Arkansas has more than just a loss to process after Saturday’s game against No. 15 Tennessee. It also has evidence that this team, for at least one afternoon, was capable of playing its best football of the season.
The Razorbacks weren’t merely hanging around with a College Football Playoff hopeful. They were in position to win in the third quarter and still had a real shot until there was a minute left. That reality is buried under the late mistakes and shaky coaching decisions that helped turn the game into a defeat, but it doesn’t erase the fact that Arkansas put together its strongest showing of the year.
Now comes the harder part: keeping everything from splintering after a crushing loss.
That matters in Fayetteville because this roster is still being built on the fly. Arkansas has 80 new players, and the coaching staff is still learning the group while the group learns them.
That can hold together when things are going well. It gets tested when the losing starts to sting.
“The love for everybody in the in the building... everybody loves each other,” QB KJ Jackson said Saturday. “I love Cam.
Cam loves Quincy. Quincy loves Ben Bogle, and that's why we're not gonna stop working and showing up to work every day.
Because at the end of the day, like, we've been we've been grinding together since January, and with the day we're in now, like, the team's going to look completely different, maybe, come January. So we're gonna go to bat for the guys that are in the building right now because we love each other so much.
”
If that togetherness holds, Arkansas should have a real chance to salvage something from the back half of the schedule. The Hogs have six games left, and winning one or two is not out of the question.
That run starts with a road trip to Nashville to face Vanderbilt on Oct. 17.
The Commodores have already shown two different faces this season. They beat North Carolina State in a wild finish and then hung around for four quarters in a 21-15 road loss to Auburn.
But the rest of Vanderbilt’s profile has been much less convincing. It needed work to shake Delaware in a 35-26 win, managed only a half against Georgia before falling 38-14, and then got blown out at home by Ole Miss, 52-17, on Saturday.
That makes this an absolutely winnable game for Arkansas - if the locker room stays intact and the steady improvement Ryan Silverfield keeps talking about shows up on the field.
In Other News...
Arkansas' Offensive Struggles Have Put One Coach On Notice
Arkansas offense has spent the first half of the season searching for something more reliable, and the lack of production has only sharpened the scrutiny on the coaching staff. Through six games, the Razorbacks have labored to score consistently, and the issues have been even more pronounced against Power Four opponents, where the attack has too often looked stuck in neutral.
Tim Cramsey is the coordinator most firmly in the spotlight as the pressure builds, even if changes of that sort do not usually happen in the middle of a season. Arkansas has been here before with Dan Enos in 2017, when the offense never found enough traction and the season eventually produced a shift after eight games, a reminder that patience can run out quickly if the numbers and the eye test keep pointing in the same direction. [Read more 🡒]
Arkansas Fans Have Every Right To Question This Backfield Decision
Braylen Russells workload against Tennessee turned into another talking point for Arkansas fans, especially after the running back entered the game as the teams leading rusher this season. Instead of leaning heavily on him, the Razorbacks spread the carries around, with Cam Settles and Sutton Smith also getting touches while the offense tried to find a rhythm.
Smith handled the most carries, but the production never really followed, and the drive-sustaining issues showed up again as the game wore on. Ryan Silverfield pointed to the difficulty of keeping drives alive and the use of empty packages as part of the offensive approach, but for a fan base watching Russell stay relatively underused, the explanation may not be enough to quiet the questions. [Read more 🡒]
Arkansas Still Has One Chance To Stop Its SEC Slide
Arkansas gets a fresh chance to interrupt its SEC slide when it lines up against Vanderbilt in a conference matchup that suddenly carries a little extra weight. The Razorbacks are coming off a loss to Tennessee that stretched their league losing streak, and now they face another team still searching for its first SEC win. With both programs sitting in the same place in the standings, this one feels less like a midseason footnote and more like a needed reset for whichever side can finally break through.
Vanderbilt brings its own set of questions into the game, which makes the key player matchups and recent form on both sides especially important. The series history adds another layer, too, since Arkansas has had plenty of past chances to measure itself against the Commodores. For a Razorbacks team trying to keep its conference season from sliding further, this is the kind of game that can change the mood around the program in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]