The Arkansas Razorbacks had to break in a new coach last season, following a crazy 2012 season in which a school had to pick up the pieces from one of college football’s more outrageous and dramatic controversies in recent years. Can Arkansas settle down as a program and make the kinds of steady improvements that will give people in and around the program a new dose of needed confidence?
Strengths
The Razorbacks are the kind of team for which there’s no way to go but up. Arkansas was supposed to be an SEC title contender heading into the 2012 season, but that’s when head coach Bobby Petrino got into a motorcycle accident which helped reveal his involvement in an affair that branched into improper conduct as a state employee for the University of Arkansas. Petrino meddled in athletic department activities and crossed several kinds of boundaries that are not allowed by law or in any code of conduct. Petrino had to leave the program in April, so John L. Smith had to serve as an interim coach for the 2012 season. The team was not prepared at all for the coaching change. It was ready to benefit from Petrino’s experience and play-calling ability, but when Petrino was forced out, the program became rudderless. Last year, Arkansas brought aboard a genuine replacement for Petrino, as opposed to the placeholder Smith was in 2012. Bret Bielema stunned people in the Big Ten by bolting Wisconsin for the SEC and Arkansas. Bielema has made multiple Rose Bowls, but even he was not ready to be able to change things in year one in Fayetteville. Recruits soured on the program when Petrino left, and there was a real vacuum in terms of the momentum of the program. It was sucked away, and Bielema was just not in a position to get it back.
What strengths exist on this team? It’s hard to find one that really shines through, but if anything, the defensive front seven, always something Bielema valued at Wisconsin, should be okay. Arkansas’ defense was not the main reason the team suffered last season. This team won’t get completely overpowered at the line of scrimmage on defense.
Weaknesses
The Hogs couldn’t point to any supreme strength last season, but they had a lot of weaknesses. However, if you had to start somewhere, it was on offense, and more specifically, at quarterback. The Razorbacks turned to Brandon Allen as their leader under center, and Allen was not up to the task. Things got so bad for the Razorbacks last season that they didn’t have even 19 minutes of possession in a blowout loss at home against South Carolina. The Razorbacks showed some fight in their season finale against LSU, but for the most part, they didn’t have any sort of consistency in their passing game, and that took away protection from the running game, which is what Bielema wants to establish. Without a better passing game in 2014, Arkansas can’t expect to put a balanced offense on the field.
Schedule
The Razorbacks have a hard schedule simply because they’re a bad team. Non-conference games against Texas Tech and Northern Illinois will be tough enough, but then the SEC West plus Georgia and Missouri are going to be a headache.
Outlook
The Razorbacks just don’t have a good team yet. There’s not enough evidence to suggest that this team can compete well enough to be anywhere close to .500. This is going to be another terrible season for the Hogs.
Pick: Under 4.5 at EVEN
