accomplish to Change Mindset

Razorbacks need to get these things done so shift in mentality can take place at Arkansas

Author:
Kent Smith
Publish date:
Aug 17, 2023 12:23 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Typically, goals this time of year are pretty simple for SEC teams.
1. Winning record.
2. Make a bowl game.
3. Win the division.
4. Win the SEC.
5. Make playoffs.
6. Win national championship.
7. No one get arrested.

For most teams, the list of actual reality stops at No. 2, although No. 3 can happen in freak years. Over the past 20 years, only Alabama, LSU, Auburn and Arkansas have made it to No. 3, win the division, and despite having multiple Top 10 finishes, including No. 5 following the 2011 season, the Razorbacks have only won the SEC West once, during the tumultuous Springdale Five season of 2006.

With most of the traditional goals on the list are established as likely unattainable, there are a four specific goals that need to be on Razorback coach Sam Pittman's list for both his team and staff if this program is ever going to have a positive shift.

Beat Missouri

Nothing has been more embarrassing than the Hogs' record against Missouri in recent years. Yes, there is apathy at best when the Tigers roll onto the schedule, so it's hard to get up for the game. Other than game week, everyone seems to forget they exist. It feels like a random Group of Five game tacked onto the end of the schedule each year that catches everyone off guard and leaves them uninspired.

It's also at a point on the schedule where everyone is often just done. The only season Arkansas had any interest in finishing out the season strong was 2021, and the Razorbacks came away with the win. Other years things were so bad even the fans didn't want to be around to see the game, and last season half the team was more interested in getting out of town than playing Missouri. A few even left before the world's most forced "rivalry."

But, at some point Arkansas has to find a way to care. It's beyond embarrassing to lose to a program like Missouri. It screams Chad Morris years. This should be a Group of Five style blowout every year, so the nonsense has to stop. The Tigers keep begging to get on the Razorbacks' radar, so, for once, put them on the radar.

Of course it would be great if this weren't the Thanksgiving Week game, but it is, so Pittman has to find a way to make the players and fans care about it somehow. Then he has to establish a streak of beating Mizzou so handily over the next several years that the game is back where it belongs, in the go get an easy conference win and don't get anyone hurt category. The Tigers are the Vanderbilt of the Razorbacks' schedule, so the goal has to be to put them in the box in which they belong, starting with this season so they can no longer be an annoyance.

Beat Texas A&M

In the early days of the Southwest Classic, the Aggies game was a gimme. Sometimes it was close, but the idea of Arkansas losing to Texas A&M was hard to fathom. Then, in 2012, a perfect storm of Johns, Razorback interim coach John L. Smith and Aggies' freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel, brought everything crashing down. Since then, even when dominating on the field, Arkansas has struggled to believe it should win, leading to numerous close losses.

The Aggies won nine in a row, including three overtime games and two others by a touchdown or less before the Hogs ended the streak in 2021. Momentum should have fully swung back in the Razorbacks' favor. Arkansas kicked the snot out of A&M for an entire game at AT&T Stadium last year. However, a freak play just before the half that resulted in a 14-point swing sent the Razorbacks back into a doormat mentality. Despite still leading, Pittman said he and the team felt like they were losing at halftime and saddled with a bit of hopelessness.

The Hogs couldn't see themselves for who they were because of a defeatist attitude that clearly signaled a lot of the problems that plagued the team last season, which was the tipping point in losing so many close games. When Cam Little's kick that would have been good in a normal college stadium bounced off the NFL uprights, the negative self-fulfilling prophecy that has haunted this team for close to a decade hit full gear.

If Arkansas can find a way to win this season, it will create a change in perspective that can carry the team going forward. Instead of Arkansas getting one win in 12 years, the narrative becomes winning 2-of-3 with the one loss being perhaps the flukiest game of all time. If the Razorbacks hope to build momentum, it needs to come while Jimbo Fisher is in College Station. His contract is a natural weight holding back a sleeping giant. Fisher and his outdated approaches make the Aggies much easier to beat on a yearly basis. Without momentum on their side, it could be another decade before the Razorbacks beat Texas A&M if someone fit for the job gets installed in South Texas.

Beat Alabama

Everyone has the same defeatist reaction to putting this one on the list. It seems no one associated with Arkansas has the winner's attitude needed to become great. There are so many times over the years that the Razorbacks have lost this game before even stepping on the field, even in the 2011 Top 5 season, and that's why Arkansas doesn't have a truly recognized national championship to its credit.

There are multiple years where Arkansas was good enough, but only once, oddly in a season where the Razorbacks weren't developed to a point where they should have been a threat, that a coach got the Hogs to believe in themselves more than they feared the Tide. For all his faults, Bret Bielema was a blocked extra point away from taking No. 7 Alabama into overtime in Razorback Stadium.

The Razorbacks led that game in the fourth quarter and was a foot short on a fourth down attempt at midfield from being a successful set of downs away from kicking for the win in the closing minutes. Instead, the Hogs left with a 14-13 loss at the hands of Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, dropping them to 3-3 overall and 0-3 in the SEC.

That loss allowed for a 16-game losing streak that has only been close one other time, a 42-35 loss to Tuscaloosa in 2021. Everyone on the planet outside of the Arkansas locker room thinks this is the most vulnerable the Tide have been since Saban's first season. However, if the players and coaches don't learn to think like winners, it's won't matter what everyone else thinks. It will just be another typical game against Alabama where Saban's boys are up two touchdowns before they even run out of the tunnel.

One day the Razorbacks will win this game and it will trigger a mental switch within the program. Until then, they will be dogged by the whipping boy mentality that has held the team back for over 30 years. One day Arkansas will walk onto the field with a stomp a mud hole mentality, but not until the Hogs learn to stop being scared of teams like Alabama.

Play Back-Up QBs as Much as Possible

It's going to be tempting to leave KJ Jefferson in at quarterback when the game is already in hand so he can run down as many records as possible. There's no doubt he's earned them. However, that is a short-sighted approach. There are two aspects to the bigger picture, and neither are served by arbitrary goals.

The ultimate task here is to get Jefferson through the season healthy with as many wins as possible under his belt and as prepared for the NFL as he can be while also getting future quarterback candidates much-needed experience. Those hoping for an additional year out of Jefferson are not only selfish, but unable to see how damaging that would be to the program. He's served his time, and Jacolby Criswell and Malachi Singleton need a shot to show what they can do leading this team. If Jefferson is back for another season, it's possible both are lured away by promises made in the transfer portal, which would set the program back years.

Both quarterbacks need a chance to play as often as possible. Of the two, Criswell is probably the most ready to step in and win right now. If Jefferson goes down, his experience will give him the upper hand. However, the ceiling on Singleton is almost unlimited. Watching him throw the ball deep downfield with barely a flick of his wrist with a perfect combination of power and touch makes it clear that if he can learn to make his reads and develop into a leader, he can become one of the greatest Arkansas quarterbacks ever.

But, Criswell can't prove he's the guy while Singleton tracks down his potential, and Singleton can't develop if neither gets a chance to be on the field. This team owes it to all three quarterbacks to find a way to make it possible for Jefferson to play a half, followed by just over a quarter for Criswell and at least 10 minutes for Singleton against Western Carolina and Florida International. The right mental approach by the men on the field should create a few additional opportunities in the schedule as well.

This staff can't afford to leave Jefferson in the game during blowouts. If Criswell and Singleton can't take the reins and keep a big lead while developing their games with on-field experience, then why take up a scholarship on an SEC team? The future begins Sept. 2. If it starts any later, the Razorbacks' progress in 2024 will be set back significantly.

Conclusion

A lot of Arkansas fans probably don't have the frame of mind to see all four of those goals as something that can be achieved. However, all four not only can be accomplished, it should be a given in the minds of everyone in the Arkansas athletic complex that it's going to happen.

A world where the program moves forward while fear and doubt still prevails is one that can't exist. It's one or the other. Fear the other team and flounder around hoping for the rare nine-win season with the slim chance of a backdoor into an SEC championship game once every 20 years. Goals like the ones above come off as a pipe dream in this instance.

Learn to fear for the other team and nine wins becomes a nightmarish down season where the rare occurrence of the Razorbacks not competing for an SEC championship comes into play. Goals like the ones above fall in line with things like 1) get out of bed 2) eat breakfast. It's just part of what the players do.

Everyone from the fans to those in the program need to retrain their brain. Otherwise, spend another 30 years continuing to get it beat in.