Jim Harris: Arkansas Fans May Have To Stomach 6-6 as Improvement

Is the Razorback Nation ready to embrace a 6-6 overall record from its Hogs and a bowl bid in Memphis as improvement?

Dennis Dodd would think so.

Dodd, the CBSSportsline.com writer who gins out around 300 columns a year on his Web site, would be about as objective a source as one might find about Southeastern Conference football. He covers the college game nationally, but he admits he keeps a keen eye on the SEC, being as it's the best and richest and most televised league in the land (on CBS, in fact). Being based out of Kansas City, in the Big 12 neighborhood, Dodd doesn't feel the sway that, perhaps, an Atlanta or Birmingham or Orlando columnist might have when it comes to reporting on the SEC pecking order.

He calls it as he sees it.

And Dodd said Monday in a Little Rock stopover that he sees 6-6 as improvement for Arkansas in Bobby Petrino's second year, following last year's 5-7 mark. He would consider a 7-5 record as great improvement and cause for celebration.

The Arkansas fans who saw a controversial 23-20 loss at Florida as indicator that the Hogs would win out over the final six games were caught up in the typical delusion that Razorback supporters experience occasionally. In this case, even a loss triggered it.

The fallback for them after last week's 30-17 whipping at the hands of Ole Miss, of course, is that Arkansas now will kick-start a 5-0 run with Saturday's expected romp over Eastern Michigan, 0-7 and perhaps the worst team in NCAA Division I football.

That would also mean sweeping the likes of South Carolina, Troy and Mississippi State in Arkansas and winning at LSU under the lights at Baton Rouge.

We'd argue that right now, even a 4-1 finish seems a stretch over the final five games. Home field - as Arkansas fans have learned throughout history and were reminded of on Sept. 19 when the Hogs put everything in the Georgia game and still lost - is no assurance of success.