Only quick fix for Razorbacks to win, simply hoping for help

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Bitter Arkansas fans desperately want someone or something to blame after a 63-31 loss to Ole Miss on Saturday. This is not on the coaches, despite what so many would like to see.

While the Razorbacks have some really good players, they simply don’t have enough. The Rebels had more that were better and didn’t expect to do something like that against Kentucky. Apparently their loss to LSU got them focused.

That’s not the problem at all. During the post-mortem after that loss on Saturday, Hogs fans stuck to their traditional mentality. It’s been going on since they started playing football over 100 years ago. Considering they finish with one likely win (Louisiana Tech) and two questionable games (Texas and Missouri), fans can only hope those two don’t play with the focus and intensity that Ole Miss had.

First you blame the head coach, then the quarterback is responsible and finally the athletic director. To this day, no one has explained to me how he is responsible for the loss of a football team on Saturday, but it was there under Frank Broyles and now it is Hunter Yurachek’s turn.

Despite all that, this one falls on the players. Not for lack of effort. This wasn’t a game where they stopped at any point, they simply weren’t fast enough, big enough or strong enough in numbers to do anything with the rebels.

It’s kind of like the time Bear Bryant grabbed a backup lineman and told him to block a player who couldn’t reach the man on the field at all.

“I’ll do my best,” the young man said.

“Go back and sit down,” Bryant said. “Johnny (no idea if that was the player’s name) is doing his best.”

That’s probably how Sam Pittman and defensive coordinator Travis Williams felt as Ole Miss continued to hit pass after pass. They suspected their wide receivers were fast enough to just outrun whatever the Hogs could put on the field. That turned out to be absolutely correct.

Lost in all the talk about the Rebels finally starting to look exactly like everyone expected before the season, Arkansas is now being mentioned as lucky to play in a bowl game. They will most likely get six or seven wins. It will likely come to a resolution after Thanksgiving against Missouri.

Razorback fans will still be trying to figure out who to blame for the lack of success they came to expect after a win over a Tennessee team that had an off night. LSU started it, and then Ole Miss probably went into overdrive.

The win over Mississippi State probably showed more about the Bulldogs’ problems than what the Hogs had accomplished. No one wanted to think about that possibility.

It’s the same way Saturday’s loss may have shown us more about the Razorbacks than it did about Ole Miss. Some will try to point to the 31 points without realizing that Rebels coach Lane Kiffin was still having a fit at his press conference Monday about the backup defenders giving up the most. of those points.

The only takeaway from that is that Arkansas’ offense could score against Ole Miss’ second- and third-team defense. The Rebels’ second attack moved around the field with the same ease as the first team.

About the only solution for the Razorbacks to get out of this mess is as Steve Spurrier told Bret Bielema in 2013 when his South Carolina team stomped them in Fayetteville. He had to recruit his way out.

Bielema never could, getting fired after a .500 season and riding out five years before being canned by the backup athletic director. Now Pittman has to find a way to get the players. That leads to conversations that will last a while.

• Kiffin’s press conference highlights the lack of standard Arkansas

• What should Hogs expectations be for Calipari’s first season?

• Ole Miss simply had a knack for responding to the Razorbacks defense

• Pigs are stuck in mediocrity and momentum has been neutralized