Misery Index: Arkansas' embarrassing slide continues, and the Hogs are running out of excuses Dan WolkenSeptember 20, 2025 at 11:13 PM 0 Even before its football team went to Memphis and blew another winnable game, it was a contentious week in Arkansas.
- - Misery Index: Arkansas' embarrassing slide continues, and the Hogs are running out of excuses
Dan WolkenSeptember 20, 2025 at 11:13 PM
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Even before its football team went to Memphis and blew another winnable game, it was a contentious week in Arkansas.
During a speech at the Little Rock Touchdown Club last Monday, athletics director Hunter Yurachek made a comment that landed on the Arkansas fan base like a napalm shower when he dared to admit that the Razorbacks were not ready from an institutional standpoint to win a College Football Playoff title.
"We know we're set up to win a national championship in men's basketball moving forward," Yurachek said. "We know we're set up to win a national championship in baseball moving forward and I think we're set up in several other sports to win a national championship. Football, where we are right now, we're not set up to win a national championship. I'll just be brutally honest with that, but I think we're set up to compete really well in the Southeastern Conference, especially with the new revenue-sharing model."
From the outside looking in, Yurachek's biggest sin is that he told the truth in an era where many people would prefer a lie that makes them feel good. But within the state of Arkansas, an uproar formed around the idea that Yurachek was waving the white flag just three games into this season.
Maybe those comments would have been received differently if Yurachek had given them this week after the Razorbacks lost 32-31 at Memphis in a game they led 28-10 just before halftime. Given that this is the Razorbacks' second loss — they committed a killer late turnover with a chance to win last week at Ole Miss — we can safely say this will not be the year for Arkansas to break a national title drought that stretches back to 1964.
But this entire hubbub exemplifies the angst of rooting for a program that lives in the aspirational second tier during this era of college football.
Sam Pittman and the Arkansas Razorbacks didn't have much to be happy about after a loss to Memphis on Saturday. (Justin Ford/Getty Images) (Justin Ford via Getty Images)
Before the 12-team CFP and the ability to pay players through revenue sharing and NIL, nobody would have seriously debated whether Arkansas is "set up" to win a national title because everyone understood they weren't. Unless you could recruit like an Ohio State or Alabama or got lucky and hired a top-five coach, it wasn't going to happen.
Now, though, fans don't see those distinctions quite as clearly. Are you a playoff program or not? If Indiana and SMU can do it, why can't Arkansas? And if you're not spending on a roster like Texas Tech, for instance, what's the excuse for an SEC school in a state where you're essentially the only pro team?
The money factor is, of course, what Yurachek was driving at with those comments. John Calipari has a war chest to build a great basketball roster. Sam Pittman does not, largely because the Arkansas fans who have that kind of money don't think it would be well-spent on a team coached by Sam Pittman.
That's what we call a self-fulfilling prophecy — or perhaps Hogphecy, if you will.
And when Pittman gets fired, which seems a lot more inevitable after Arkansas fumbled away its chance at a late go-ahead score against Memphis, just watch how quickly the rhetoric changes.
Arkansas will hire a new coach, everyone will get excited, checkbooks will open up and Yurachek (if he's still around) will be singing a much different tune about how the Razorbacks are "set up."
As always, though, the scoreboard tells the truth. And at Arkansas, it has shouted for years that this program isn't national championship material. Sometimes reality hurts even more when you see it in such stark relief, and that's why Arkansas reigns as America's most miserable fan base in Week 4.
Conference Champions of Misery
ACC: The biggest disappointment in Clemson's shocking 1-3 start is the defense. Luring Tom Allen from Penn State for $2 million per year was supposed to be a major upgrade from Wes Goodwin, but the Tigers' defense has not been elite. In a 34-21 loss to Syracuse, Clemson gave up 433 total yards and didn't offer much resistance early in the game. Given the talent, including potential first-round picks Peter Woods and T.J. Parker and pass rusher Will Heldt, Clemson should be getting dominance out of that unit. Instead, it's just OK. After getting hyped up as a top-five team in the preseason, Clemson's CFP hopes are essentially over before October.
Big Ten: Some Wisconsin fans were chanting "Fire Fickell" during the Badgers' 27-10 loss to Maryland in Camp Randall, but they're probably not getting their wish anytime soon. Luke Fickell's buyout is $25 million and athletics director Chris McIntosh summoned some local reporters after the game to offer a vote of confidence. But after nearly three decades of being at least a factor in the Big Ten under four different coaches with a consistent program identity of winning the line of scrimmage and running the ball, the Badgers seem adrift. A lot of people in college football believe Fickell's original sin was hiring Phil Longo as offensive coordinator because you can't be an Air Raid team at Wisconsin. Replacing Longo with Jeff Grimes, formerly of Kansas, has brought the emphasis back up front, but it may take more time to get the personnel aligned with the philosophy.
Mike Gundy has kept Oklahoma State relevant for years, but the Cowboys are sliding for the second straight year. (Brian Bahr/Getty Images) (Brian Bahr via Getty Images)
Big 12: There's no coming from back this. The only question for Oklahoma State, after losing 19-12 to Tulsa on Friday night, is when the school announces its separation from Mike Gundy and whether any other administrators get caught in the undertow. Hopefully there will be a Gundy statue on campus one day given all he's done to elevate that program over 21 seasons, but right now it's a sad spectacle. Tulsa, which went 3-9 last year, was more physical on both lines of scrimmage and played with much more passion and precision to get its first win in Stillwater since 1951. Oklahoma State has now lost 11 games in a row against FBS competition, and it's truly a cautionary tale of how one bad year in the transfer portal can completely wreck your program.
Group of Six: Before the Pac-12 blew up, Oregon State was on the rise. Jonathan Smith, a program alum, won 10 games in 2022 and eight in 2023 and seemed like the type of transformational coach who could be there for a long time. Fast-forward just a couple years and you have to wonder whether the abyss can get deeper. Smith is now rebuilding Michigan State, the Beavers are playing without a real conference affiliation until the new Pac-12 gets up and running and they may not beat an FBS team this season. After a 41-7 spanking by Oregon, the Beavers are 0-4 and have been outscored by a combined 156-63.
Headset Misery
Hugh Freeze: Auburn's 24-17 loss at Oklahoma was the kind of game where small margins mattered. And there were several calls Freeze was clearly unhappy about, including an Oklahoma touchdown in the second quarter that the SEC later acknowledged shouldn't have counted due to an obscure "unfair tactics" rule regarding substitutions. There was also an Auburn touchdown controversially overturned early in the game. The play in question was one of those where the officials had to judge whether a receiver possessed the ball before fumbling, and to the naked eye it certainly looked like Oklahoma receiver Isaiah Sategna made a catch and took a couple steps before coughing up the ball. Nevertheless, Freeze was incredulous that Auburn's scoop-and-score got taken off the board by the replay booth. Asked about it after the game, Freeze said he "better be quiet."
Bill Belichick is still looking for his first college win over a power conference team. (Julio Aguilar/Getty Images) (Julio Aguilar via Getty Images)
Bill Belichick: Are you really the NFL's "33rd team," as North Carolina nicknamed itself, if you can't even compete against a semi-competent power conference opponent? After the Tar Heels made a couple gimme putts against Charlotte and Richmond for the first two wins of the Belichick era, they showed who they really are in a 34-9 loss at UCF. With just 217 offensive yards and two turnovers, we can officially question whether the Tar Heels will win an ACC game this year. And don't you dare let Belichick off the hook by talking about the transfer portal and all the roster turnover after he replaced Mack Brown. UCF also completely overhauled its team with more than 60 new players after Scott Frost took the job. Combined with a 48-14 loss to TCU in the opener, it's been a long time since North Carolina stunk this bad, and it really didn't have to be that way.
Kyle Whittingham: If hiring offensive coordinator Jason Beck and bringing in quarterback Devon Dampier from New Mexico as a package deal was supposed to be transformational for the Utah offense, maybe it transformed in the wrong direction. After all, New Mexico went 5-7 last season and Utah looked much closer to that quality of team in a 34-10 loss to Texas Tech. Sure, the game was closer than that until things got out of hand in the fourth quarter, but Utah's 263 yards of offense with four turnovers was a pretty embarrassing way to open Big 12 play. Unfortunately, it was also typical of the offensive dysfunction we've seen in Salt Lake City for several years any time Cam Rising isn't under center. Whittingham brushed off retirement speculation last year after going 5-7, but he'll get close to "game has passed him by" territory with more performances like that one.
Matt Rhule: The Big Ten is a line-of-scrimmage league, but Nebraska isn't a line-of-scrimmage team yet. That much is clear after a 30-27 loss to Michigan. Sure, the game was close in a lot of ways. But when you rush for 43 yards on 31 attempts (largely because you gave up seven sacks) and your opponent rushes for 286 yards on 33 attempts, you're probably not going to win at any level of football. Rhule knows you can't get pushed around like that up front and expect to do anything significant, but it's fair for fans to ask why there hasn't been a big leap in physicality in his third season. The most stunning number from this game is that Nebraska has now lost 28 consecutive games to ranked opponents.
Dave Doeren: When the NC State coach is 1-4 in his career against Duke, that's a problem at a school that believes it should have football superiority in the Research Triangle. But Doeren finds himself on the wrong side of that rivalry after a 45-33 loss in which his team went minus-four in the turnover margin, had a 25-yard field goal blocked and missed an extra point. Doeren came into this season under some pressure, given that he's been good enough to hang onto the job for a dozen years but not good enough to reach a level where you can envision NC State in the CFP anytime soon. As the schedule gets tougher in October and November, Doeren could find his seat getting hotter thanks to results like this.
Moments of Misery
Baylor got very unlucky: When a personal foul flag for a late hit was thrown on Baylor safety DJ Coleman with 1:17 to go, that was basically the ballgame. Had the flag not been thrown, Arizona State would have faced fourth-and-1 just short of midfield in a tie game. Instead, the Sun Devils advanced deep in Baylor territory and kicked a 43-yarder as time expired for a 27-24 victory. The tough part for Baylor is that Coleman did not intend to commit a foul, nor did he make a dirty play. It was one of those situations where receiver Jordyn Tyson slid early and there was really nothing Coleman could do as he tried to prevent a first down. Should it have even been a penalty? By rule, yes, but by the spirit of the game most definitely not.
Illinois got exposed: Getting into the top 10 of the poll was a big deal for the No. 9 Illini, but it was short-lived. After a historic 63-10 drubbing in Bloomington, we shouldn't expect to see Bret Bielema with a single-digit ranking again anytime soon. Not only was Indiana's offense able to do anything it wanted, it held Illinois to 161 yards and a hilarious 0.1 yards per rush. Just as he did at Wisconsin and Arkansas, Bielema has built his entire program around the offensive line and running the ball. It will be tough to recover from being completely shut down and embarrassed by Indiana on the biggest stage Illinois has had in years.
Arkansas' 387-pounder got bullied: If the Razorbacks had stopped a third-and-8 against Memphis with a minute to go, they'd have gotten the ball back with a good chance to win. Making matters even worse for Memphis was starting quarterback Brendon Lewis being parked on the sideline because he lost his helmet on second down. So it was up to backup Arrington Maiden, who had taken one snap previously in his career. And what did he do? After running into the line of scrimmage, Maiden emerged with 6-foot-5, 387-pound defensive tackle Ian Geffrard on his back but managed to drag him all the way for a game-sealing first down. Given Geffrard's 183-pound advantage, failing to get Maiden on the ground with the game on the line was emblematic of why Arkansas lost 32-31.
Kevin Jennings didn't get much help: The SMU quarterback threw a few ducks against TCU, including a floating interception with 4:10 left that pretty much exhausted the Mustangs' last chance in a 35-24 loss for the Iron Skillet. But the bigger story is how Jennings seems to be under duress at all times and is being asked to do way too much this season for the 2-2 Mustangs. Jennings can produce some spectacular moments with his arm, but his mistakes get magnified because SMU isn't running the ball or protecting him well enough. Jennings will get some criticism, especially for throwing five picks in four games, but he will have to take a lot of risks if SMU is going to be an ACC factor.
Source: "AOL Sports"
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