Ominous signs for Razorbacks
If Jeff Long could take a minute from counting graduation rates, the University of Arkansas athletic director might notice that the school’s proud football program is flatlining.
And look to the north end zone of Reynolds Razorback Stadium for, say, 160 million reasons to take both his future in Fayetteville, and that of his head football coach, under closer scrutiny.
That’s the price tag, $160 million, for the new round of construction on what used to be a grassy area on which people spread a blanket and watched Razorback games. That intimacy was sacrificed for what became Broyles Center, with offices for Arkansas football coaches and under which the Razorbacks practiced indoors. Arkansas regarded the north endzone project of the 1970s as a recruiting tool deemed necessary by then-head football coach and athletic director Frank Broyles for the Razorbacks ever to compete again in the Southwest Conference.
With Arkansas currently floundering in the Southeastern Conference standings, the current construction project appears a financial boondoggle by comparison.
Auburn kept kicking extra points through the goal posts at that end of the stadium Saturday night and one couldn’t help but notice a sign that read “Coming
2018.” That is meant ostensibly to announce the project’s expected date of completion, though if a question mark were added it could be seen as a commentary on a possible Razorback coaching change.
From an original crowd of
71,961 for Arkansas’ first Fayetteville SEC game this season, Razorback fans started leaving en masse during a 28-point Auburn third quarter that kicked the score out to 45-13. By game’s end, Auburn up 52-20, there were only enough left in the stands, one man said, to approximate that at a Razorback Red-White game.
Randy Rainwater, hosting a postgame call-in show on the Razorback radio network’s Little Rock flagship station, saw that as an ominous sign for Bret Bielema’s future at Arkansas. “The fans are giving up,” he said. “They’re letting go of the rope.”
Rainwater speculated that a combination of “empty seats and suites” in Fayetteville might force AD Long’s hand to terminate the contract of his head football coach, which extends through 2020. Long perceived declining attendance at Walton Arena as fan apathy and ended basketball coach John Pelphrey’s Razorback tenure after four years.
Football, to borrow a line from Broyles, pays for basketball and basketball pays for everything else. The fans’ early exodus from the Auburn game Saturday night constitutes handwriting on the wall that even Long may not be able to ignore.
Meanwhile, it’s business as usual for what is now a 2-5 Razorback football team, 0-4 in the SEC, and with seven straight losses to socalled Power Five teams from college football’s major conferences.
Looking back, Bielema’s program has been on life support since late-season losses to Missouri and Virginia Tech last year in which the Razorbacks did not score in the second half of either game. A 28-7 September loss to TCU before a sellout crowd at Fayetteville unmasked the problems faced by the current squad, although it took a road loss to a run-of-the-mill South Carolina for many in Razorback Nation to become alarmed.
Arkansas is 0-3 in an October it has allowed 48, 41 and 52 points to South Carolina, Alabama and Auburn, respectively. South Carolina scored three touchdowns on defense while Alabama stymied Arkansas’ once potent running game and harassed a rookie quarterback making his first start. Then came Auburn, which beat Arkansas 56-3 last year at Jordan-Hare Stadium and could have named its score again Saturday night.
Auburn outgained Arkansas
629-334, including 345-171 on the ground and 284-163 through the air. The Tigers recorded six sacks against Cole Kelley and scored touchdowns after three of Arkansas’ four fumbles. The SEC Network showed a graphic about Auburn coach Gus Malzahn’s ties
to the state of Arkansas and its flagship university, which might have made a viewer curious about why he is not coaching the Razorbacks. Good question.
Now 4-1 against Arkansas, Malzahn regarded his 50th college victory as important in that it came off a 27-23 road loss to LSU after leading 20-0. Auburn coaches, constantly measured against in-state rival Alabama, are kept on shorter leashes than those at Arkansas.
“We played good football (Saturday), so we can build upon this,” said Malzahn. “I think we’re in a good spot to finish this thing strong.”
After opening remarks in his own press conference, Bielema was asked straight off about job security.
“I’m disappointed where we’re at,” he said, “but I can’t worry about the future. I can only worry about Ole Miss (the Hogs’ next opponent).”
He did say, and not for the first time, “I know we’re close.”
Close to basketball and deer seasons perhaps, but what else?