As we move into the regular season's final act, it's clear that Arkansas is peaking at a good time. Although we shouldn't get too excited by the win over UTEP - the Hogs were almost surely going to win that game no matter what - the manner in which they did it was most impressive.
Rather than suffering a post-South Carolina/pre-Mississippi State letdown and turning in a sloppy performance, the Razorbacks dispatched the Miners with ruthless efficiency. UTEP is almost certainly a better team than Tennessee Tech or Louisiana-Monroe, but the Hogs looked much better on Saturday night than in either of those two early games.
The biggest factor in this November surge is, of course, the emergence of Knile Davis and the running game. Suddenly the "why oh why can't we run the ball at least a little bit???'" laments that were so common in September feel like they're from some distant past era. Instead of giving up leads in the second half, the Razorbacks are now putting games away. It's good to see.
In fact, I'll make the bold and completely unprovable statement (that's the best kind, right?) that if the Hogs were to restart the season playing the way they are now then a) they would have beaten Alabama and b) they would have at the very least made things harder on Auburn...at worst, they'd be 9-1. That's all totally meaningless at this point, but it does indicate to me that the Razorbacks are probably ranked too low at #13. I don't think there's any team they couldn't compete with (side note: I saw the Cal-Oregon game in person on Saturday and wasn't blown away by the Ducks), and do think they could solidly beat several of the teams ranked higher.
So, that's a lot of words to say that, basically, I feel really good about where the Razorbacks are now and where they're going. What do you think will happen over the next two weeks?