Let’s not call the honeymoon over just yet, but Arkansas and head coach Sam Pittman need to put a few more victories on the ledger before the 2021 season draws to a close. At least that’s where expectations have elevated since Pittman took over in 2020.

Yes, the Hogs are competitive and we haven’t been able to say that for several years now. Back-to-back 2-win campaigns with Chad Morris after the Bret Bielema tenure came to a screeching halt, ending in descending numbers of victories 8, 7 and 4 over his final 3 seasons, left Arkansas fans at a low point.

So maybe that’s enough in 2021. Maybe just fielding a team that fans can be proud of and hopeful of positive happenings on the gridiron is an acceptable starting point. After all, going from being blown out in more games than any Arkansas fan cares to remember, to now being a team that can hang with just about any other in the country is where the Hogs have risen to in a relatively short period of time.

I mean, Pittman has done what only one other coach before him has in program history. He’s 1 of just 14 SEC head coaches in history to take over a team with a losing record and lead it to a top 10 ranking in the AP Poll within their first 2 seasons at the helm. At Arkansas, only Pittman and Houston Nutt (1998) have accomplished the feat.

On top of that, the Razorbacks are playing exciting football, scoring points like few others. And as the saying goes, offense sells tickets. They scored 51 points at Ole Miss in spite of a 1-point loss. That included a school-record 39 first downs, most in an SEC game since Missouri piled up 41 against Tennessee in 2016. The Hogs totaled 676 yards of offense against the Rebels, 4th-most in a single game in school history and most ever in an SEC game.

They have one of the better quarterbacks in the conference in KJ Jefferson, and he’s only a sophomore. In that Ole Miss game, he accounted for 6 touchdowns (3 passing, 3 rushing) the 2nd-most in a single game in school history.

Wide receiver Treylon Burks is another key cog in Arkansas’ explosive offense that piled up another 460 total yards on Saturday against Auburn. The junior is 1 of 4 FBS receivers who has caught a pass in every game (minimum 20 games) he’s played.

Burks caught 2 TD passes Saturday and has 5 for the season. He had 9 receptions for 109 yards, the 6th 100-yard game of his career.

And the Razorbacks were ranked for 5 consecutive weeks, though, at 4-3, that likely will end. Still, that 5-week streak is the first time that’s happened at Arkansas since the final 3 weeks of the 2011 season and first 2 weeks of the 2012 season.

All that is certainly good, but after the 38-21 loss to Auburn, the Razorbacks’ losing streak has reached 3 games. And with each week, the 4-0 start that included victories over Texas and Texas A&M is becoming a distant memory.

Granted, those 4 early wins topped the most wins in an entire season since 2017. But now, it’s trending the other way. Consecutive losses to Georgia, Ole Miss and now Auburn, have slammed the breaks on the program’s race toward national prominence.

No, the honeymoon is not over. Pittman is still very much the beloved head coach who brought the program back to respectability. But as the second half of the season continues to unfold, there needs to be more positive results and not just the exciting moments that we have seen the last two Saturdays. Four wins are nice, but a first bowl appearance since 2016 is now the expectation for this pivotal season.