For those who don’t remember last year’s Arkansas vs Mississippi State game — or understandably pushed the memory of it out of their brain — here’s a refresher:
In one of the ugliest displays of offense ever seen at Razorback Stadium, the Bulldogs eked out a 7-3 victory over the Razorbacks. It was the fewest combined points in an Arkansas football game since an equally ugly 6-0 loss to Memphis at War Memorial Stadium in 1993.
Mississippi State at least had the excuse of starting its backup quarterback, Mike Wright, for the first time. No such defense existed for the Razorbacks, whose offense was — for the lack of a better term — offensive.
Former Hogs quarterback KJ Jefferson spent a good chunk of the game running for his life, as he was sacked four times and hit many more than that. When he was kept clean, he badly missed his targets and threw for only 97 yards and an interception. On the ground, Arkansas averaged just 2.8 yards per carry.
All together, the Razorbacks finished with an abysmal 200 total yards. Their only points came on a field goal set up by an Alfahiym Walcott interception in Mississippi State territory on the game’s opening possession.
Just three of Arkansas’ next 11 drives managed to cross midfield. On the first, Sam Pittman was indecisive on a would-be 51-yard field goal. On the second, Jefferson was sacked to move the offense back into its own territory and he was picked off the next play. The final time came in the closing seconds.
Only 14 of the Razorbacks 68 total plays were run in Mississippi State territory and six of those were on the field goal drive that started on that side of the 50.
The putrid performance was the final straw for offensive coordinator Dan Enos, who was fired the following day, just eight games into his two-year contract.
An Opportunity for Arkansas & Bobby Petrino
At this point, you may be wondering why it’s worth bringing up such a horrible memory.
Well — *cue 30 for 30 voice* — what if I told you Arkansas has a chance to return the favor, this time in front of 60,000 cowbell-wielding fans?
It’s not a particularly far-fetched scenario. As bad as the Razorbacks were offensively under Dan Enos, this Mississippi State Bulldogs football team might actually be worse defensively under first-year coordinator Coleman Hutzler.
The Bulldogs not only rank dead last in the SEC in total and scoring defense, giving up 33.3 points on 449.7 yards per game, but it’s not particularly close, as Adam Ford so eloquently pointed out in his analytical preview of Arkansas vs Mississippi State.
The four conference foes they’ve faced are averaging 496.0 yards per game and 7.49 yards per play — the latter of which is tied with Purdue for the worst mark among all Power Four schools.
It may be now or never for Bobby Petrino’s offense, which has moved the ball relatively well so far, but has yet to light up a scoreboard outside of the opener against UAPB because of mostly self-inflicted mistakes.
If Arkansas can avoid turning the ball over or putting itself behind the chains with penalties, it could provide the final nail in the coffin for Hutzler.
SEC coaches are getting shorter leashes than ever, anyway. Oklahoma fired first-year offensive coordinator Seth Littrell on Saturday, while Enos was in the midst of his first season back at Arkansas when he was fired last year — and both of them were seemingly far more qualified than Hutzler.
Littrell (North Texas) and Enos (Central Michigan) were former head coaches who also had experience calling plays in power conferences. Hutzler has primarily been a linebackers coach through the years, with most of his coordinator experience coming on special teams. He was, however, a co-defensive coordinator at Texas in 2020, but he was the clear No. 2 behind primary DC Chris Ash.
Mississippi State Fans are Getting Restless
It doesn’t help that the natives are getting restless down in Starkville and across the Magnolia State. They haven’t resorted to sending emails – that we know of – but take a gander at the message board on Gene’s Page, the Mississippi State site on the 247Sports network.
One thread, which has 150 replies, is titled, “Hutzler is the worst DC we’ve had in my lifetime.” Here’s a sampling of some of the comments:
- ”Complete incompetence. Just complete incompetence.”
- ”He’s bad in every way.”
- ”Can he please be fired at halftime?”
- ”This is the worst human I’ve ever seen call defense.”
- ”Hutzler is making a mockery of our defensive history at State.”
Those are just from the first of six pages of comments in that particular thread.
Another popular thread provides heady doomscrolling for where the Bulldogs rank in various defensive statistics, while another pointed out Oklahoma’s firing of Seth Littrell as an example of it being “ok to fire underperforming coaches.”
It seems as though “3rd and Hutzler” is a phrase being thrown around quite a bit, reminiscent of “3rd and Chavis” from the John Chavis years under Chad Morris at Arkansas, and many Bulldog supporters expect a big day from the Razorbacks’ receivers.
One fan has set the over/under for combined receptions between Andrew Armstrong and Isaiah Sategna at 30. That same commenter also started another thread and speculated Arkansas’ receivers might “redshirt and go pro” after facing the Mississippi State defense.
Needless to say, there isn’t a whole lot of confidence that the Bulldogs will be able to stop the Razorbacks on Saturday.
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