Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hogs eye second half with Tide out of way
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Midway through the season the Arkansas Razorbacks have to turn their record around to go to a fourth consecutive bowl game.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (2-4, 0-3 SEC) needs to go 4-2 in the second half to finish 6-6 and become bowl eligible in the aftermath of No. 1 Alabama’s 41-9 victory Saturday night at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
“We’re not worried about bowl games,” said redshirt freshman quarterback Cole Kelley, who passed for 200 yards in his first career start for injured Austin Allen. “We’re just worrying about Auburn next week. That’s all we’re focused on.”
The Razorbacks will play their first SEC game in Fayetteville when they take on Auburn (5-2, 3-1) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN.
Arkansas then plays at Ole Miss (3-3, 1-2) before returning home for two more games — a nonconference date with Coastal Carolina (1-4, 0-3) and an SEC West matchup with Mississippi State (4-2, 1-2) .
The Razorbacks close the regular season with road game against LSU (5-2, 2-1) and a home game with Missouri (1-5, 0-4).
“We’ve got Auburn coming to town and we’ve got to get better in a short amount of time,” Bielema said. “I do keep telling these guys, the things you see and the things we have to do are correctable.
“But as coaches, we’ve got to hone in better. We’ve got to make sure we’re not asking
them to do too much. Simplicity is our best friend.”
The Razorbacks probably shouldn’t feel too bad about losing to Alabama considering the Crimson Tide (7-0, 4-0) won 59-0 at Vanderbilt and beat Ole Miss 66-3.
“We’ve just got to keep fighting,” Arkansas nose
guard Bijhon Jackson said. “That’s something the coaches and us seniors will try to drill into everybody’s head.
“We’ve lost a lot, but we’ve still got a lot to play for.”
Kelley might be in line for his second start with Bielema saying Allen’s shoulder injury could sideline him two to three more weeks possibly.
“Cole believes he can beat the New England Patriots,”
Arkansas senior offensive lineman Frank Ragnow said. “That’s what Coach Bielema said, and I believe him.
“That kid isn’t afraid of anything. Which is something that’s very reassuring and something that I think is very rare to see in a redshirt freshman quarterback making his first career start at Alabama.
“Obviously, there are going to be growing pains, but
his attitude and his mindset were great.”
Ragnow said it’s not too late for the Razorbacks to qualify for a bowl game.
“We’ve just got to regroup,” he said. “We can’t look at anyone but ourselves and realize that, ‘Hey, we’re a team very capable of winning a lot of ballgames.’
“We’ve got to decide — us as players — that enough is enough.”