A Half-Dozen Hyper-Specific Predictions About…Arkansas

Everybody’s favorite sleeper from the SEC is up next on the list. And it would be a virtual impossibility not to be excited for team hoo pig sooie. 10 starters are back to run the Bobby Petrino supersystem. But will it be enough to get them to the promised land?

Last Year: 8-5 (3-5) t4th SEC West.

1) The Summer of Mallett continues into the fall. With one of the deepest receiving corps in the nation and 4 returning offensive linemen? Ryan Mallett gets 4300 yards and 38 touchdowns. Also, a trip to New York.

2) In terms of running game? There will be effectiveness, but no one man will emerge as a statistical stud. Broderick Green will get 7 touchdowns. Ronnie Wingo will get 600 yards. Knile Davis will be solid as well. Combined? 1400 yards and 12 TD’s.

3) The main pass-catching beneficiary of this offensive largesse? Joe Adams. In between having a stroke, he was the team’s leader in yards per catch and tied for the lead in touchdowns. He’ll go for 70-1344-11.

4) The much-maligned defensive secondary will find themselves as heroes as they will stop two teams from winning on a two minute drill. Those two teams? Ole Miss and LSU.

5) Traditionally, Arkansas has struggled in their SEC openers, but that will change this season as they go between the Hedges and find a way to gash Georgia. 52-21 is a definite possibility.

6) But will this team go unbeaten? Nah. They could very well go 11-1 and not even get a BCS game. In fact, I think the SEC West could get to a point where the highest ranked BCS team gets the invite to the SEC Championship game. I’ll say that Arkansas doesn’t get past Alabama, but they will get one versus Auburn.

/hides.

This year: 11-1 (7-1) t1st SEC West

Because Bobby Petrino Bleeds Cardinal And White!!!

If you wear a Florida Gators hat to a Bobby Petrino presser you will be shunned, laughed at, ignored … and fired?

You have got to be kidding me. Bobby Petrino has worn more hats in the last few years than most coaches don in their whole careers. The word “disingenuous” comes to mind. Get over it Pig Nation. BTW I am amazed that there is an Arkansas Sports 360 website. Besides Razorback football what else could this site possibly cover? Arkansas does not play “sports”. Arkansas plays “sport”, and more precisely “Football”.

Hat Tip Dr. Saturday @ EDSBS

The Trap Games of the SEC Season

One of my favorite aspects of college football is the trap game. You have 20-something kids on a roll getting overconfident, and boom. There’s an upset. It’s what got me following the SEC, if we’re being completely honest. But since we’re not yet sponsored by EA sports?

That’s another story for another day. Today? We’re discussing trap games. The chance for a bad to decent team to beat a great team.

We’ll start with the NCAA Football 11 Preseason National Champions. There’s been a lot said about the fact that a lot of teams have bye weeks before they’re rolling up on Alabama. But only one team has the power and the timing to go up against the Crimson Tide before they seem to have jelled. That’s when they travel to Fayetteville  on September 25th to take on the Razorbacks.

One week before Florida rolls into town.

Does Florida have a trap game? Yes and no. It’s like I said in April. Kentucky is intriguing. In my bolder days, I would say that Kentucky could take them down, but today I am not feeling so bold. They can keep it close in Ben Hill Griffin on the 25th.

Kentucky’s real shot at a trap win is when Georgia comes to Lexington on October 23rd. It’s one week before the bete noir of the Georgia faithful a.k.a. The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party. And it may actually not be considered an upset even if Kentucky doesn’t shock the Gators.

Arkansas has their own trap game worry the week before they play Auburn as well. October 9th. In front of the worlds largest television screen. They play the one offense they can stand toe to toe with them in Texas A&M. Why is this interesting? Because neither team has a great defense, but A&M has a pass-rusher in Von Miller. And he generated 17.5 sacks literally all by himself. He gets rolling and the Hogs fall.

The lucky ones are Auburn and LSU. Auburn’s schedule is built for a run at insurging the two-team power trip. And if you consider Tennessee’s issues? LSU’s losses can be boiled down to ill-preparation.

Rating the Indoor Practice Facilities of the SEC.

I know what you’re thinking. LOL what? Is this even a post. And I say unto you, mister and missus hypothetical reader. I like to challenge myself. Sometimes, I want to see if I cannot make something interesting. And when Auburn tripled the size of their indoor practice facility? I have an excuse!

In one of the strangest one of these things is not like the other sort of scenarios? Two out of the twelve? Don’t have indoor practice facilities. One of them is Vanderbilt. Guess the other one. Come on.

I’ll even add to it that it’s nobody in the SEC West. When Auburn’s expansion is complete? There will be nobody who has to work a short field either. You might guess Kentucky. But you’d be wrong.

South Carolina and Tennessee are both working off of short fields. But they’ve got something to work with.

So at this point? The fact that Georgia and Florida don’t have an indoor facility is strange. These are the Eastern powers of the SEC, after all. They should be top of the line in everything they do. But one of them has plans for a new indoor facility.

And guess what? It’s not Florida.

Let me say that again. The team of the previous decade has found their way into the best high school recruits of this generation. And their facilities are lacking. There is an obvious lesson to it.

But I’ll leave that to you to figure out.

The “Little Ten” of the SEC

The narrative coming out of the SEC, besides Alabama’s general ailments of the bye week disadvantages, is that we are in the midst of a duopoly. There’s Florida, there’s Alabama, and then there’s the other ten teams. I come to you with one question. Can anybody charge in and steal a spot?

10. Vanderbilt (Nope. A running game and a decent defense means you have a punchers chance against the majority of the league, but that got Mississippi State five wins last year. That’s seven wins too little.)
9. Mississippi State (2%. Mullen may be building off of last season, but the team still needs more at WR than Chad Bumphis and an Anthony Dixon replacement. They won’t steal anything more than the Liberty Bowl this year.)
8. Tennessee (5 percent. They won’t m9iss Bryce Brown, and you may not be able to throw too well on them. But these are underdogs who made their bed and has to lie in it.)
7. Ole Miss (5 percent. They have a solid run defense. But their team is too young. Nathan Stanley doesn’t have a great offensive line to protect him either. And Raymond Cotton? He has the shoulder of the Tubervillian Chris Todd. They’ll be interesting again. But not this year.)
6. South Carolina (10 percent. In terms of talent? They may surprise. Ellis Johnson has a defense that reloads every season. And the offense is intriguing in terms of Jarvis Giles and Marcus Lattimore carrying the rock, and the catching the ball? Alshon Jeffrey isn’t gonna be pumping gas anytime soon. The problem? Stephen Garcia’s general incosistency plus program inertia equals Pizza bowl.)
5. Kentucky (They have a 1 in ten shot of beating Florida. And if they do that? Their number rises exponentially. But at this point? Hartline-Cobb-Matthews-Locke are a lot more interesting to me than they are to you. As such? This is the one that could rise in unlikelyhood.)
4. Arkansas (20 percent. Alex Tejada plus a road game at Auburn could pose a problem. The Defensive Front Seven could pose a problem. Ryan Mallett’s inconsistency? Also problematic. But you answer one of the questions? And they’re a dangerous middle of the road SEC West Team.)
3. Georgia (25 percent. Freshmen don’t win the SEC. In that respect? Aaron Murray’s weight is better than the other 10 returning starters. A defensive switch in scheme doesn’t help either. And even a Freshman Matt Stafford couldn’t beat Kentucky in Lexington in the pre-Raylan Givens era.) 
2. LSU (25 percent. I don’t trust Jordan Jefferson, and the line lost its players of value as well. But they have a lockdown pass defense and considering the state of the SEC West? That’s worth a lot to the party right there.)
1. Auburn (50 percent. Here is your last, best hope for an insurgency. And as such? It’s 50-50. Either they beat The Crimson Tide or they don’t.)

 I will make a more formal predsiction this Summer. And I will further the individual season previews in the weeks upcoming. So yeah. It’s coming kids.

FUHBAW!

Ryan Mallett Breaks His Foot.

I post this because I’m kind of baffled. In the Bobby Petrino supsersystem, I honestly thought that he had the oak tree of a quarerback he has needed for forever. Not since the days of Chris Redman’s recruiting misadventures has he had someone close to the Hammer. But in this day and age? When every move is so important?

A broken foot is even important for a quarterback whose main deignation is throw the deep corner route. How will he com back from it?

*Looks up*

It’s Feburary? Really? Mallett will be back by June at the latest? COME ON!

Stupid knockoff medicine can’t even keep me in a good coma until Fuhbawl returns. And I know that’s Mike Hartline. That’s how little impact this will have in the fall. Nobody’s going to remember that I went to the Mike Hartline card.

But good looking out in the SEC West Hoops Hawgs. Pelfrey circled the wagons man style.

Arkansas vs. ECU, 2009 Liberty Bowl, Prediction Pick.

This one could have been fun. Arkansas versus Houston would have been a game that would have rivaled Fresno State-Illinois in terms of pure shooutout power. But they got knocked out of the conference championship by a lucky team. And the Keenum-Mallett shootout? It’s left only for the dreams of those of us who love passing.

What we have? A brewing blowout. I know it’s a one game scenario and things aren’t exactly break down like they’re supposed to on paper. But in all honesty? A team that throws like champions in the SEC going up against the 118th ranked pass defense in Division 1 that played the majority of its games in Conference USA isn’t exactly something that looks like a classic confrontation. Point for blowout.

Counterpoint? ECU quarterback Patrick Pickney will get time to throw. He’s been sacked 9 times this year. He’s not exactly the most electrifying quarterback, but he’s a dual threat. And as such, with the way Arkansas can get thrown on? They should be able to move the ball.

However? They do tend to get bogged down in the red zone. You have a pie chart? Half of it will be touchdowns. 1/3 of it will be field goals. And the remaining sixth? Squadush. With a team that can score like Arkansas, you need to bring touchdowns to stay in the game.

On the other hand? ECU is a very opportunistic defense. +19 in turnovers. It got them the conference championship. In a one-game scenario? It can get you the win.

But it’s a better stat if your opponent doesn’t take care of the ball. Arkansas takes care of the ball. And being +14 while facing the SEC is quite impressive.

Okay. So will it be a blowout? Yes. I don’t think the final is going to be a real indicator of what this game really turned out to be. I see it as Arkansas 49, East Carolina 27. Arkansas will be up by at least 30 for a while in this game as well.

Arkansas vs. Alabama, Prediction Pick, 2009

Arkansas journeys to Tuscaloosa this week to face the No. 3 ranked Crimson Tide. Ryan Mallett comes in as one of the top ranked quarterbacks in the nation to face off against Greg McElroy. Statistically there is not very much difference between the two, but the question is can both quarterbacks perform at their best against these two strong SEC defenses.

This will be Alabama’s biggest test so far this season. Even though they defeated Virginia Tech at the beginning of the season it was a completely different kind of match up. Virginia Tech’s offense had nowhere near the firepower that Arkansas is coming in with. Will Alabama’s defense be able to handle them is the question?

If Alabama comes to play football tomorrow they should be able to defeat Arkansas. Arkansas would like nothing more than to upset Alabama after their disappointing loss last year. The weather is likely to be a factor also with rain likely playing a big part. I think it will be Alabama 31-24.