May 21, 2013

Mississippi State 45, Arkansas 14

November 17, 2012 by

ESPN.com: Russell tosses 4 TDs, Miss. St. routs Arkansas

Tyler Russell threw for 274 yards and four touchdowns to lead Mississippi State to a 45-14 victory over Arkansas on Saturday.

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Filed Under: Arkansas Razorbacks, Football, Recap Tagged With:
  • HungryHog

    The Good: I realized today that Jeff Long is a genius. When ESPN was showing the Johnny Football love fest during halftime I realized that I didn’t even recognize the highlights were against the Hogs because of those hideous white helmets.

    Long knew this season was going to be a bust and every opponent would feature an SEC offensive player of the week, but in his trickery, we don’t look like Razorbacks, so others around the country will think those teams just beat up on Utah State.

    Jeff Long 1, the World 0.

    • Defense Wins Championships

      Could be true of those helmets. I sure do not recognize them with those helmets! It has been an interesting season and will continue to be so as it continues to play out. I am wondering if the two seasoned coaches are just using Arkansas as a prod to get better terms where they are. There are lots of possibilities across the country who may want to try the SEC. Time will tell. There always are a lot of openings in college football as the seasons wind down, i.e. TN, Cal and perhaps AU (but I hope not for they are weaker). It is still a daunting task to win in the SEC western division but knowing how things turn around, that may not last. It could be the Eastern division’s time to shine. And with the right coach, it could be Arkansas’ time. Fans are so hard to please nowadays unless every game is won. Remember when fans were saying just beat SMU? That did not last long! Basketball may take some of the pressure off the new coach, according to how that turns out.

      I look for USC to upset Notre Dame but on the other hand, the Irish’s play is very solid.

      • Hawgfan100

        I doubt USC can pull it off without Barkley. Word is the Trojans will start a freshman in his place.

        Manti Te’o & Co. must be beside themselves.

  • JimDoggg

    During the game one of the announcers mentioned that Russell may have been “tipping” off running plays by his foot placement under center. I hypothesize that the Hogs have been “tipping off” (In poker it’s called a tell) to its opponents. It would explain why Arkansas gets off quick and then sputters out. The tells have been picked up. How else explain the strange progress of a Razorback game? I always felt that Nutt’s problem was his predictability. Maybe that’s what’s going on here too. I will give that some of the Hogs played hard, but it wasn;t good enough to be competitive. Well, now Razorbloggers can start to discuss the next potential coach and what they might bring to the table (no gratuitous platitudes, please).

    The pain is long gone so I can laugh again. This morning I awoke to find that Stanford had beaten Oregon. I went to bed early when Oregon went ahead figuring that the Ducks were methodically on their way after an excellent Cardinal start. I already knew that Kansas State had been beaten. The reason I’m laughing so hard was that at the halftime of the UCLA-USC game the PAC 12 talking heads, especially the ex-Oregon QB Terry whatshisname, had totally written off the SEC in the national title game. It was, to them, going to be two of the following: Oregon, KSU, and ND. Poor Bama or Georgia. Now their world (and the sportswriters) world has been turned upside down. If Georgia beats Tech then it’s axiomatic. It’s SEC vs ND (unless USC upsets the Irish – then it’s SEC vs whoever). It’s still possible that if Tech beats the Dogs and then GA beats Bama, the SEC could get shutout. At this point that’s improbable. But so was yesterday’s games. Anyway, at this point, Hah, Hah, Hah, SEC haters.

    • Roadhog

      JimDoggg, you may be right that Wilson has been telegraphing his plays. But the classic explanation for the trajectory of Hogs games is poor conditioning. Keith Jackson commented that he was impressed with the way PP moved Cobi around to disguise plays.

      I won my stylish RBN T-shirt describing a storyline that goes back to the LSU game last year. Hogs start strong thru the first quarter, then commit a turnover or penalty that stops a drive midway thru the second quarter, then the wheels start coming off one at a time. Discipline deteriorates, confidence crumbles, mistakes and penalties mount. Add poor coaching and, presto, Hogs 2012. I would even offer that the rash of injuries the team sustained had much to do with the lack of conditioning. On top of all that, I think the team’s problems led to loss of chemistry on the coaching staff as well as among players. Knile Davis could never get it going and Dennis Johnson was under-utilized. Tyler Wilson’s performance diminished by the week. But the biggest failure was JLSmith. This guy should not be the head coach of anything resembling organized football. I hope the coaches are all off campus by the end of this year. Cant wait for this season to end. Five days, man!

    • Hawgfan100

      Are you the same guy who used to tell this board that Div. I football would never have a playoff? Your name sure does look familiar.

      • Jim Doggg

        Hawgfan, I said yes and no. What I said was that Div. 1 would never have a playoff with the Div 1 setup the way it was. If you go back you will see that I said that with the number of teams in Div 1 that they would have to have 8 super conferences with 12 teams each eliminating about twenty some teams from Div 1 playoff consideration., which realistically is much the way it is now. I still hold to that opinion and the conference expansions indicate that is the way it’s going. Each of the major conferences is jockying to get the best deal. Right now if the proposed 4 team playoff were held and the BCS standings hold then it’s possible, if Stanford and ND loses, then 3 of the 4 playoff teams would be from the SEC. I guarantee that the other major conferences would have a fit. Remember, those of you who hate the BCS that something will have to be used to determine which of the four teams will compete. It’s all about money and these conferences are in a Darwinian struggle for survival. The SEC and the Big 12 are PO’d that the PAC 12 and Big Ten nailed down a Rose Bowl committment which assured each conference of a BCS bowl. so they retaliated. That with Texas having it’s own network (and if ND continues its success, it too will go back to having a network) has turned college football upside down. This 4 team payoff is too restrictive and I predict that it will change after the first year to an expanded playoff, The Biggies (along with the TV networks will dictate the terms and the other teams can lay down and go with or drop to Div 1A or whatever it is now. But I appreciate you remembering my comments. I stick by my belief that superconferences are the future and then a successful playoff system will occur. This 4 team thing is an interregnum and playoffs are a work in progress,

        • Hawgfan100

          “Remember, those of you who hate the BCS that something will have to be used to determine which of the four teams will compete.”

          Sure but I’d rather go the Selection Committee route this time around. No bogus polls (especially pre-season) and non-transparent computer algorithms to muck things up.

          “This 4 team payoff is too restrictive and I predict that it will change after the first year to an expanded playoff,…”

          Perhaps. I hope so but, since deciding for a playoff, ‘The Biggies’ seem to be wanting to drag their feet as much as they did before the playoff.

          Having the current format locked in for 12 years wasn’t too reassuring. Here’s to hoping the response (and the resulting cash flow) is too impressive to ignore and the format gets ‘tweaked’ accordingly.

          • JimDoggg

            Hawg: Maryland and Rutgers have just joined the Big Ten (14?). I said that superconferences are the future. Kornheiser of ESPN just said the same thing. There is talk of ND going to the ACC (?). The Big East is collapsing and the question is who’s going to the Big 12? The dominoes are falling and I predict that an 8 game playoff will be in the works well before the 12 years is up. I believe one of the scenarios I previously mentioned was 6 leagues with 16 teams and an 8 game playoff. It’s getting there but now I’m more inclined to think that 6 leagues may be the end result. One of the worries of the NCAA is the possibility of a revolt among the lesser leagues (MAC, Sunbelt, even the Big East) to form a separate college athletic association if there is no mobility to move into a championship bracket. At the moment the glue for the NCAA is basketball and it’s tournement. Oh, just watched R. Clarke throw up a game winning 3 pointer that beat Marquette. Looks like Rotnei is at home at Butler.

          • Hawgfan100

            ND is already in the ACC for everything but football and hockey, and may stay that way if they can successfully negotiate their own network.

            12 years is a long time. I’d say there will be more than eight teams in by that time but with the flux going on, its difficult to in the extreme to go any further out on that limb right now.

            Super conferences won’t bother me too much, should they come to pass.

          • JimDoggg

            Kornheiser implied that ND might switch to the Big Ten. If so then either Pitt or Syracuse, one or the other, might go as a mate for two 8 team divisions. For ND to abandon it’s traditional Big Ten rivals for the ACC buggers the imagination. Never can tell. You’ve made an inadvertant point, ND will go where it will make the most money, and like the Big 12 and Texas, if ND can have its own network, then traditional rivalries are out the window. Also, ND might be thinking that the ACC would be easier to win than the Big Ten, providing the divisions sets are favorable. I’m thinking that the PAC 12 and Big Ten will have more interconference game between the two and the SEC and Big 12 may go the same route. Sets up potential conference champions in the Rose and Sugar Bowls. End result: 4 conferences playing for the National Title. Should be fun unless you are in a conference other than those 4.

          • Hawgfan100

            It was an advertent point. I’ve grown increasingly cynical where money is concerned in college sports, especially football, to the point that now I wonder if academics and school spirit were ever really anything more than window-dressing.

            I checked ND’s schedules through 2015. She retains many of her traditional opponents but also leaves increasing numbers of spots open going forward (ie 2 in 2013, 3 in 2014, 4 in 2015–notably Michigan is absent on the 2015 schedule–could be added in later of course but…). I believe those spots will be filled with ACC schools more and more going forward.

            I still don’t see ND giving up the advantage of being Independent, especially as pertains to the Playoff (I expect some sort of special dispensation to be made for the ‘Independents’ but, as we all know, that’s really just for ND’s benefit).

            A Selection Committee would be able to circumvent the ’4 conferences’ scenario, depending on what criteria is established for selection. I hope they set it up right; one of the main reasons I supported having a playoff in the Great Playoff Debate was for fairness and equal opportunity.

  • Hawgfan100

    Seeing as this thread is going to be about the Miss St game in name only, I’ll continue the trend.

    I see that Dooley has been given his walking papers at Tennessee. Expected but not welcome. Long now has a lot of competition for our new coach (and should have more: cheesedip at auburn could easily be gone soon as well). This as many Hog ‘fans’ are taking any and all opportunities to skewer him.

    I wouldn’t have Long’s job for any amount of money. He and the new coach will have my unreserved support going forward, no matter what the mob says.

    A final note: thanks to razorbloggers for remaining a place where Hog fans can go to read and post about their team without paying for the privilege.

    • http://www.razorbloggers.net/ TipsterHog

      You’re welcome, Hawgfan100. Thanks for hanging out here with us. The next few weeks should be interesting and a defining moment in Long’s tenure as AD.