Lot of Razorback Fans, Media Trying to Develop Selective Amnesia

Excuse recently for Arkansas football now is blaming the SEC for giving Hogs a consistently tough football schedule, ignoring obvious

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman argues with an official in a game Nov. 24, 2023, against the Missouri Tigers on Nov. 24, 2023, in Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. / Ted McClenning-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Everybody in Arkansas needs to just stop it. While fans and some media keep making excuses for the failures of Razorback football over the last decade, there are some bigger problems that need to be addressed. There are a lot of factors.

The latest is the scheduling toughness. Everybody seems to be using it as a pre-made excuse for a failure in 2024 in football these days. Even the national media got in on the fun this week with Brad Crawford at 247 Sports jumping on the Hogs' tough schedule. He did provide some hope for the season, though, based off some previous success.

I will say that Arkansas coach Sam Pittman has never used it as an excuse. He's pointed out that it makes his job a little tougher. It hasn't been good for job security around these parts since Bobby Petrino left in 2012. We celebrate a 9-win season these days as a goal to accomplish. Nobody has thought much about championships for a long, long time.

Sam may not have used it as an excuse, but everybody else has. Now they are doing it in advance of the season instead of asking why they aren't in the Top 25 of best offenses in an ESPN.com ranking of the best in the country. Nobody really expected that, but the Razorbacks haven't brought in enough people to break into the top half of the SEC, even with Petrino as the offensive coordinator and transfer portal.

The name Hogs' fans love to hate the most, Texas, is No. 2 nationwide and projected to have the best offense in the league with the No. 1 quarterback in the SEC. That's a revolting shock to a lot of folks, who were expecting another Longhorns' team to wilt when they see the Razorback on the side of the helmet again like they have in the last decade (mostly in bowl games neither the team or the fans had much enthusiasm to even be playing).

After that is Georgia, Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Ole Miss and Missouri. Five of the eight teams in that Top 25 ranking are on the Hogs' schedule this year. That is part of the problem they'll have, but the SEC didn't put their heads together and decide to hand it to the Razorbacks. It's not that big of a deal to the guys in the league office.

Three of the four teams on that list weren't even in the SEC when Petrino was the coach here the last time. It's changed the league and it's not going to get any easier. Whether you like it or not, this is going to be a league more and more like the NFL. It may even be easier to project easy weeks for the pro teams than the SEC now considering the guys with longterm contracts can't decide halfway through the season if they will opt out of games the rest of the way to avoid getting hurt In the NFL.

Nobody really knows how that works in the college game these days. It's a cloud of suspicious rumors and wrapped in multiple enigmas. Besides, fans say the Razorbacks have Petrino back now and everything's going to be okay with the offense going forward. Half of them are expecting he'll be the head coach after this season which may be even a wilder guess.

Everybody seems to forget he was 15-12 after his first two seasons that started just over a year after the Hogs won the SEC West title. What followed was a 21-5 run over two years and finishing third in the West in the final rankings. That was a completely different world from now, though. Petrino was in charge of the entire program then and the SEC wasn't what it is these days.

Oh, the league was winning national titles then, too. But the Razorbacks couldn't get past a couple of teams every year. Even in 2010 when they beat LSU, the Tigers stil finished ahead of them in the final polls. He never could win the biggest games with the Hogs when it mattered the most.

One of these days, maybe fans and everybody will else will be expecting to compete for championships, not just 9-win seasons.

HOGS FEED:

• Can SEC kicked down the road last year in Destin likely to come back full circle this year in the same place it was originally kicked

• Scheduling history shows Arkansas toughest job in SEC

• Razorbacks, Aggies swap places in rankings ahead of College Station Clash

• Subscribe and follow us on YouTube
• Follow allHOGS on X and Facebook