In case you need any extra help getting fired up, we’ll be providing a handy pre-game cheat sheet detailing why you should hate each one of the Razorbacks’ opponents this fall. Some weeks will be easier than others…
1. They Can Make a Bad Season That Much Worse. At the beginning of the year, this game was viewed by many Arkansas fans as a sure win, a rout on the way to the Hogs being a serious national factor. Now, it’s a face-off between two teams that are winless in the conference, a battle to avoid staying at the bottom of the SEC West for at least another week. A loss to Ole Miss — a real possibility — would blow wide open the dispiriting gap between pre-season expectations and in-season reality. We'll take a win any way we can get it - even if it takes seven overtimes.
2. Enough Already of the Mannings. Two members of the Greatest Football Family Ever were star quarterbacks for Ole Miss. Archie Manning played for the Rebels in the late 60s and early 70s; his son Eli did so more than 30 years later. To be truthful, we don’t the Mannings particularly unlikable (and several of Peyton’s recent TV ads are outright funny), but we’re kind of sick of hearing about the whole clan. Perhaps we’re just jealous.
3. Unhappy New Year. Speaking of Archie Manning, he and his Rebels defeated the Hogs 27-22 in the 1970 Sugar Bowl. The loss came several weeks after then-No. 2 Arkansas lost a 15-14 heartbreaker to No. 1 Texas in a regular season finale that was billed as the "Game of the Century." After watching their national championship hopes slip away, the Hogs were looking to at least end the season on a positive note. Archie and Co. denied them that chance. The nerve. Ole Miss also defeated Arkansas by a score of 17-13 in the 1963 Sugar Bowl, so the Rebels have a not-insignificant role in a subject we never tire of making smart-ass remarks about: the Hogs' miserable bowl history.
4. Coach Orgeron - Apparently Not Such a Nice Guy. For those going to Saturday's game and sitting near the Ole Miss sideline, we recommend that you don't make Ole Miss Coach Ed Orgeron mad at you. About 15 years ago, a Dade County, Fla., court ordered Orgeron, then an assistant at Miami, to stay away from the home and workplace of a woman who accused him of repeated domestic violence. In 1992, he was charged in an incident in which he allegedly head-butted the manager of a Baton Rouge, La., nightclub. According to the Associated Press, the manager later dropped the charges and reached an out-of-court settlement with Orgeron.
5. They've Pretty Much Kicked Our Butts in Basketball Recently. Since the start of the 1996-1997 season, the basketball Hogs have a 7-15 record against the Rebels. And to rub salt in our wounds, Ole Miss has often clobbered the Razorbacks with the help of players who are natives of the Natural State. Perhaps Hog assistant Rob Evans, who was head coach at Ole Miss from 1992 to 1998, can spill the Rebels' secrets to new coach John Pelphrey and help him restore order to the universe.