Near-misses don’t count in win column
Should the Arkansas Razorbacks’ football program have a
top-10 list of moral victories — and if so, where does Saturday’s game against Texas A&M rank?
A caller Sunday suggested that the Aggies’ 31-27 triumph qualifies an an “oral victory,” one that fans observe but can’t quite categorize. How does a team that looked so bad against San Jose State (when favored by
20 points) play a 23-point favorite off its feet?
As suggested in this space Sunday, a trip out of state may have been just the ticket for the Razorbacks after losing 31-24 at home to San Jose State. It was an especially brutal week for coach Chad Morris and his staff with some players even coming under fire [a particularly classless act] on social media. Talk was in the air, as it ever seems to be on the Fayetteville campus, that a September coaching change — like that by Rutgers on Sunday with ex-Hog defensive aide Chris Ash — was in order.
Someone asked what Frank Broyles, with an especially quick trigger finger (ask Jack Crowe, fired after one game in
1992) would have done after the San Jose State game. “First of all, he would have left at halftime,” said a Fayetteville-based man who has covered the Razorbacks for decades. “Whenever he got mad during a game, he would leave the stadium and start looking for his car.” (From the same man: “The only fire I saw from the Razorbacks that night was at halftime during the baton twirlers’ routine.”)
Hunter Yurachek, whose turn it was to address the Little Rock Touchdown Club last week, said what you would expect, that he was all in for Morris, his first football hire as UA athletic director, and that reviving a program from its lowest ebb in 60-odd years takes time. That wasn’t terribly encouraging under the circumstances, but at least Yurachek did not, like predecessor Jeff Long before the same crowd after a home loss to TCU a few years ago, recite graduation rates.
Besides, who would want to become the fifth Razorback football coach in 11 years; that would mean bringing in a new staff to oversee 50-something freshmen that the new HC did not recruit. Like Morris or not, with a second-season Arkansas record of 4-13 overall (0-10 in the Southeastern Conference), the revolving door in Fayetteville must stop before the Hogs can become serious contenders again. The SEC, Arkansas’ Western Division especially, is so rugged that an 8-4 record may represent a best-case scenario for the Hogs in coming years — at least until Nick Saban retires at Alabama.
Pardon the cliches, but a team challenged within and without can throw in the towel or grab hold of the rope. After a week that Morris said “everyone would be held accountable” — even the press-box caterer? — Arkansas showed a pulse against A&M, almost pulling out an improbable victory.
A fourth-down play on Arkansas’ last possession fell short, allowing the Aggies to escape with their eighth consecutive win in the series but for the Hogs to cover themselves with as much glory as a losing team deserves.
“Credit to Texas A&M. [The Aggies] found a way to win it,” Morris said postgame. “But I’m extremely proud of our football team [although] we’ve got to find ways to win games like this. And that’s on me. And we will. … There are no moral losses.”
It felt like old times when Hog fans blasted the SEC officiating crew. That’s been a staple of Arkansas near-misses for decades: Was linebacker Mike Boschetti clipped [or not, as the officials ruled] on James Street’s touchdown run on the first play of the fourth quarter in the Big Shootout against Texas in 1969? Fans claimed larger forces were at work after a Fayetteville loss to Texas that a Longhorn almost ripped off Ron Calcagni’s face mask [no call] and an infamous Liberty Bowl defeat to Tennessee in which an official from Memphis made two rulings that mightily benefited the Vols in a 14-13 game. And on, and on.
Even if the SEC office raps the knuckles of the officiating crew Saturday, it will not overshadow Aggie quarterback Kellen Mond torturing the Hogs yet again [three touchdown passes]. And that Ben Hicks’ second chance as UA quarterback, following an injury to starter Nick Starkel, did not turn out better. Hicks’ third-down scramble of 17 yards left the Hogs with fourth and five at the A&M 19 with 37 seconds left, Hicks then throwing incomplete for a blanketed Cheyenne O’Grady.
Arkansas needed to go the distance on that last drive, from its 25, after Seth Small’s 50-yard field goal made it a four-point game at 3:52. That magnified the early 51-yard miss by Connor Limpert, who later connected from 46 and 40 yards.
“There were a few things … we missed when we were lining up, and we’ve got to get that corrected,” Morris said, mostly talking about the offense. “But these guys are making some plays for us.
“And, defensively, I thought … we played aggressive, and that’s how we wanted to play out (e.g., linebacker DaJon Harris recording the team’s third scoop-and-score touchdown). I thought we played good enough to win and give us a chance.”
Morris repeated a by-now-familiar postgame mantra, that “a lot of young men and coaches in there are hurting, and we’ve got to find ways to win in games like this.” Maybe Morris can work on some new material during the bye week before a three-game October schedule including nationally-ranked Alabama and Auburn.
Arkansas and Kentucky seldom play each other, so no one should be surprised with anything that comes from their Oct. 12 meeting in Lexington. [A night kickoff would be ideal for those wanting to combine football and Keeneland racing, though this matchup of teams winless in the SEC screams for an 11 a.m. start. The SEC office may decide that today.]
Losing to Kentucky would not go over well before games that Morris’ team, even given steady improvement, looks overmatched. Some preseason targets [say, 6-6 with a bowl game] are in play for the Hogs, but none of those forecasts counts moral victories.