I’ve BEEN A DIE-HARD RAZORBACK FAN ALL MY LIFE (62 YEARS) I NEVER HAVE BEEN A FAIR-WEATHER FAN BUT I’ve came to a place I need to vent. So here it is. IF ARKANSAS can’t win a mere 6 games this year to become bowl eligible especially with the talent they have, they don’t deserve a football team.
I feel your disappointment. I too followed the Hogs closely in their heyday.
I think six regular season wins would prove to be a very solid turnaround. The conservative me says 5 wins, but my fingers remain crossed for six wins plus a bowl win. To get to five wins means we have to beat someone in the SEC, and since we don’t play Vandy, that means we’ll have to have a pretty good win somewhere.
I lost some vigor when Nutt’s team won the West and people wanted to run him off, and did.
The rebuilding has begun. We just need to exercise the patience to see it through. We may not get to 6 wins this year but we will be darn close. I’m looking for major improvement in all areas this year. Hoping I live long enough to see it. GHG
As hard as it is to imagine, we’ve become the “Vandy” of SEC football. We have a 6-18 and (1-15 SEC) record over the last 2 years. Vandy, in those same 2 years, has an 11-13 and (4-12 SEC) record. If we go 4-8 or 5-7 and (0-8 or 1/7 SEC), we will have cemented our place at the bottom of SEC football.
I’ve been an avid Razorback football fan since the mid sixties. In all that time, even while living in Florida and Virginia for 28 years, I’ve never been less excited, or with such low expectations, about an upcoming football season.
If we look lethargic in our first game and lose to Ole Miss, my Razorback sports excitement will move to basketball and baseball. I’m already excited about those 2 sports. Now, if we surprise and win a couple of SEC games (starting with Ole Miss), while looking much improved in our SEC losses, (and get to a bowl), I’m sure I’ll become as excited as ever about Hog football.
I blame our A/Ds and Chancellors more than our head coaches in allowing Razorback football to fall this far. Their hiring and firing decisions over the last 8 or 9 years have put us in this position.
Not quite as long for me, I am 56, the first game I can remember is the 71 Texas game or the Wichita State game right after their plane crash (which ever was first).
I haven’t been able to watch games on TV for several years now. I just find something else to do and check the score. I try to not get emotionally invested (I still do, but I find that not watching the games live helps).
I watched one game live last year, CSU. So maybe it was my fault that we blew that one?
I am fine to give this staff some time. That said, I have strong doubts we will ever be a top tier team in the SEC. My best hope is to become a constant bowl team (6 to 8 wins) and every now and then have a really good year where we win 10 or 11 games and get into the top 15 or even top 10.
Considering that Arkansas has won only 6 of its last 26 games, winning 6 this season would seem to be a major step forward.
I’m sitting at 5-win prediction right now.
So, are you going to any games this year???
Been a razorback fan since the 60’s , I’ve seen the good and the bad but no matter the previous season record I always look forward to the upcoming coming season, this year will be no different for me
I agree, but younger than you, but I always look forward to football and basketball seasons.
I’m pushing 60 years of age (I’ll be there in a couple of weeks) ie 50+ years of that rootin for the Hogs. I refuse to be a complete Debbie Downer, but I’ve lived thru frustrating times even when JFB was at the helm, although this has been a long stint this go around.
My optimistic side says 6 wins this year & my more optimistic side says a bowl win on top of that. Anything more than that may cause some serious Kool Aid celebrating, but won’t think it’s the end of the world with a 5 win season either.
Just hope we don’t start seeing some light at the end of the tunnel only to have it flicker away later on, such as what happened with the last regime.
Yep, been a diehard fan since the early 50’s. Right now I think (given our current low expectations) that we’re going to all be very pleasantly surprised by our team turnaround this year (assuming that the injury bug doesn’t bite hard). Just found out that I’ll get to go to the LSU-Arkansas game (here in Baton Rouge), and I have high hopes that our Hogs will have developed (matured) enough that the game will be very competitive.
Hey, Fred. I’ll probably go to 1 or 2, depending primarily on our basketball schedule. I’ll probably buy 1 or 2 games for my daughter and granddaughter. If we get a basketball game or 2 on a Friday before a Saturday home football game I’ll probably come up for the week-end. I’ll make my football decisions after the basketball schedule comes out and then after the OM football game.
My 94 yr old mother has taken a turn for the worse this year and my daughter and I are the only care givers. So we won’t be able to go to any games together this year as one of us will have to stay with her. In the past we’ve come up together for a couple football games and 2 or 3 basketball games.
I’ll get in touch with you later when I have more information, but I’m sure I’ll want at least a couple of games you won’t be using. We definitely won’t want the opener, but all others will be open for consideration if we beat OM.
I’m all about great plays by the Hogs/returning starters/being ranked at the beginning and end of the season/and playing for post season honors… I love baseball. Until that happens in football, I have become passive and will invest little time or money in the program. As noted, we are quickly replacing Vandy as the league’s dog and it’s like watching one of my grandkids get beat up on the school ground by the incumbent bully. That makes it hard to enjoy any sporting event.
I’m not sure your premise, “especially with the talent they have” is a good one. Talent is the one area we’ve really fallen behind the rest of the SEC on. With a few exceptions, it appears our most talented players are incoming freshmen & sophs. If we were playing in any league but the SEC, especially the SECW, I might agree that a mere 6 wins would be totally inadequate. But we can all name several schools where our talent doesn’t begin to match with theirs–i.e. Alabama, Auburn, TAMU, LSU. We probably have less talent than OM, MSU, UK, & MU, all also on our schedule this year. We might sneak up & win 2 or 3 of the games against those last 4, but I think winning 2 of them is about the ceiling.
We only “out-talent” the 4 NC teams on our schedule.
I just turned 63 and have been a fan since my older brother attended UA during the glory years in the mid 60’s.
Agree we need to win the 6 games and get to a bowl. Will be very disappointed with anything else. There is some legit SEC talent on this team even though most of it is young talent.
We should be better at many of the key positions (QB, WR, TE, DB). The culture change is in full swing and a lot of the old dead wood has been pruned off.
I also believe Starkel will get his first start in Dallas against A&M and we win that game…and that propels us to the 6+ wins this year. Starkel has a large Tex AM chip on his shoulder. Starkel against Mond could be one of the best QB matchups of the year. IF we win that game, it would be the biggest win in decades for Razorback football IMO.
Starting to believe this season could be a significant turnaround year and maybe surprise a few folks.
GO HOGS
I’ve actually been looking a lot at the “talent” question since Wiz and Jrdent’s star gazing argument.
This year we actually are ahead “talent wise” of the 4 NC, and Missouri and KY. However, a lot of that has to do with (as you said) the freshmen class. Now looking at just the freshmen and current commits, we actually leap ahead of both Mississippi schools (also interesting Ole Miss has a combined 53 kids in those two classes, we have 39). We definitely are getting better “talent wise”, but I’m not too sure that talent will equate to wins THIS year.
[quote=“BatonRougeHog”]
Yep, been a diehard fan since the early 50’s. Right now I think (given our current low expectations) that we’re going to all be very pleasantly surprised by our team turnaround this year (assuming that the injury bug doesn’t bite hard). Just found out that I’ll get to go to the LSU-Arkansas game (here in Baton Rouge), and I have high hopes that our Hogs will have developed (matured) enough that the game will be very competitive.
[/quote] I believe we will see this team get better every week this season, need to develop depth at the OL,LB,DB positions and hopefully we can stay healthy at running back this year
I’m glad to hear that about our younger players. I know the terms “talent” & “experience” describe two different things, but if all (okay most) of our talent is in the freshman & sophomore classes, at least for this year, we’re behind every SEC team in the experienced talent dept. I’m happy with the job Morris & this staff are doing in recruiting. I’m confident it will pay dividends soon. But I still don’t see us with more than 5, maybe 6, wins this year. The stars could all align in such a way that we actually do pull off more wins than that, but I’m not counting on it. (I do expect our team to play better this year if only because we’ve improved a lot at QB & some other places. We should also be in better physical shape & more disciplined. Those should count for a lot.)
The young ones have ability. Still need to keep adding speed. Give speed to Tru Carroll, the team will begin to perform like everyone wants.