In the midst of a disappointing conclusion to the Arkansas football season, there’s a silver lining for all you gamblers who may be degenerative enough to bet on the Razorbacks every week.
Following Saturday’s 20-10 loss to Texas, Arkansas is 6-0 against the spread when it enters a game as a 10-point underdog or greater over this season and last, according to ESPN. That’s the best such mark among FBS teams in the nation.
Which is a bit like saying “Well, the Hogs aren’t miserably bad, anyway.”
And frankly, it’s true. The 2024 Arkansas football season is far from the Razorbacks’ worst under coach Sam Pittman. The team is one win away from bowl eligibility with two games left, including one against the Conference USA vision of mediocrity in Louisiana Tech. And even the team’s other opponent, Missouri, has looked less than stellar, despite the number 24 next to the school’s name in the polls.
Yet on the way into Fayetteville for Saturday’s game against a team the Baby Boomers call Arkansas’ biggest and most hated rival, signs – literal signs – of Pittman’s future as head of the program were clear.
Questionable Decision with Arkansas vs Texas on Line
In such a climate, maybe going to a freshman in do-or-die time was the wrong call.
Arkansas, trailing by 10 with about seven minutes left, threatened to make things interesting. Taylen Green had moved the Razorbacks from their own 25 at the beginning of the team’s final drive to the Texas 39. Then, on a 2nd-and-10 play, little-used freshman CJ Brown entered the game. He caught a pass from Green for 12 yards, but was popped by Alfred Collins, one of Texas’ best players, losing the ball. Michael Taaffe, who led the Longhorns in tackles, picked up and the Longhorns ran out the remaining seven or so minutes behind Quinn Ewers’ efficiency.
It’s impossible to know who made the decision to put Brown in the game at that time, whether it was Pittman, offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino or wide receivers coach Ronnie Fouch. Regardless, the choice was curious, at best, considering Brown hadn’t caught a pass all season, had only three targets and dropped one of those.
As the saying goes, coaches lose and players win. Brown can’t be blamed for being put in a spot he never should have been. Pittman is the one on the line for the play going awry. Not that Arkansas would have won had the Bentonville High graduate, who this time last year was holding off college coaches trying to poach him away from Arkansas, held on to the ball. The Razorbacks still trailed by 10 and needed another 25 or so yards to make it to the end zone.
But Pittman’s team did against Texas, the third-ranked team in the country, need to dispel the suggestion on the sign as inaccurate. The fifth-year coach entered the season in dire need of a clear step forward in the program. While the Hogs have been better than last year, no one who has watched the team play the last two weeks would suggest the improvement is obvious. Arkansas is clearly a lower-tier program in the Southeastern Conference and nothing on the immediate horizon provides hope for a change any time soon.
That’s probably why Paul Finebaum got back into potential hot seat talk around Pittman’s future beyond Arkansas’ next (likely) three games.
For the first 45 minutes, the Razorbacks’ game against Texas was about as fun to watch as Friday night’s fight between Mike Tyson and one of the Paul brothers (I can’t be bothered to look up which one it was).
Ewers, a potential Heisman Trophy finalist, did not light up the stat sheet, certainly. But neither did Arkansas’ offense, a group that was ranked fifth in FBS in total offense entering the game. Instead, the Hogs managed a grand total of 231 yards against the Horns, as Texas’ second-ranked defense proved itself far superior in every single facet.
The game was an impressive microcosm of Pittman’s five-year tenure: Arkansas wasn’t terrible on the whole, but the Hogs were simply not good, either. Performances against Tennessee and Mississippi State have proven to be mirages, results of a team having nearly everything go right in one instance, and a sheer overwhelming of what is likely the worst team in power-conference football in the other. Plus, despite being outplayed for almost 45 game-minutes, Arkansas made things close enough in the third quarter when Ja’Quinden Jackson scored to cut Texas’ lead to six points, 13-7.
Arkansas Football Like Netflix Streaming
Of course the Razorbacks couldn’t flip the margin, because doing so would be the sign of a team on the rise. Instead, Arkansas is a lot like your Netflix apps Friday night: coming close, buffering, annoying some just enough to want to change. Arkansas isn’t miserable. Signs of improvement are there. But just like in America, no one appears to want incremental improvement. The feeling around the program is that, barring a disaster against Louisiana Tech next week, Pittman will return in 2025.
So that means he’s sticking around so long as Arkansas finishes the regular season at a perfect .500 or higher. Yes, that’s better than last year – and better than most thought before the season began – but hardly the stuff desired. Firing a coach after a bowl season in which the team wasn’t expected to make a bowl would be a bad look on its surface, which is part of why the rumor-mongers have floated the idea of a less combative ending to Pittman’s tenure. At least that result would be better than sacking him as he walks off the field against Mizzou.
If Saturday afternoon’s result showed anything, it showed that the Hogs haven’t let go of the rope this season. Expect Arkansas to beat Louisiana Tech and expect Sam Pittman to return for a sixth season in 2025.
Coming off another loss, that news may bum quite a few folks out. But 14 days from now the vibe around the program will feel much different if Arkansas takes care of business against La. Tech and finally notches its first win ever at Missouri.
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