And so it will be Memphis and the Liberty Bowl, War Memorial’s slightly more successful and questionably better-looking big brother, on Dec. 28, for the hard-luck Arkansas Razorbacks.
The Hogs will face a capable team in Kansas, which limped to a 6-6 finish after a promising start. Sound familiar? One more win might’ve placed the Hogs in a much higher-profile matchup in the Gator Bowl against Notre Dame (the Irish do owe us one). But for a season that — let’s face it — failed to meet (admittedly unreal) expectations, then an easy trip to Memphis and a winnable matchup is adequate consolation.
Let’s get in the extra practices, regroup in the aftermath of the transfer portal, which now challenges every Division 1 team in this brave new world of college football, make a good few days of it in Memphis — the state’s cool but somewhat shady older cousin — and wash away the taste of the 2022 finish.
Like Dallas, Memphis is close, accessible and filled with cardinal red when Arkansas is in town. And it sure as heck beats Shreveport or Birmingham.
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Once upon a time, the old Cotton Bowl in Dallas represented the pinnacle for Razorback football. A charter member of the old Southwest Conference, Arkansas football arguably played the league’s No. 2 to the Texas Longhorns.
Before Arkansas left for the Southeastern Conference after the 1991 season, the Hogs had played in the Cotton Bowl, hosted by the SWC champ, more than any other team not wearing burnt orange, the visual-aesthetic equivalent of boiled cabbage.
From the advent of modern college football as we know it in the 1960s through the ‘80s, the SWC was one of Division 1’s six primary leagues, and teams like Arkansas, Texas, Texas A&M and sometimes SMU and later even Houston were players on the national scene. Thus, the national championship often went through the SWC champ and the Cotton Bowl.
For Razorback fans, making it to Dallas meant two important things: The Hogs had won the SWC, and perhaps more importantly, likely had beaten Texas, a watershed moment in the lives of Arkies.
When Frank Broyles brilliantly read the political tea leaves in Texas and knew the gettin’ was good for Arkansas, since 1925 the only non-Texas school in the league, he had secured the athletic program’s future. But he also knew the Hogs were in for a rude awakening on the gridiron.
The SWC was fading; just three schools — Arkansas, UT and A&M — had the money/support/desire to field competitive all-around programs. Those three characteristics were present in every SEC team outside of Nashville. (Ironically, in two seasons, the Horns will join the Hogs and Aggies, members since 2012, in the SEC.)
In the SWC, big, bad Texas — bigger and richer than all — was the measuring stick. Broyles made sure to warn the Razorback fanbase that the Hogs would be moving from one Texas to seven or eight of them each fall.
Three decades in, it’s easy to see his point. While the UA athletics program overall is one of the most competitive in the league, in the SEC, there’s football and everything else. (The fact that Southerners joke about SEC decisions running through Tuscaloosa is no coincidence.)
And despite those three SEC West titles and trips to Atlanta under Houston Nutt, the Hogs have struggled to be consistently good on the gridiron.
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Sam Pittman spoiled us last season. Nine and four… a New Year’s Day win over Penn State in the Outback Bowl… Three trophy-game wins…
Though a 6-6 finish represents something close to a miracle for a program still working to wash off the stigma of 2017-19, that 9-4 campaign last year reset the bar on the Hill. And as Hog fans from Tontitown to Timbuktu well know, Arkansas football and expectations aren’t on the best of speaking terms. The Hogs tend to fare better when discarded.
The clean start to the ‘22 season — now solid resume wins over Cincinnati and South Carolina — was sullied by that could-only-happen-to-us turn of events in Arlington that was finished off with a last second haymaker of a gut punch off the foot of Cam Little and top of a goal post. From there, it felt like the Hogs were hanging on for dear life the rest of the season. In terms of injuries, that was almost quite literally the case.
There were high points beyond week two, of course. A rousing win under the watchful eye of the Wasatch range in Utah; the Hogs’ symbolic — and KJ Jefferson’s literal — trucking of Auburn on the Plains to serve up some sweet but overdue redemption; 42-6 in the third quarter against those fraternal-future-commercial-loan-officer-wanna-be’s from across the big river. Those memories will stand out.
One might argue that progress wasn’t made this season on the Hill, that this team underachieved, and frankly, didn’t show up for at least a couple of winnable games. That depth remains a glaring issue. Valid points, all. But considering the schedule’s brute strength and the program’s weekly dance with the injury bug (the Hogs played multiple games with multiple starters out), six wins ain’t bad and represents what many fans dared to expect for this year.
But many others dared to dream bigger for ‘22, and but for a few typically wonky Arkansas breaks, this could’ve been an 8- or 9-win campaign. But alas… woulda, shoulda, coulda.
Besides, KJ is back in ‘23. And Rocket Sanders and Pooh Paul. Jordan Domineck, Beau Limmer, Brady Latham. Maybe even Jalon Catalon. And on day one of its opening, the portal delivered an offensive lineman from Florida.
Arkansas lost four games by nine points despite its starting quarterback missing almost half the season. A hard-luck season, for sure. But, let’s not forget, a bowl season. Bowls may not mean much anymore, when 86 of 130 FBS teams make them. And with players planning to work the NFL combine, player opt-outs are becoming routine. Even for playoff teams.
But harken back to the post-Petrino decade, Hog fans. Bowls may be something of a punch line these days, but they beat the alternative. And Memphis isn’t a bad consolation prize. It’s no Dallas, but Hog fans can make it seem like it is, if on a smaller scale. It’s familiar — the Hogs have played in more Liberty Bowls (six) than any other school — and fans can day-trip it.
The only concern? Kansas — Kan-saw — represents a team we absolutely should beat. And that worries me greatly.
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