5-3 SEC record an imprint of improvement
FAYETTEVILLE — On a miserably cold and wet day the Arkansas Razorbacks ended the season as they began it, with a relatively easy victory, and it assured them of a winning conference record for only the eighth time since they joined the SEC in 1992.
The weather had something to do with it being a slow, sloppy game but so did the Missouri Tigers, who were playing a true freshman at quarterback.
It was a season of issues for the Tigers, the Beasts of the SEC East the past two years when they played in the SEC Championship Game, but this season they failed to get bowl eligible.
It was neither the season nor the results expected by Coach Gary Pinkel, who announced his retirement two weeks ago to battle cancer after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma last spring.
All he could do Friday was watch as his team played well on defense and sputtered again on offense, which has been the pattern since starting quarterback Maty Mauk was suspended the first time after a 21-13 loss at Kentucky in Week 4. His second suspension was within days of being reinstated during the team’s bye week in late October.
The Tigers were held to fewer than 10 points in half of their games, including five of their six SEC losses.
Pinkel and the Tigers finished 5-7 for the season and 1-7 in SEC play. He ends his career with a 118-73 record at Missouri, including a 6-4 bowl record.
The Razorbacks, 7-5 overall and 5-3 in SEC play, went back to their bread-and-butter rushing attack for four touchdowns, three by Alex Collins.
It was not a great game for the Hogs. They played as well as they needed to get the victory against a team that ended its season with six consecutive losses in conference games.
A crowd of approximately 30,000 (72,496 tickets sold) showed up for the final regular-season game, and they were brave souls as the temperature at kickoff was 38. It continued to drop and was raining, sometimes hard.
More than half of the fans quietly left feeling good with a 21-3 halftime lead, and it was difficult to blame anyone for heading to any place warm and dry. More found the exits after the end of the third quarter with their Hogs ahead 28-3.
At that point, Missouri had 130 total yards. The Tigers had five first downs and had been on offense 12:56 compared to 32:04 for the Hogs.
The game was not as close as the stats or score might have indicated.
Missouri was consistent. The Tigers came out flat offensively and mostly stayed that way.
Now thoughts will turn to what bowl the Razorbacks will play in, and it most likely will be either the Liberty Bowl in Memphis or the Independence Bowl in Shreveport.
Both are well-run bowls in fertile recruiting areas, but the Liberty Bowl more than likely will win out, giving the Razorbacks Nation an easy drive to a bowl where they have a 1-3 record.
Six of the bowls associated with the SEC do not give out bids — they take assignments from the league office — and traditionally the conference takes geography into consideration when making the assignments, trying not to make postseason play too expensive for fans.
The Liberty Bowl will be played at 2:20 p.m. Jan. 2, and the opponent will come from the Big 12. It wouldn’t be out of line to suggest the Hogs’ opponent most likely will be West Virginia because the other viable Big 12 team is Texas Tech, which beat the Razorbacks earlier in the season.
The most important accomplishments for the Razorbacks and their fans are bowl eligibility for a second consecutive season and a winning record in SEC play.
That is progress.