At this point, just call Father Damian Karras. It’s hard to imagine anyone else who can exorcise whatever demon is haunting the Arkansas football program.
Maybe the Razorbacks are suffering from bad luck. Maybe coach Sam Pittman just isn’t the answer, though, nor were John L. Smith, Bret Bielema or He Who Shall Not Be Named. More likely is that Arkansas is – to put it simply and aptly for the Bible Belt – cursed. A lack of religious conviction may lead some reading this to recoil in disbelief. But given the Hogs’ complete and total fallibility for the better part of 30 years, greater, supernatural things appear to be in play.
How else does a team rack up 648 yards of total offense against a Top-25 team, hold the opposing offense to just more than half that, carry a two-possession lead for nearly three-quarters of the day and lose? Sixteenth-ranked Oklahoma State rallied for such a stunner Saturday afternoon during Week 2 in Stillwater to cue Arkansas’ damnation early.
“We knew they were going to make a rally. We knew they were,” Pittman said. “We talked about they have done it in the past. They’re at home, they’re a veteran team, we’re going to have to go beat them. What happened is we just shot ourselves in the foot a little bit.”
Things Only Feel Damned after Arkansas vs Oklahoma State
No, of course the Razorbacks aren’t doomed. Not literally. And of course they aren’t literally cursed like, say, Tottenham, which hasn’t won the English Premier League in generations and won’t change that any time soon according to the latest EPL odds. The Hogs were picked to lose their game vs OSU, anyway, and that they managed such an offensive output and (mostly) limiting of their opponent is a feather in the cap. As Clint Stoerner so aptly itemizes, the mistakes were what finished Arkansas on Saturday. Nothing more or less.
The problem is that the mistakes have long lingered. Fixes clearly have come on the Hogs’ offensive line. Arkansas’ linebackers are impressive. The defensive line clogged holes all day. Wide receivers had few drops. But three fumbles, including two lost that both led to Oklahoma State scores (including OSU’s game-tying touchdown early in the fourth quarter) proved condemning alongside the two missed field goals. And, for all the good the defense did, they also allowed the Cowboys a 5-of-6 mark in the red zone, failed to register any sacks or even quarterback hurries and had just three tackles-for-loss, contrasted against OSU’s 10.
Good is not good enough. Not against real opponents, something the SEC is littered with.
Arkansas Football, Ladies and Gentlemen
In some ways, Week 2 was the perfect microcosm of what Arkansas is and has become. Personally, I joked with a friend that the outcome – before it was even over – felt like comeuppance for the re-hiring of Bobby Petrino, a man whose indiscretions kicked off the darkest decade or so of Razorbacks football in history. Fair seasons have come since the motorcycle wreck, but the worst in school history have, too. Since then, though, nary an excellent one has entered the record books.
One of the arguments that defenders used when Petrino was hired as Arkansas’ offensive coordinator late last calendar year was that he’s a changed man. Age and grandchildren had tamed the beast, as it were. Possible, and perhaps even likely, but the friend with whom I watched the game responded to my statement: once you reach a certain high level in a public-facing field, the egotism required to get there doesn’t just dissipate.
This is hardly a condemnation of the plan Petrino drew up for the Cowboys. Quarterback Taylen Green’s numbers achieved personal records. Running back Ja’Quinden Jackson scored all three touchdowns and ran for almost 150 yards. But Green’s weaknesses were also on full display. A severe underthrow on a would-be touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter recalled the worst memories of the KJ Jefferson era and proved Oklahoma State’s insiders who doubted him correct (also proved me correct, but, anyway). And the injury gods struck at precisely the wrong time, taking Jackson out of the game late, too, leaving Arkansas without its best offensive weapon during crunch time. And when the first nominative out of the coach’s mouth about his quarterback is “warrior” in the post-game presser, maybe it wasn’t said quarterback’s most impressive showing.
“He’s a warrior. He works awful hard,” Pittman said. “It’s unfortunate, on the pick-six he got hit. He got hit and it wobbled out there and the kid, the young man made a nice interception and returned it. He’s our guy and obviously I’m sure he’d like to have some throws back.”
Karma, Not Curse…Maybe
Karma is probably the word to use, to use more than ‘curse,’ anyway. For now. The plays that led to the all-too-familiar end result, however, suggest a continuance of malison. And it’s going to take a lot more than Bobby Petrino to end it.
At least Alabama-Birmingham is next. Pittman will say the right things this week in the days leading up to Arkansas’ first game in Fayetteville of the season and the Hogs should enter two- or three-touchdown favorites over the Blazers. Fans will almost certainly leave Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium upbeat. Just remember, the mother in “The Exorcist” didn’t know anything was wrong for a while, either.
***
We here at Best of Arkansas Sports decided to have a little “fun” and find out how many times a team has gained at least 600 yards and allowed fewer than 400 yards, but still lost.
Saturday marked just the eighth time it’s happened since 2000, and some Arkansas football fans may feel this is the latest instance of that particularly self-loathing adage, “Hogs gonna Hog,” coming to life.
Those folks should expand their interpretation of this saying to encompass the state as a whole, though.
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