Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Arkansas should win the game.

That's been my pat answer when I'm asked how I think the No. 6 Hogs will do in their AT&T Cotton Bowl matchup with the No. 8 Kansas State Wildcats. They should win.

Then, some point out: "But, Jim, on your website, you picked Kansas State to win."

Call me jaded by 27 years of following Arkansas to bowl games hither and yon. I also like to toss out the adage that "shoulda" isn'tvs on the scoreboard, but on paper the Razorbacks should have performed better than they did against Georgia in the 1987 Liberty Bowl (Hogs blew a 17-7 lead), UCLA and Tennessee in the Cotton Bowls of 1989 and '90 (though, in hindsight, let's be honest and say that an overachieving UA had less talent than either) and versus North Carolina in the long-forgotten CarQuest Bowl of 1995. The Hogs handed Michigan two touchdowns, the difference in the game, in the 1999 Citrus (now Capital One) Bowl, and they set offensive football back 50 years (or, at least back to that 1989 UCLA game) in the 2002 Cotton Bowl loss to Oklahoma 10-3.

Seriously, can you believe that in the UCLA and OU Cotton Bowl appearances, the Razorbacks totaled 92 yards (a balanced 21 rushing/21 passing against UCLA, and 50 against the Sooners)?

Then there are those what-the-heck games with UNLV in the 2000 Las Vegas  Bowl and versus Minnesota in the 2002 Music City Bowl, along with the clusterfail against Wisconsin in the 2007 Capital One Bowl.

Yes, I'm fully aware — though reminded regularly — that this is a new day for Arkansas football with Bobby Petrino, and granted,  previous Hog coaches might not have been so lucky as was Petrino to beat East Carolina in overtime in the 2009 Liberty Bowl; and against other UA coaches, the loss to Ohio State would not have come down to failing to scoop and score in the last minute — it would have been a Buckeyes romp.

Last year's loss to Ohio State reminds me a lot of the 1984 Liberty Bowl. Auburn had way more talent than the 1984 Hogs, probably some of the best money could buy, but Kenny Hatfield's Hogs were maybe a Bobby Joe Edmonds catch on a surprise fourth-and-1 bomb from upsetting the Tigers in Memphis.

Often, it's a lot of "what ifs" for Arkansas — the story of the program for all time, it seems. The younger Hog followers don't have the Big Shootout and other near-misses to relate to. They don't even know that, as Frank Broyles was getting his great run off the ground, the Razorbacks managed to lose a Cotton Bowl to Duke, 7-6. They don't know about the rare but joyful triumphs, such as finishing 1964 undefeated with a 10-7 win over Nebraska, or the 1978 Orange Bowl rout of Oklahoma, or those bowl wins over Georgia.

If you're under 30, all you know is that Arkansas has lost a whole lot more bowl games than it won.

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So we arrive at Arkansas' 13th game of the 2011 season and 39th bowl appearance all time. Razorback football has only known two other years in which the Hogs won 11 games. Another 11-win season was almost miraculously in their grasp last year in New Orleans.