Razorbacks' History with Mississippi State Screams Caution

Nobody should be getting over-confident now as Hogs get back home ... finally

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It's easy for Arkansas fans to pick a win this week against Mississippi State. They are clearly the ones not paying much attention this year because neither team is playing particularly well. The winner simply gets the honor of getting off the bottom of the pecking order in the SEC West.

History agrees with me on that warning, by the way. The two teams are both struggling for reasons that the great unwashed would think are very, very different. The real reason is they are very, very similar. Neither has enough great talent to compete for a title anywhere. Yeah, it's really that simple.

Razorback fans are clinging to hope because they played Alabama and LSU close. It could be sign they are making some kind of progress this year. Then you throw in being curb-stomped by Texas A&M in Arlington and simply malfunctioning against Ole Miss to realize one game has nothing to do with the other.

Let's be honest about it, the Hogs could be riding a two-game losing streak in the series if the Bulldogs had a kicker two years ago. It was so bad coach Mike Leach declared right after the game they were going to have open tryouts. No idea how that worked out. MSU jumped up and down on the Hogs last year in Starkville.

The Bulldogs are physical and the Hogs, especially in the offensive line, have played soft at times this year. Sam Pittman has talked a few times about how they got pushed around in games. Even BYU did it.

Trying to push this bunch to get more physical right now could bring back all the penalties in the offensive line, which seems to appear and disappear on a weekly rotating basis. State can be physical and they're always looking to beat somebody up, regardless of the final score.

The Bulldogs have beaten the Hogs into submission on a few occasions. Most fans remember they still haven't tackled Dak Prescott on that cold November night in 2015 when he and Brandon Allen got locked into a 51-50 shootout that ended on a blocked chip-shot field goal. The Hogs' offensive coordinator then was Dan Enos, by the way, when they quit trying to score to settle for a field goal. That doesn't mean he made the final call on that, but just pointing out facts. Do with it what you wish.

The biggest reason the Hogs might not want to be so quick to assume anything is the Bulldogs are sitting at 3-3 on the season. That actually might sound pretty good right now to a lot of Hog fans, stuck with that 2-5 mark.

Right now, the early lines have the Hogs as a seven-point favorite. Take out the three for being the home team and you've got a close game. The Razorbacks are given a 67.5% chance of winning, according to ESPN Analytics. Now, having laid that minefield, if it comes down to a nail biter at the end, the Hogs still have the better kicker in Cam Little. Add in they never win the party to the other school in Mississippi and there's a lot of reasons for fans to be confident.

Go ahead and use all that. It makes about as much sense as expecting what happened last week to have anything to do with this week's game. For either team.

HOGS FEED:

IT MAY BE ABOUT TIME FOR SAM PITTMAN TO QUIT HOPING TO BE CLOSE SO MUCH WITH RAZORBACKS

ARKANSAS FANS CAN NOW TRULY RELATE TO CLASSIC CARTOON CHARACTER

HOGS' SECONDARY PLAYING JEKYLL AND HYDE GAME AGAIN IN LOSS TO ALABAMA

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