Second Glance at Razorback Schedule Produces Strange Feeling of Hope

Arkansas football season to bring with it something that hasn't been present since 1980s

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Apr 24, 2023 9:46 AM EDT
Original:
Apr 24, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Maybe it's because it's 2 a.m. or it's just an overreaction to what took place in the Alabama spring game, but for the first time in my 27 years as a journalist, I can talk myself into seeing a path for Arkansas to win each game on the schedule.

Now, before the same people who lost their minds last season when I wrote that people with 10-win expectations were being unfair to Sam Pittman because getting eight wins against that schedule could mean both less wins and a better coaching job than the year prior lose their minds again, let's make sure there's no room for misinterpretation.

The lead doesn't say seeing a path for Arkansas to win every game. It says seeing a path to win each game. Could the Razorbacks win every game? If there's a path to winning each of them, then technically there is a path to winning all of them. That's unlikely to happen though. It's not the sort of thing that happens at Arkansas.

What it does mean is that for the first time since the 1980s, there's not a game on the Arkansas schedule that can immediately be chalked up as a loss. There's no Gene Stallings Alabama, Steve Spurrier or Tim Tebow Gators, Phil Fulmer Tennessee, or Kirby Smart Bulldogs. There's not even an LSU Nick Saban or most of the 2000s Alabama Saban, which will soon be explained. There's nothing but possibility.

Let's talk about the stretch during which there always seems to be a three game losing streak by the Razorbacks. This year that line-up includes LSU, Texas A&M, Ole Miss, Alabama, Mississippi State, Florida, and Auburn. It's a section of schedule that would send non-SEC teams running in fear, but for Arkansas, it's the weakest such stretch the Razorbacks have faced in a while.

The toughest game of that bunch may turn out to be Texas A&M. Arkansas has a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory against the Aggies. Plus, if Bobby Petrino can nearly take down the Hogs with a bunch of FCS players, he should be able to wreck havoc with what's left of the best team money can buy.

Alabama normally would have been the the first choice in this case, but the luster seems to be fading a little in Tuscaloosa over the past couple of years and the Razorbacks have played the Tide well under Pittman. Quarterback play looks like it will fall off dramatically at Alabama this season and Saban's ability to relate to and tolerate modern athletes seems to be lessening. Some day that streak ends and this year is as good as any if the Hogs can get good play up front defensively.

As for the rest, last season Arkansas almost beat LSU with statistically one of the worst and most one dimensional quarterbacks to go under center in Fayetteville. Florida is a meltdown waiting to happen with so many trigger happy Florida fans waiting to mvoe on, and no one knows what's going to become of Mississippi State after the passing of Mike Leach.

All it will take to blow out Ole Miss is to get a booster to pretend to be with Texas and say they're going to fire Steve Sarkisian at season's end to bring in Lane Kiffin to lead the Longhorns into the SEC, and he will be on Zillow shopping for houses in Austin rather than preparing for games.

As for Hugh Freeze, he's going to spend several years destroying Arkansas with its own Natural State recruits, but that's not as likely to happen this fall. He hasn't bought the talent he was able to allegedly purchase at Ole Miss at Auburn yet. He doesn't even have the talent he had at Liberty last year for his first season.

The other thing Arkansas has going in its favor is a new staff from outside the conference. The roster is pretty much flipped also. Other teams will have a lot less to go on this season. The predictable tendencies that were written in the game plan on both players and coaches are no longer there, especially on defense.

Teams won't enter the year already knowing how to beat the Razorbacks. Three years worth of trends and five years worth of player analysis went out the window. Even the notes on quarterback KJ Jefferson will need reworking as teams have never seen him work under center. They don't know how he's going to move or how he works with audibles and reading defenses.

Arkansas has a one year opportunity, so if the roster is well constructed with high quality transfers by the time August rolls around, this could be a very interesting year in Fayetteville. Pittman's boys may not win every game, but for the first time since the 1980s, the season will begin with the feeling that the Razorbacks can win each game.

And for more than half the fan base, that is a completely new experience.