Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Hundreds of students began lining up Thursday night — even with the threat of rain hanging over Northwest Arkansas — in hope of securing a camping spot outside Razorback Stadium. Less than 24 hours before gates were set to open for Saturday’s game against No. 1 Alabama, the number of tents that lined Stadium Drive and stretched all the way down to Pomfret Hall had topped 100.

Neither the forcasted storms nor the projected doom and gloom facing the Razorbacks (1-1) this week and the remainder of the season was going to keep them from getting the best seats possible.

Some in the crowd were surely there simply for the experience. What’s the point of college if you don’t come away with great stories to tell, right?

Others were there because they’re still holding out hope for the Razorbacks as they face the defending BCS champs on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. They remain optimistic that even if the team drops to 1-2 after playing the Crimson Tide, there are nine games left to turn around the season.

That show of student support is one of the few positive signs we’ve seen relating to Arkansas football since last week’s overtime loss to Louisiana-Monroe. Losing to the 30-point underdog dropped the Razorbacks out of the Associated Press Top 25. They’re hanging by a thread in the USA Today Top 25 despite losing a 28-7 lead, so the meeting with Alabama is technically still a battle of ranked opponents.

Otherwise this has been a dismal week for Arkansas football. And for good reason.

Fans are understandably worked up by the loss, which more or less derailed the team's national title hopes. Injuries have mounted for the Razorbacks, including quarterback Tyler Wilson. Sources tell us not to expect him on the field Saturday, although Arkansas continues to call his status a “game time decision."  

Wilson watched practice on Tuesday. He threw with the team on Wednesday and didn’t attend practice on Thursday. All Coach John L. Smith would say is that Wilson was “busy.” Don’t be surprised if we find out Wilson was tied up with doctors who were further evaluating the trauma he sustained against the Warhawks.

We all saw how fragile this team is without Wilson last week. With him they jumped out to a 21-7 hafltime lead. Without him they went up 28-7, then quickly fell apart, giving up — as colleague Doc Harper describes it — 21 points in 21 minutes.

So many deficiencies were exposed last week — play calling in crunch time, the offensive line, everything on defense — that it’s hard to imagine Wilson making a difference. Arkansas has too many issues right now with not much time to fix them.

Ticket prices began to plummet earlier this week as the betting line on the game shot up past three touchdowns. You couldn’t tell any of that by witnessing the scene outside Razorback Stadium, though. In 2010, when this was a matchup of Top 10 teams, the line of tents stretched down to Pomfret. Nothing has changed in that regard this year.

Credit players for putting on a happy face and showing the same youthful enthusiasm displayed by the students