Subdued. Muted. Bored.
Those are the words best used to describe the Arkansas football fan base right now, two weeks into the 2023 regular season. And it’s a mighty shame.
For a state that prides itself on bleeding red – oh, the irony – and having just one major team in the entire state, the care level about the Razorbacks through mid-September is shameful. If this is what it’s going to be like in the future, when the SEC adds Texas and Oklahoma, trouble is on the horizon.
Certainly, I understand that Western Carolina and Kent State aren’t exactly going to make that red blood course through the veins. And to say that the way the Razorbacks played in those games was unsexy would be a bit of understatement. But two things come to mind.
What else are you doing in early September?
Can you not get behind perhaps the most important quarterback Arkansas has had in generations?
Hogs fans like to brag about loyalty to one school and one school only. And that’s great. Loyalty is fine. It’s not loyalty, though, to ignore a team because they are playing, no offense to WCU and KSU, scrubs.
No one is asking you to breathe fire about the Razorbacks after two games. But, mercy, they’re two spots outside the Top 25 without having had to pull any upset (like in 2021) or any preseason, pre-established ranking (like in 2022). Yet outside of the media rooms, are you finding any fire about this week’s game against a Big 12 opponent? A solid Big 12 opponent, at that.
Sure, the hardcore are there. A team is more than their most ardent fans, though. Or, at least, they better be. What’s most disappointing is that even after Saturday’s outcome – unless it’s a BYU blowout win – is that little will change. A slight bump may come because LSU is the first on Arkansas’ SEC slate, though it’s more likely that it isn’t until after that game that any strong feelings begin to take hold.
This isn’t on Arkansas fans, in particular. It’s more a lament on the state of college football. The consolidation of powerhouse teams in conferences is only going to exacerbate the issue. Few power-conference teams are willing to take a chance early in the year before league play start as their in-league games are set to be so difficult.
Look across the SEC. Twelve of the 14 teams in the conferece – allegedly the best conference in the sport – have played an FCS school already. Two weeks into the season. By season’s end, all 14 teams will have done so. Alabama gets Chattanooga in the penultimate week of the season and Auburn hosts Samford this week.
What good is that? If fan bases are clamoring – and they are more often than not – that simply making a bowl isn’t good enough anymore, that playing in the postseason every year isn’t enough for a coach to keep his job longer than, say, four years, then the FCS games need to go. They especially need to go if the various athletic departments are going to continue to moan about losing money.
So, you know what, nevermind. I get it, fans. I don’t blame you for not caring yet. If your team doesn’t (and, look, the players do; but does the program?), then why should you, indeed.