Ripples from Tide victory appear likely
Depending where one lives in Arkansas, the words “fifth season” take on a different meaning.
For those of us who mark days off the calendar until the January Friday that live racing resumes in Hot Springs, it’s a reminder that Oaklawn Park is as inevitable in our state as spring, summer, winter and fall.
For others, “fifth season” is an aggravating reminder of Bret Bielema’s tenure as the Arkansas Razorbacks’ head football coach. Midway through the 2017 campaign, his fifth at Arkansas, Bielema is 27-30 overall and, here’s the rub, 10-25 in Southeastern Conference games. There is some debate about whether he will receive, or even deserves, a sixth year on the Razorback sideline.
Breaking it down, Arkansas has lost its last six games against so-called Power Five teams from college football’s major conferences. The only relief has come against Florida A&M and New Mexico State, both booked as breathers and played before pro-Razorback crowds in Arkansas stadiums. Arkansas did not score in the second half of losses to Missouri (SEC), Virginia Tech (ACC/ Belk Bowl) and TCU (Big 12), the latter witnessed by a sellout crowd in Fayetteville.
Consequently, Arkansas entered its weekend game against Alabama as supplicants to college football’s superpower. All week, the talk around coffee shops and water coolers was not if Arkansas might upset the nation’s No. 1 team but whether Alabama would cover the Las Vegas betting line. According to covers.com, it opened at Alabama minus-30, once dropped to 27 1/2 and then rose again to 37 1/2 before cresting at 37 by the 6:15 p.m. kickoff. (The late spike came after Arkansas announced that injured senior quarterback Austin Allen would not play.)
That fourth-quarter Arkansas touchdown lowered Alabama’s winning margin to 32 points, more in line with original estimates and costly to those who thought the Crimson Tide could name the score.
Alabama played Arkansas with the enthusiasm that I greeted Intermediate Algebra at 9 in the morning during my sophomore year of college. Beating the Razorbacks for the 11th straight year under Nick Saban, the Crimson Tide scored on the first play from scrimmage, led 17-0 after the first quarter and then basically tried to run out the clock. ESPN cameras caught Saban ripping some of his players for what he considered an indifferent performance.
A few Arkansas players deserved kudos, among them quarterback Cole Kelley for holding up under Alabama’s fierce pass rush. Kelley, in his first career start, passed for
200 yards and one touchdown with one interception. Jordan Jones, from the same hometown (Smackover) as legendary former Razorback Clyde Scott, caught a three-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and especially impressed getting deep for a 46-yard pass, Arkansas’ longest play from scrimmage.
The Razorback defense could claim moral victories, I guess, for collecting the first interception (Kevin Richardson II) off an Alabama quarterback this season and also recovering a fumble (Ryder Lucas) on a muffed punt by the Tide.
Arkansas wasn’t running at all against the nation’s No.
1-ranked rushing defense, which was allowing 73.3 yards per game and held the Hogs to 27 yards on 29 carries. Although not sharp, Alabama gouged out 308 land yards (averaging
7.2 per carry to Arkansas’ 0.9),
14 first downs and four touchdowns. The Razorbacks did an effective job against quarterback Jalen Hurts, holding the Tide’s leading rusher to a
10-for-41 night, but let Damien Harris go 75 yards for a 7-0 lead before ESPN joined the
proceedings after the Oklahoma-Texas game ended.
“That’s huge,” Saban said, “but then comes fighting the relief syndrome when teams let down after a big play like that.”
Though Alabama ran 64 plays, Bielema recognized the leadoff hit as the real killer.
“The way we started defensively was just very disheartening,” he said. “Just a routine stretch play to our left, and we had some people just get caught up in the moment, get a little overzealous in their pursuit. They cut it back, and it goes for a score. Just something you can’t do.”
In one of the worst weeks of his coaching career, following the South Carolina disaster and with buyout talk in the air, Bielema kept the news about Allen’s shoulder injury under his hat.
“We knew during the course of the week that Austin was not going to be there,” said Bielema. “We got some good news early in the week that it wasn’t as bad as, well, wasn’t one of the worst diagnoses. He got lucky in the fact that it’s not anything that needs surgery. We’ll get him back, and there’s a chance for next week, but if not it may be a couple of weeks yet.”
Knowing that Allen is gone after this season, why shouldn’t Kelley play out the string? Playing the kids might be the only thing to hold the fans’ interest before basketball season. (Mike Anderson, if you’re interested, had a so-so fifth season at Arkansas but went 26-10 in Year Six. Perhaps there’s hope for Bielema, but it’s not looking good,)