Arkansas’ season is not lost if the Razorbacks fall in the season opener to Cincinnati on Saturday.
Coach Sam Pittman deserves every game, every down, every opportunity to build the Hogs program back from the ashes he inherited after the Chad Morris disaster in the late 2010s. And he should get it, too, especially after last year’s 9-4 season.
That season has built expectations higher in Fayetteville than they have been since the Bobby Petrino era. But for fans, it’s important to keep things in perspective.
Some prognosticators have Arkansas pegged as a 10-win team. More have them at nine. Eight is also a common number. Few who are around the team on a semi-regular basis are saying seven or fewer. Fans sometimes buy into these predications and up their expectations, accordingly.
Think, though. Would it really be a bad season if Arkansas won seven games?
No. of course not. The Razorbacks are still so close to the debacle pre-Pittman that any winning season should be considered a success. A few years from now it shouldn’t. For now, however, yes.
Arkansas plays in the SEC after all, a league that’s been considered the best in the sport for the better part of the last 15 years, if not even longer than that. Combine that with Arkansas’ still-climbing nature – meaning the Hogs aren’t among the elite just yet – and a nonconference schedule that is among the toughest in the country, too, and seven wins wouldn’t anything to sneeze at.
Cincinnati should be a tough game. The Bearcats are ranked higher than the Hogs in one of the two major polls. They’re coming off a College Football Playoff appearance, too.
If Arkansas were to fall Saturday, it would hurt. It wouldn’t be the world. It would mean the Razorbacks almost certainly aren’t reaching the 10-win threshold, but in the grand scheme of things, that isn’t required to prove Pittman is the best man for the job in the here and now.
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