The 2015 Arkansas Razorbacks have a chance to become one of the few teams in college football history to win only two or fewer games in their first six games and yet finish the season ranked. Below are the teams which have accomplished this kind of specific mid-season turnaround, according to a database query by sports-reference.com.
Notice that heading into the 2015 season Michigan State was the only program to pull it off in consecutive seasons. It should be added that in 1988 the team was a season-ending bowl game win away from also completing this same exact turnaround. All the same, all three teams still completed the ole’-win-two-or-fewer-in-the-first-six-but-win-six-or-more-in-the-last-seven trick.
Arkansas offensive coordinator Dan Enos was a Michigan State quarterback throughout this entire three-peat. I write more about the connection, with insight from his Spartan head coach and teammate, in an upcoming piece for OnlyInArk.com.
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| school | year | wins | losses | ties | final rank |
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| texas-christian | 1937 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 16 |
| holy-cross | 1942 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 19 |
| stanford | 1942 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 12 |
| duke | 1944 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 11 |
| saint-marys-ca-pre-flight | 1944 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 19 |
| rice | 1947 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 18 |
| michigan | 1950 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
| navy | 1950 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 19 |
| purdue | 1951 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 14 |
| kentucky | 1952 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 20 |
| alabama | 1953 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 13 |
| rice | 1955 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 18 |
| stanford | 1955 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 16 |
| iowa | 1955 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 19 |
| florida | 1958 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 14 |
| purdue | 1960 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 19 |
| illinois | 1962 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 18 |
| penn-state | 1964 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 14 |
| southern-california | 1971 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 20 |
| florida | 1973 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 19 |
| michigan-state | 1974 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| tennessee | 1974 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 20 |
| ucla | 1983 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 17 |
| michigan-state | 1989 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 16 |
| michigan-state | 1990 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 16 |
| syracuse | 1990 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 21 |
| vanderbilt | 2012 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 23 |
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