Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Around 2006 or 2007, Houston Nutt’s Razorback teams inspired me to burn a CD of songs that would help me wallow in sorrow in the event Arkansas would under-perform and suffer a heartbreaking defeat. After seeing the despair radiating off Nutt in his Monday press conference, I began to wonder if he had songs he listened to for comfort in these difficult times, and if so, what would they be?

Since this is Ole Miss week, Saturday Roulette will include a song with each pick that we imagine is featured on Nutt’s sad times mixtape (I believe he still uses mixtapes). Also, some of these songs might ease the pain of going 3-5 last week on picks, bringing the season total to 30-17-1. Although, to be fair, we would have correctly picked the South Carolina game if Steve Spurrier hadn’t elected to take a safety on the final play. 

Here’s a Rigged Slots Award to you, Ole Ball Coach.  Does anybody really think Spurrier is above betting against South Carolina? Here are this week’s winners: 

Arkansas (-15.5) @ Ole Miss: Saturday Roulette was set to take Ole Miss and the points before Nutt’s press conference happened. I always believed Nutt would have his team prepared more for the Arkansas game than any other game on their schedule, but after hearing him talk about staying up at night wondering if the Rebels will ever have a perfect week, hoping the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t a train, and losing starters to injury, the man seems to have lost hope (or at least let go of the rope, to use one of his metaphors). No one knows if he’s actually studying game film or if he’s locked himself in his office with Motley Crue’s “Home Sweet Home” on repeat.

Nutt’s reputation for winning games he shouldn’t really is overblown. Although to give him credit, Ole Miss was the underdog against Fresno State a few weeks ago and the Rebels won, so perhaps his victory against a team he shouldn’t beat has already happened. Ole Miss will have to score at least 21 points to cover the spread and I don’t think they will. The Razorbacks are well-rested coming off a bye week and Arkansas should win and cover easily against the deflated Rebels.

Auburn (+21) @ LSU: Gus Malzahn has a reputation for leading high-powered offenses, but Auburn hasn’t cracked 20 points in a game since scoring 30 against Florida Atlantic in September. Auburn is hoping that replacing Barrett Trotter at quarterback with Clint Moseley will give the offense a spark. Auburn has a great shot at covering the spread if they can score at least two touchdowns. They’ll have as good a shot to be competitive against LSU as anyone with the suspensions of two of LSU’s starters in the secondary, including Heisman candidate Tyrann Mathieu.

As dominant as LSU has been, they’re not normally the type of team that will hang 50 points on people unless they need to. Les Miles is an old-school Big 10 guy at heart, and prefers to just run up the middle and beat people up. That will be harder to do with the suspension of starting running back Spencer Ware. LSU will win but Auburn might be able to keep within the spread.

Houston Nutt, who has lost while staying within the spread countless times and knows the pain of just coming up short, will advise Gene Chizik to listen to Rascal Flatt’s “What Hurts the Most” to soothe the pain of being oh so close.

Tennessee (+29.5) @ Alabama: Poor Derek Dooley. If there was a coach this week that might have been as depressed as Nutt, it was certainly the head man on Rocky Top. After getting blown out by LSU last week and facing Alabama this week, Dooley did not seem to have his head in a good place. He called the Alabama defense “as physically dominating a defense as I’ve seen in the modern era of football,” and admitted to being so in awe of the Tide that he catches himself “watching them and not studying them.” He also compared the progress of his own program to watering bamboo. Not a confident analogy. He sounds like he’s preparing a Sun Belt team getting paid $1 million to go to Tuscaloosa and get destroyed. Houston Nutt might say Tennessee is “Knockin on Heaven’s Door” (Guns N’ Roses version, of course).

The only question is whether Alabama will cover the large spread. If Nick Saban’s press conference was any indication, the Tide should be more than ready. Saban was in fine form, cursing at the press and explaining his emotional outburst by saying it’s a big game for him. I wouldn’t want to play Alabama this week. I’m picking them to cover. The Tide were also 29.5 point favorites over Vanderbilt (not good company, Vols) and covered.

Wisconsin (-7) @ Michigan State: I think this game is getting hyped in the media much more than it deserves because the GameDay crew needs to promote it as a competitive game. Saturday Roulette continues to believe that Wisconsin is the most underrated of the undefeated teams and expects the Badgers to easily defeat the Spartans and for Russell Wilson to be pushed even further for Heisman consideration.

Michigan State, Houston Nutt knows how it feels to build a decent program and win a few big games without being able to get over the hump and win a conference title. The annual disappointment is rough. It can take you to a dark place. He’s got what you need, “Un-Break My Heart.” Belt it.