Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Frankly, the numbers popping up around this Arkansas football program boggle the mind.
There’s the now $40.7 million said to be owed to creditors by current Razorback head coach John L. Smith over failed real estate investments in the Louisville area from earlier this century.

More at home, there is that minus-13 figure in the turnover margin for the Razorbacks — yes, we keep harping on it, but never in my memory have the Hogs been so one-sidedly inept in forcing turnovers while making far too many in five games. It used to be a hallmark of the Razorback football program that undersized and supposedly undermanned Arkansas was opportunistic, a wild bunch of Hogs on defense who stripped the ball or made passing quarterbacks take pause before flinging it any and everywhere.

It’s so fitting that Arkansas has trotted out these white helmets the past two weeks, since the football displayed by this bunch has looked so un-Razorback.

Lastly, I’m flabbergasted at the number of positions on the Razorback team that have been so ravaged by injuries to the front-line players this fall, putting those players on the shelf for various lengths of time. This dates just to August practices: two safeties, two cornerbacks, both regular linebackers sideline — the spots Arkansas could have ill-afforded to have seen personnel losses — along with quarterback, tight end, offensive guard, both fullbacks. I count nine crippling injuries to starters, including losing quarterback Tyler Wilson for a game and a half when this whole thing began falling apart.

Am I leaving anyone out?

Of course, none of that will excuse the apparent quit shown against Alabama and then last weekend at Texas A&M, where Arkansas defensively looked like little kids trying to keep up with the older playground showoff in a touch-football game. The shock was seeing the offense and Wilson begin to show signs not of quitting, but of just general ineptness around the red zone. Wilson was below 50 percent passing on 59 attempts and threw two interceptions.

No way was Arkansas keeping up with A&M in scoring output, not with this Hog defense, but we would have expected a game much closer to last year’s between the teams in Arlington, Texas, and perhaps a final more like 48-28 or 58-31 Aggies. Surely not 58-10.

Arkansas’ coaches seemed to approach a 58-10 lambasting no worse than if it had been 24-17. Meanwhile, my thoughts were more along the lines of, “My gosh, guys, you’ve just been trampled by an average Aggie team like you were South Carolina State. Where’s the outrage?”

Is everyone mailing it in now and just hoping it ends soon?

We’ll know that answer by 2 p.m. Saturday.

If Auburn has somehow found an offense and has plastered the Hogs 34-3, then there’s no hope — none for a bowl, which was remote anyway, and probably none for more than maybe one or two additional wins this season, and probably not even that.

It would take an outright no-show by these Hogs to be blown out by Auburn on Saturday, and yet we feel that’s a distinct possibility, another Pig roast coming.