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After a long and tumultuous offseason, we were finally treated to the first week of college football. Don’t look now, but it’s damn near time for week two.
The Razorbacks waltzed into the game last week amid excitement and uncertainty throughout the fan base. Four quarters of football later, we like our quarterback, we like our offensive line, and we like our running backs, a lot.
The jury may still be out on the defense, but with 2 games remaining before the Hogs take on a BCS-level team, there is time to improve.
Which brings us back to this week where Bret Bielema will lead the Razorbacks to Little Rock to take on Samford of the FCS.
Don’t expect any major history to be made tomorrow, but the Little Rock debut should be a big moment in Bielema’s career. There’s some magic in War Memorial (2012 notwithstanding), and it’s only a matter of time before Bielema taps into it.
The Little Rock crowd can expect to see some fireworks from the newcomers this week; look for Samford’s rushing yards allowed average to inflate after allowing only 79 yards on the ground against new FBS school Georgia State. The Bulldogs also gave up 391 yards through the air. In all, I’d expect 2.5 quarters from the starters this week.
Arkansas should come out and do what any SEC team should do to an FCS team; they should be dominant. Now, establishing dominance is still something that’ll be new to Arkansas fans after last season, so we all need to remind ourselves that the hard part hasn’t started yet. Take away positives from the game but remember: it’s going to get much, much harder.
All the excitement generated from last week’s victory is well justified. Just last year Arkansas lost to a U-Lala caliber team, and to beat a team of that standard as handily as we did is promising. It means we’re at least back to par with even the mediocre SEC teams, right? Beating inferior teams is what the Hogs are supposed to do and it’s what should be expected up until the conference schedule opens.
That means you too, Rutgers.
Kickoff is at 6:00 PM CT tomorrow at War Memorial Stadium.