Arkansas football: Battle Line Rivalry a showdown of SEC's 2 most surprising teams
No one can argue that Arkansas has been the SEC’s biggest surprise this season.
Picked to finish last at the beginning of the year, the Razorbacks (3-5) sit ahead of 4 other teams in the conference. They snapped the worst league losing streak in school history and Sam Pittman is a favorite for SEC Coach of the Year in his inaugural season.
But the Hogs aren’t the conference’s only overachieving team.
Arkansas will face Missouri (4-3) at noon ET on Saturday in the Battle Line Rivalry. The Tigers, who also have a first-year coach in Eliah Drinkwitz, have also taken the conference by storm of late.
Missouri has won 4 of its past 5 games, though admittedly against subpar competition. Lost in Sarah Fuller’s historic performance Saturday was that the Tigers destroyed Vanderbilt 41-0. They are a 3-point favorite over the Hogs at home.
The schools have played 6 times since Missouri joined the SEC in 2012, with the Tigers winners of 5 of those contests. Arkansas’ only win in that span was 2015. This year is as good a chance as they’ll get to snap that 4-game losing streak.
Oddly enough, Arkansas defensive coordinator Barry Odom helped Mizzou build that winning streak. He went 4-0 against the Hogs.
Odom, however, was fired as the Tigers’ coach this past offseason — a day after his final win over Arkansas. He seems to have found a perfect next step in joining Pittman’s staff.
Arkansas leads the SEC in turnovers forced per game with 2.1. The Hogs are also up to the 83rd overall defense from 110th last season. That said, they haven’t looked quite as sharp in recent weeks as they did to start the year.
That could open things up for the offense and freshman quarterback Connor Bazelak.
Bazelak has had a season that is typical for a freshman thus far, with both good and bad outings. He didn’t throw his first touchdown until his 3rd game of the year, when he went for 406 yards and 4 scores against LSU. Since then he has thrown just 1 touchdown, but hasn’t had a game of less than 200 yards.
Larry Rountree III leads the Tigers’ ground game with 650 yards and 8 touchdowns.
This looks like a good spot for the Razorbacks to get back on track defensively. They will be without safety Jalen Catalon for the first half only after he was ejected for targeting late in the Hogs’ most recent game against LSU. Even without Catalon they still boast 2 of the SEC’s top 5 tacklers in Grant Morgan and Bumper Pool.
The key will be whether the Razorbacks can put up points.
The Tigers actually have the better defensive numbers of the teams. They are allowing just 350 yards per game (3rd in the SEC) and 25 points per game (5th). Strength of schedule may have skewed those numbers, however.
Arkansas will also be without starting running back Rakeem Boyd, who left the program Tuesday.
Trelon Smith has served nicely when Boyd has been out so far this season. He will again fill the starting role Saturday. Despite new coordinator Kendal Briles, the Hogs haven’t exactly been explosive on offense.
Their best bet to score will be the passing attack, where Treylon Burks has emerged as a top SEC receiver. He has at least 90 yards in every full game he has played this season and ranks fourth in the conference in receiving yards. Feleipe Franks is 4th in the SEC with 17 TD passes.
Even without Boyd, I like the Razorbacks to win.
Arkansas has been competitive in most games it has played this season, with a couple of its losses coming in the final minutes of the game. Although Missouri has been surging recently, it is against poor competition. Count on Arkansas to snap its losing streak against the Tigers on Saturday.
I am high on the Hogs. Football AND bbq. I’m taking Arky in this one.
I normally root for the east side of the SEC house in these games, but given what Pittman has done in Fayetteville its Woo Pig Sooie for me this year.
omg an East fan taking sides with a west program, I’m holding up and pointing a religious artifact at you right now. Pray with me brother.
Wow, well read and well thought-thru story here Mr. Vessels. Thanks for your summary.
You might want to consider however that Missouri is one of the programs that make LSU look like they are having a comeback. And Kentucky would be 4-5 in the SEC if they had been able to beat Missouri. Also Missouri is one of the very few
teams that is not mathematically eliminated from the SEC Championship (if i’m keeping up with that) so every player on the Missouri roster is keenly aware of that.
I never predict winners, but I’m still listening for a legit reason why someone else would pick against Missouri in this game. I just think you’re spending too much time at a certain sport’s bar in Texarkana, while Columbia bar-b-q will cleanse your soul, lol.
How is Mizzou mathmatically still in? UF has 3 game lead with head to head win over Mizzou with 2 games to play.
Actually, Mizzou has 3 games to play. Arky, UGA, and MSU.
So you’re saying there’s a chance…
No. I’m just saying there’s three games left.
Florida has the head to head so, they’re eliminated because of that if I’m counting right now
While going from 110th to 83rd in Defense is a good, still not great. They just lost Boyd, haven’t played great the last few games and are catching a Mizzou team with a lot of confidence. Arky keeps it close, until odoms defense makes a mistake. Mizzou 34 Pigs 24
Really looking forward to this one. I’m worried because one thing Odom defenses can do is usually stop the run. Mizzou usually must have Roundtree active and successful to win.I think a key to a Mizzou win would be misdirection. I’m concerned because I don’t know which receiving core will show up and with our inability of late to throw down field I see potential problems. Should be a great game, Mizzou defense needs to win this one.
Looks like you guys really spread it around to a lot of receivers, I def see you putting up yards the way we play defense, scoring who knows.
This is going to be a good one, Hogs had 5 starters out on defense against lsu and still almost beat them, all should be back for this game besides Catelon. I hope we have a good clean officiated game with no injuries. Hogs all the way baby!
If Franks has a good day it will be tough for Mizzou to win. He can be a game changer.
On the other hand, Missouri has had goo success against Franks as QB in the past.
1hogg… Yes Hogs were missing key D-Lineman Eric Gregory, Zach Williams and Isaiah Nichols, as well as backups Julius Coates, Dorian Gerald and Xavier Kelly along with O-Lineman Noah Gatlin and Beaux Limmer. Other players were David Porter, Deon Edwards, Simeon Blair and Khari Johnson. Hard to make that up. We don’t have that kind of depth.
Is Jalen Catalon still out for the first half after the COVID postponement?
Yes, he’ll be serving a first half suspension vs Mizzou for the bogus targeting call against LSU. Definitely hurts…that and Boyd opting out now too.
I’m not on the dis-train that modern sports writers are slaves to. Here’s how it works: About January football sports-writers run out of Christmas left-overs and start needing to scribble stuff on their new big-chief tablets with their new Crayola Colors. Enter the realm of the “make-believe”. To get there one has to pretend about things that just don’t exist and ignore all the stuff they don’t have the brains to make interesting. Sports-writers can’t make themselves say things like “we can’t know”. Knowing who the defending Champs were isn’t enough for them, so they blow even the homework assignment on that: Dear sportswriter what will LSU do next year? ans.: They will be the 4th best team in the NCAA. But wait, aren’t they losing 30 players ? ans.: shut up there’s a lottery ticket i need to run out and buy right now.