[00:00:00] Speaker A: You know, I was having a discussion with somebody earlier this week about the difference between baseball and football.
And baseball, you know, you lose a game and you get to come back the next day and play again. And, you know, you get to, you don't have to sleep on it for six nights or however many nights there are no bye weeks, nothing like that. Football it is. You lose a game and then you spend six or seven days talking ad nauseam and dissecting every single little bit of what happened.
And I say all that to say I'm glad I missed all of that after the Georgia game. This is my first time to host a podcast this week. I've been out of state all week, but Arkansas are going to play Tulsa Tomorrow at 7 o' clock at Razorback Stadium. We'll get into it today. Ethan Westerman here in studio with me, I want to tell you that we're brought to you by Eglin's Best In Arkansas. Greatness starts early. Before the pads go on, before the crowd roars. The day begins at the breakfast table. Eglins Best deliver superior nutrition with with more vitamin D and less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. You can start strong with egglins. Best better taste, better nutrition and better eggs. We're also brought to you by Bentonville Glass. They've been serving their community since 1971. They're committed, professional and versatile. If you're looking for a quality leader in northwest Arkansas or for skilled craftsmanship, look no further than Bentonville Glass. For all your glass market needs with the highest quality products in combined, see I'm at 507 South Main and Bentonville or
[email protected] thank you to Christina Long and Chip Souza for filling in this week on the podcast. You can go back and listen to any of our episodes on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Search Whole Hog Sports. We also have our video on our Whole Hog Sports YouTube page that includes a Q and a with Brandon Marcelo yesterday at the Hogs Illustrated Sports Club that was conducted by Christina, Arkansas and Tulsa, like we said, seven o' clock tomorrow night. As of the last time I checked, Arkansas is a 7 1/2 point favorite in this game.
I was in Tulsa on Monday. I went there for Trey Lamb's press conference.
Thought it was kind of interesting to, you know, hear him. I do feel, I want to say this. I feel like what he said has been misrepresented a little bit. Like there's a, there's a clip or two that are going around, you know, saying that, you know, he's cocky and he's this. And I didn't get that feeling at all being in that room. I thought he was very complimentary of Arkansas. I thought he was very respectful of the program.
I thought that, you know, he gave a very measured take on where Arkansas is right now. They played Utah and they played Georgia, and those are two really good teams, maybe two playoff teams. You know, in his words. He said he thinks Utah is going to compete to win the Big 12.
And, you know, Georgia is Georgia. And so, you know, obviously Arkansas's not playing well. And I don't think that, you know, and I'm. I don't want anybody to get the sense that I'm trying to excuse how Arkansas played, but they played two really good teams. And I still think there are some games down the road, probably what I would call maybe sort of kind of games for Arkansas, like maybe they win if things sort of kind of go their way. I think they could beat Vanderbilt. I think they could beat maybe Auburn. I think they could maybe beat South Carolina. I think they could lose all those teams, too. But I do think that, you know, if things break their way, maybe they can be competitive in those games. I don't. I. Ethan, I really don't think that with Arkansas we're going to see week after week after week of them losing by 28 points, 33 points, you know, whatever that case might be.
I don't know that they're a good team. I certainly wouldn't make that argument right now. But I think that a lot of the perception that we have of Arkansas right now is based on how front loaded their schedule is with what I think are two really good teams. And I came out of last week with the thought that I think that they played out of their four toughest games.
Two of them are on the front end and two of them are on the back end. I think that when we look back at this schedule this year, we'll say the four best teams that they played were Georgia, Utah, LSU and Texas. You got about six or seven weeks here to try to make up for what we've seen the last couple of weeks and try to prepare for what you're going to see the last couple of weeks with Texas and lsu.
That's kind of where I stand with Arkansas right now.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if Tulsa comes in here and makes a competitive game tomorrow. In fact, I kind of think that they will. I think this is going to be a game that probably comes down to the second half and Arkansas is going to have to have some quarterbacks who make some plays and I think Arkansas is going to have to have a run game that has been absent so far.
They're going to have to step up and be able to produce against the team that's not as physical up front as the last two they played.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I made this comment Monday on the show, actually, that I, I'm not predicting that Ryan Silverfield's tenure will go like how Bobby Petrino's did where you just get pretty good, you know, a few years into it. But I do, it's a lot harder
[00:04:41] Speaker A: to do that now than it was in 2008 for sure.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: And I do think also that the situation that Ryan Silverfield inherited, everybody wants to say, like you can fix things so quickly in college football today. But whenever you have, you know, like reports that came out this week about how they're still at the bottom of the sec, at least for this year's roster construction, like it's pretty hard to have that drastic of a turnaround in year one. But I do think that it could maybe follow a similar blueprint to Bobby Petrino's first year where if you think about that year they played within the first like five or six games, top 15 teams with Alabama, Texas, Florida got absolutely dog walked by all of them. And they were very much just like this year, they struggled against lesser competition at the start. They barely beat Western Illinois, they barely beat Louisiana.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: Monroe should have lost to Ulm.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And by the, but by the end of the year that team had grown a lot. And I think that that's for year one of Ryan Silverfield. If we're just taking where this team is at right now, like you said, not excusing how they've played, people should rightfully be frustrated with how things have looked. But I think that if you're the type of fan that wants to, you know, hang on and watch this team throughout the rest of the year, probably a good, you know, year one at this point based on what we've seen, the sample size that we do have would be maybe taking a similar form to that first year of Bobby Petrino where by the end of the year it was a much better team. Like you can't deny that with them winning at Auburn that year, that was a ranked Auburn team. They beat a ranked Tulsa team that year by a touchdown in Fayetteville and then they beat LSU in the rivalry game. Obviously that wasn't like a, a great LSU team, but it was still like the results that they had toward the end of the year showed progress from Game one and it gave you a vision, I think going into the next year. I think that that's probably kind of where we're at with Ryan Silverfield's first team that you just, if you're, like I said, the type of fan that is not going to stop watching this team and going to keep, you know, you know, I guess holding onto the rope as a fan, you just want to see growth. And it starts this week. And this is the type of game that certainly you don't want to lose this to a team that comes from a lesser conference and it's a good Tulsa team, but it's the type of game that I think that if you are going to start seeing more progress, you probably need to, you need to win this one.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: Tulsa's a little bit wounded as of Monday and I haven't heard of an update since then. Their start, their, their top quarterback, Baylor Hayes, was doubtful for the game. That's what Trey Lamb said on Monday. He's dealing with a sprained knee and so it looks like they're going to start Dexter Williams, who's like this journeyman quarterback. He's a fifth year player who, he's been to Indiana, he's been at Georgia Southern, he's been at Kennesaw State. Now he's in his first year at Tulsa. They say he can run pretty well. They didn't ask him to run last week when they played at East Texas A and M. Lamb said part of that was that they did like, I mean, they're down a quarterback already and they don't want to be playing their third string quarterback. But he said he thinks Williams is going to have to run some, you know, order to have success against Arkansas. On the flip side, Arkansas, K.J. jackson's listed as a starter on the depth chart. But you listen to Silverfield's comments earlier this week. It certainly didn't sound like they think that he's just going to automatically start. It sounded like it was going to be a competition this week in practice between Jackson and Hill. I think anybody who's watched the last two weeks probably would come away with a similar observation that I'll make here, which is that I think Hill kind of outplayed KJ Jackson at Utah.
KJ played a pretty good first quarter, was really bad in the second and the third. Hill came in against backups and, you know, had a good drive against Georgia. I think KJ Outplayed AJ and again fourth quarter against backups. KJ Led a couple of touchdown drives. They got to have somebody step in there as a quarterback, though. He's going to lead touchdown drives against the starting defense. We haven't seen that happening since the North Alabama game and I think that's a big concern for Arkansas. We sat here in February, Ethan, and we said quarterback is a big concern for Arkansas. The fact that they did not go out and spend the money that they needed to to get a proven quarterback for this football team. And unfortunately that's what's playing out right now. And you know, it doesn't mean that they can't get better, but they got to have KJ or AJ Whoever, you know, whoever's going to take. They got to have somebody take the reins and play better at the quarterback position or this season's not going to have that type of growth. Like you mentioned, if you continue to get the same kind of play at quarterback that Arkansas's gotten the last two weeks, that's how you end up with a 2 and 10 football team. I know they were 2 and 10 last year and they had Taylor Green and we've talked about him in the past. You know, he could move the, he could move the ball down the field. That wasn't their problem last year.
This year, I don't know that the defense is a ton improved over they were last year. I've got some numbers here that I want to use to back that up in just a second. And so you've got to have a quarterback that leads it. I think that's what we're seeing right now. And I think that's why the angst among people is so high right now is because last year at this time they were losing, but they were in the game until the fourth quarter. Now the last couple of weeks they weren't even in the game at halftime. And I think a large degree of that is because they've got a quarterback who's not moving the ball down the field.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think that if you get to the end of the year and you can.
That's the thing. I don't think fans. You watched last year and of course they kept you watching the game because of how close it was. I think fans would take getting dog walked. I think early this year, if this team can turn around and start winning more games than they did last year, by the end, like at the end of the day, a loss is a loss is a loss. And I think that if they can get improved quarterback play and just get the type of quarterback play that by the End of the year you can maybe win a few of these kind of what you call them, maybe sort of whatever. Maybe kind of, sort of, maybe kind of sort of games if you can increase your win total.
I, I don't think like fans, a loss is a loss to them. So I just think that while we're seeing early on just some really poor performances, I don't think that's to say that the, you know, a K.J. jackson can't by the end of the year be a much better quarterback. I thought that he took steps in the right direction against Georgia. I thought it was his best game yet, which isn't saying a whole lot, but I thought that he showed some signs of improvement. I think this is a big time week for him because at some point you can't just, in my opinion with this quarterback situation with him and A.J. hill, I don't think you can just keep having to alternate. I think that you need to at some point. There's not been like a drastic improvement with A.J. hill in the game that we've just been able to see and you're like that's going to change.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: I do feel like he's a little bit more confident throwing the ball down the field. Like I think he will stand in the pocket for that extra second that it takes a receiver to get open downfield. Remember the first throw he made against Georgia last week? He stood up tall in the pocket, threw it downfield and they had a
[00:11:30] Speaker B: pretty good, you know, then he'll take a.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: But it's not consistent.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: Yeah, then he'll take us. I just don't think that we've seen the product on the field with the offense that you just know that A.J. hill is so much that he's doing anything better than K.J. jackson. I think we have seen things from K.J. jackson that look pretty good. Like I thought against Georgia he started to actually be confident in the pocket and make some big time throws. But I just think you reach a point with this team where you just ride it out with K.J. jackson you just say the only way to get better is we got to grow through some of this stuff together.
I don't think that you've seen enough from AJ Hill to where you make that hard switch to somebody else and hope it works. And then maybe by week eight you're having to switch back to KJ Jackson. Just stick with something, just stick with somebody is my opinion.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Even if it's AJ Hill, stick with them. Yeah, like there's that old saying that sayings don't stick around for a long time unless there's an element of truth to them.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: And the old saying that if you got two quarterbacks, you don't have one.
There's some truth to that. And I think that if you continue to rotate back and forth between these quarterbacks, you're setting your offense up for. For not being successful.
[00:12:38] Speaker B: And I think that. So here's something I've thought. On the off season preseason, they preached how the quarterback that doesn't make mistakes is going to win the job. They need the guy who's not going to put the ball in danger, who's not going to turn it over. K.J. jackson has done some of that. A.J. hill's not turned it over yet, but he's done some bad things with taking sacks and he's put it in danger a few times. I mean, even his touchdown pass at Utah was a deflection. Kind of could have been picked. Yeah. But it's.
I think that if you start rotating quarterbacks like that that much, you actually might get them into a mindset of constantly thinking about messing up because they want the job and there's no room to mess up because. And it's at that point a big mental game for a quarterback. I think you just ride it out with K.J. jackson. You let him make some mistakes, but you try and let him grow. If it reaches a point where you're just like, this is clearly not working, like, we have to go another route because he is making so many mistakes, I think you do that. But at this stage of the year, at least, I don't think we've seen enough difference between the two quarterbacks to where you really feel like continuing to make changes is going to. Is really going to fix anything. But, I mean, I think, fans, some of the frustration is why didn't you do something different at quarterback in the off season? Why didn't you go in the portal and get a guy who's more established out of the portal? And I think that's a fair concern. But I mean, at this point, if we're just talking about this season and moving forward, like you have who you have, and I think the best route with who you have is to stick K.J. jackson in there and ride it out.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: Okay, so I'm excited after this weekend's games, efficiency rankings are going to go on the board for the first time this year. If you've never, if you, if you haven't been with us in the past years and know what the efficiency rankings are basically It's a.
It's a bunch of data that I pull from these different games that shows how often a team scores and how often they let team scores. And it's a pretty good predictor of who's going to win games. And I think it gives us a really good reflection at the end of the year of who the best teams are in the conference. And we wait till about late September, early October to do this every year because you got to have some data in order to put this together. But we're getting close.
After this weekend, everybody will have played multiple games against what I consider to be qualifying teams for these. Like, I'm not going to put Arkansas's numbers against North Alabama into this. I'm just not going to because that's too big of a talent gap. But Arkansas right now, I want to make this point. Through two games, they have given up defensively 43 points and 10 possessions to Utah. And that was with Utah taking their foot off the gas a little bit at the end. And then they gave up 45 points in nine possessions against Georgia. That's not very good. Basically, they're giving up about 66% of all points possible right now. You look back to last year, and this is when Arkansas had a really, really, really bad defense. The worst defense that we've ever measured through these efficiency rankings of any team in the SEC.
Last year, their first two games against Power Conference teams, they gave up 41 points in nine possessions to Ole Miss and they gave up 56 points in nine possessions to Notre Dame. It's not as bad as it was last year, but it ain't very much better either. And I think that's a big concern now. Again, I think it's going to. I think it's going to go down a little bit because it's going to be hard for teams.
I don't see 10 teams playing at a level to where they're going to score 66 points or percent of all points possible against Arkansas. But last year they gave up 53% of all points possible throughout the season. You have another year that's even remotely close to that with this offense. I mean, last year's offense, Arkansas scored almost 37 points or percent of all points possible. That was one of the best offenses in the sec, or at least middle of the pack. And, you know, this year. Let me pull up the numbers.
This year they scored 19% of all points possible right now, Ethan. And most of that is due to the fact that they've been able to play teams with their backup defenders in. In the fourth quarter, the defense is going to have to play a ton better for Arkansas to have any success to win down the road.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:51] Speaker A: And I would say it starts this weekend against Tulsa.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think the two go together like anytime you're looking at these ratings. Because if I'm not trying to justify the defensive play this year, it's not been good against Utah, against Georgia, but a few of those possessions in each games were started with short fields because of a turnover or something in your own territory. And then I also think that it wears on a defense when you have an offense that can't keep you in a game. I think last year's defense was so frustrating, especially early in the season because the offense was giving you every chance to win. It was like, you know that the offense is going and scoring with Taylor Green and Mike Washington. And I mean, I think about the Ole Miss game, that's the one that comes to mind where it's like the offense until that fumble, I guess, at the end by Jaylen Brown gave you every chance to win and the defense just couldn't do its job this year. It feels like the defense isn't where it needs to be by any stretch of the imagination. But I think that it wears on it whenever the offense struggles to score points. I think the Utah game, that thing got out of hand in a hurry as soon as which the defense can't be giving in like this. But I think it reached a point where you could tell the offense wasn't going to do much of anything that night. And then all of a sudden the defensive play really just shut down as well. I think the numbers will start to favor the defense. Like you said, it's hard to maintain that type of average over the course of the season. Last year's team found a way to do it, but I think that it will start to. To show that this defense is better than last year's. I'm not saying this is a great defense or anything. I just think last year's was really, really bad. I'm not sure how much better the offense will get this year. It's going to have definitely, I think a worse efficiency rating than last year's offense. But yeah, it's going to come close to approaching.
[00:18:30] Speaker A: We'll ask you to.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Offensively, I don't. It would take just some drastic improvements and the running game would have to get going because until they get a running game, it's going to be really hard, in my opinion. But I think the defense is better this year, but it's not good enough to keep them against a Utah or a Georgia like last year. That team found a way even against teams that on paper were ranked high like that. They found a way to usually stick in those games. Aside from Notre Dame, is there another blow? Texas got out of hand, but other than that, like they found a way to stay in games. I don't think this year has the team to. To really do that. A lot of times just because of how bad the offense has been.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: You gotta get. So Arkansas's got the worst defense in the SEC right now, scoring, right? Yeah, they've. Unfortunately, they've also got the worst offense right now in the sec.
And that's not, that's not a recipe for winning football.
To give you an example, Oklahoma, they've got the second worst offense in the sec.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Oklahoma has the worst yardage one.
[00:19:28] Speaker A: But they've got the best defense. And I'm talking about efficiency rankings here.
Oklahoma's got the best defense right now. That keeps them in games. That's how you're able to beat New Mexico 14 to 6. That's how you can play really bad at Michigan and still have a chance to go down and tie it at the end.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: If one side of the ball is really lacking, you better have a pretty dang good other side of the ball to keep you in games. And last year Arkansas was pretty good offensively. I mean, they went, they fell asleep after halftime a lot of times in SEC play, but the offense was good enough to usually keep them in games. But a 2 and 10 record shows you that it's really hard to overcome unless you have just the best. Like how you said with Oklahoma and their defense right now, the best unit on one side of the ball. It's really hard to overcome severe deficiencies on one side of the ball. Like Oklahoma is actually Arkansas saving grace from a total offense standpoint right now that they're last in the SEC with 300.
[00:20:20] Speaker A: But 35 yards. Yards don't matter to me. It's all about can you get it in the end zone, you can move the ball up and down, which Oklahoma
[00:20:25] Speaker B: hasn't done a great job of doing, right?
[00:20:27] Speaker A: I mean, you can move the ball up and down the field all you want to. If you can't get in the end zone, it really doesn't matter if you're, if you're settling for field goals, it really doesn't matter.
[00:20:33] Speaker B: What I'm trying to say is you can have an Oklahoma type offense right now and if you have an Oklahoma defense, you're going to stick in games. I think that Arkansas doesn't have the defense right now to overcome, not even close to overcome the offensive deficiencies. And I think, I know we'll get into picks later, but like for Oklahoma, when you run into a team like Georgia this weekend that also has a really good defense, it's hard to overcome when you're really lacking on one side of the ball.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: I want to cite a few more of these numbers during the. During the picks later, but Georgia, as you might expect, has the best offense in the league right now, and it's pretty amazing what they're doing offensively. Florida's not far behind them. Florida's been really good offensively, too. But we'll have a better data set after this weekend's games and we'll publish those on our website at.
Excuse me, @wholehawksports.com I feel like the key for Arkansas this week is can they run the football? And we mentioned that earlier. Tulsa, some of this, I think, is a little bit based on who they played so far. But, you know, they're 41st nationally in run defense. Arkansas is terrible in run offense right now.
You know, they couldn't move the ball at all against Georgia up front. And I think when you talk about the offensive line, that's really where the concerns with Arkansas's offensive line lie with me is that I thought they actually held up okay in, in pass protection last week against Georgia. It was not perfect and they gave up some sacks and there were some quarterback hurries in there, too, that, that disrupted the passing game. But like, they look like they can hold their own more in pass protection than they can in the run game. When they were against Georgia last week, the front just folded like an accordion on those run plays. They could not move Georgia off the line of scrimmage at all.
It was pretty much same the week before against Utah. Utah just not as big and physical and, you know, dominant at the line.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: And it was pretty much the same before against North Alabama.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: It was. And that's always, you know, I mean, we talked about this a couple of times. It's always a concern. If you can't move North Alabama off the ball, you're probably not going to move the big SEC defensive lines that you got to play. But that's the key to me for this game against Tulsa. Can Arkansas run the ball better? I was on a podcast over in Tulsa this week and, you know, I talked about this a little bit. I said, you know, even for the teams that Tulsa's played and for the struggles that Arkansas's had up front, I still think Arkansas is going to be the best offensive line that they played to this point in the season. And so I wonder how Tulsa's going to hold up against that. You know, from Arkansas standpoint too. Like to me that's the whole key. If Tulsa shuts down Arkansas in the run game and they force the quarterback to beat them, I think it's going to become a lot more tougher for Arkansas to win this game. If Arkansas can run the ball and they can do some things off play action and they can do some and they can, you know, they can keep the secondary guessing as to what's going to come, then I think that opens things up for them. And I think that, you know, you might see a, like a big pass to Chris Marshall, you know, where it's not one handed down the sideline on a back shoulder catch. Maybe he catches it and run 60 yards. I don't know.
I think that's, to me, that's the whole key to this game. Arkansas's got to be able to run the football against Tulsa not only to have success and win that game, but to give you any type of momentum or confidence, whatever you want to call it, going into games afterward, that they might have any semblance of success in the run game because they're going to have to have that or you know, you're going to have that 2 and 10 type season that everybody fears.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I think one of my the most telling stats from the Georgia game that I noticed on the fly was Gunner Stockton had a 62 yard run against them. And at that very time, if not for a one yard rush by Braylon Russell in that one yard of rushing by Braylon Russell in the first half, if Gunner Stockton was on Arkansas's team, that one run would have made him the team's leading rusher for the season. Yeah, like all it took was one. Like nobody's really run the ball well for Arkansas and that's got to change. Like you cannot make it through this schedule and have 0.5 in the run game. I think they're dead last among power four teams in rushing offense, maybe fourth to last overall in fbs. You just can't have that and expect success. I think last year the SEC across the board, a lot of the historically powerful run offenses, teams that could really run the ball didn't do that well and it ended up hurting them.
Those were teams that had good, other good parts of the team that could make up for it. I think about. LSU had a really good defense last year, even though they had a bad season, but they had zero running game and that offense was really bad.
Alabama couldn't really run the ball last year. Oklahoma couldn't really run the ball. I think that you learn pretty quick that if you can't run the ball, the whole offense is just a dysfunctional unit in the sec. Just because you're going up against fronts that are going to be able to at some point get to the quarterback and take away the pass game too. I think Arkansas's got to, you know, go into this game and it has to show improvements in the run game. It's got a. If you can't do it against Tulsa, like, how are you going to do it against some of these other teams? There's got to be some improvement there. And I don't, I also am at a point with this team where I'm like, I don't really know, I don't know how to say this. The running backs, they have like, is there one that you really feel like you feed and they do anything better than the others? Like, I don't even know who their playmakers are in the run game right now. There's just been not even like really a pulse in that department, I don't know, out of their running backs this year. I can, I can look this up real quick. Like the longest running play is probably like just above like maybe a first down run, like a 10 or 12 yard run. Like there's just not even been any sort of explosive runs. Let's see the longest run by an Arkansas running back this year.
Braylon Russell and Sutton Smith both have a 12 yard rush this year. But like that's your longest run play at this point. There's just been nothing like explosive at all in the run game. It's just been when you're averaging 2.3 yards per rush going into week four, like you've got to show some improvement there.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: And you mentioned Arkansas, the fourth worst rushing offense in the, in the country. Even Hawaii has run for more yards than Arkansas. And Hawaii is a team that they don't run the ball. Yeah, they throw the ball all over the field.
Hawaii's run at 16 times less than Arkansas and they're averaging more runs or more yards per game in the run game. And you mentioned Gunner, Stockton. You know, going back to Dexter Williams earlier, the fact that he has running ability and Stockton did what he did to Arkansas last week I think is a little concerning for the Razorbacks. Now I will say I feel like what Stockton did, they weren't designed runs. Like those were plays where you know he takes off and he makes something happen. I feel like Tulsa is going to be a little bit more designed run with this Dexter Williams and so I wonder how that, how that plays out this weekend.
Just a thought there. So some big games around the SEC this week. Obviously Texas and Tennessee play.
Texas is a four and a half point favorite on the road. You think they'll win?
[00:27:31] Speaker B: I'm going to go with Texas just because I think that, I think they have the more complete team right now. And I also think that getting tested by Ohio State and coming out of that game with a win does a lot for a team psyche just going into your next big game.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Well and they, you know they got the bad game out of their system last week when they played Texas San Antonio and we know Jeff Traylor and we think he's a really good coach but you know, they didn't play great against Texas San Antonio, that was kind of that letdown game that I feel like you get after Ohio State. The fact they beat Ohio State and I know that it wasn't a great game for Texas until the fourth quarter but the fact they won that game, I think that they can go to Tennessee and win it.
Oh, you goes to Georgia. Georgia's a 13 and a half point favorite. It kind of feels like that spread is really low. Yeah, I think with Oklahoma's struggles scoring,
[00:28:18] Speaker B: yeah, I think Georgia is going to win this one pretty big. I just think that Georgia defense is going to absolutely shut down the Oklahoma offense. And then I think Georgia, I know, oh you has a good defense but I think at home, like I mentioned, whenever your, your offense can't really do anything, at some point I think your defense starts to just kind of fold a little bit. I think Oklahoma's defense will keep him in the game for a little bit but I think at some point it'll probably just break open and Georgia will win big.
[00:28:45] Speaker A: It feels like one of those games where oh you is going to have to score defensively or on special teams like Satania. I think he's had a punt return for a touchdown in their first game this year. Like you're going to have to have one or two of those big game breaking type plays to be able to offset I think the disparity between Georgia's offense and your own.
[00:29:01] Speaker B: And I think anytime you go into a game and that like that's the recipe for success, you're not Good. Like you shouldn't need to go into games knowing that you gotta have something crazy go your way.
[00:29:11] Speaker A: It's gonna be on espn. That game's gonna be streamed on Disney plus too, this weekend, which I thought was kind of interesting.
[00:29:16] Speaker B: Yeah, they've had quite a few games early this year. Like three each weekend on Disney plus. So one of my friends who's not really a sports watcher has been like, why can't I watch college football on my Disney plus?
They're the same company.
[00:29:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Ole Miss and Florida. I'm surprised to see Florida's a 3.5-point favorite in this game.
[00:29:32] Speaker B: Well, I think that this is what you alluded to at Texas, the letdown game. I think this is the perfect Scenari scenario for Ole Miss to have a letdown against Florida. I just think, you know, that was like a emotional win on steroids last week for them and they're going to the Swamp and that is going to be a raucous environment there. I mean, I've been, I think I told you this in the summer. I've been a John Sumrall believer for a while now as far as, like, I just think he's a really good coach.
I think Florida's playing well. I think Ole Miss is going to have a hard time. I'm going to pick Florida.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: I think Ole Miss will win. I like Chambliss. I think he's a really good player. He showed me something last week, the way he carried the team. By the way, did you see the video of the Grove on Sunday morning? All the trash. How do you not pick up after yourself?
Explain that to me.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Adult beverages.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: I'm sure they sold like $900,000 in alcohol at that game for Ole Miss, LSU. But the video of the Grove on Sunday morning was just, I thought, despicable.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: Well, I like what you said though, about Chambliss, that he's, he's the type of player that nobody wants to face in a playoff scenario. Like, he's just a game changing type of player.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: Even had LSU scored last week and tied the game with a minute left. In my mind, I'm sitting here thinking, and part of this is because of what Ole Miss did against Louisville in game one. And part of it's what, you know, Chambliss was doing them during that game. The feeling is he's going to lead them down. They're going to field goal and they're going to walk this thing.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: I made this comment to some friends watching the game last week. I said Chambliss reminds me of. He has a little bit of tailing green in him, actually with just to be able to make something out of nothing. I think Kyler Murray is a good comparison to, but without the crucial mistakes. I mean, he doesn't throw interceptions. He threw one last week and it was like his first one. And I don't know how long, I think since he's been at Ole Miss, he's thrown like five picks.
[00:31:15] Speaker A: Some of the passes that he makes too. Like if I'm an NFL evaluator of him, like the. The ability to throw the ball where your receiver's going to be. I think he's really good at that. I saw it a little bit during the Miami game last year that they played in the playoff and I saw it a lot the other night against lsu.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: I think it's funny this time, just about this time last year, we were sitting, we had no idea talking about how he might play against Arkansas. And we were relying on this comment from the Harding coach, Simmons, Paul Simmons, about how whenever he faced him at Ferris State saying, this guy's incredible. And it's just funny to see how this thing has played out. And now Chambliss is a star and it really. His debut was Arkansas.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: Yeah, it's interesting how many.
There's been a few times in the last few years where D2 guys, remember Schrader, the running back at Missouri where D2 guys have come up and they've had a lot of successes in the sec. Vanderbilt's undefeated. By some grace of God. They're undefeated, but they're a nine and a half point dog this week at Auburn. You know, Auburn's going to be mad after what happened against Florida last week. I think Auburn's way better than Vanderbilt.
[00:32:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think that. I think this Auburn defense is really bad.
Like, I think that's going to give opponents chances to win a lot of times this year. But I'm not sold on Vanderbilt in any sort of way. I think Auburn wins this one by a couple touchdowns.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: I think Vanderbilt's 3 and oh is full scold on Vanderbilt.
[00:32:36] Speaker B: I mean, they really should have one loss if North Carolina State didn't overthink how to end a game.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: Auburn I think will win that one. South Carolina goes to Alabama. It feels like Shane Beamer may be on the hottest seat in the SEC at this point.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: Yeah, he's been on the hottest seat since the off season. And then you lose to Mississippi State in a game that felt like really
[00:32:53] Speaker A: they're up 16 to nothing at home.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: Yeah, and it's at home. I think that makes a lot worse. And I think that if you're a Beamer, this is a huge game to like, if you were able to, you could. Sam Pittman versus Tennessee. This with a win here, in my opinion, to where it lasts you a while. If you lose it though, the next weekend, all of a sudden they've got Kentucky coming to town. And that's the type of game that if you lose that, you might have a press release on Sunday. You know, I think this is a big time, you know, opportunity for him, but I don't think they're going to go to Alabama.
[00:33:21] Speaker A: And when Bam is a 12 and a half point favorite at home, it's a 6 o' clock kickoff. So I need to tell Alabama that It's like a 515 kickoff because it seems like their games, they don't really start kicking it into gear until about 45 minutes into it. The fact that they're, they're still undefeated after the way they start against Florida State last week is. It's something then the night Games this week. ABC, Texas A&M goes to LSU.
Both of them trying to, you know, come off a loss. LSU is an 8 1/2 point favorite. And A and M, you just continue to wonder about, you know, like, like the Marcel Reed thing. It is high highs and really low lows and I don't know what they're going to get from him on the road.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: Yeah, and this is for this early in the season, a huge game.
[00:34:02] Speaker A: Whoever loses this is late in the year, like late October or early November.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: But whoever loses this game, your playoff chances are really, really low.
I think that just with the schedule you have in front of you. So I think this is the type of game that Lane Kiffin cannot lose this game.
I don't think he will either. I think they're going to win in Baton Rouge. But this is a game that really neither team can afford to lose this early in the year. I think that this is the type of game that for A and M, I'll be curious to see if they lose this game, do they bounce back this year? Because that's pretty demoralizing to lose to Kentucky last week. And then if you go down to LSU and then Arkansas is their next game after that. And so that'll be a big game for, for Elko.
[00:34:44] Speaker A: Missouri goes to Mississippi State Saturday night. This is like the sneaky good matchup of the weekend. Both of them are ranked right now. Mississippi State number 24. After those back to back road wins over Minnesota and South Carolina, Mississippi State's a six point favorite at home. I know that they're going to be. I know they're going to be jacked up in Starkville for this game after, you know, back to back road wins like they just had. Everybody talking about Camario Taylor. We saw him here last year. I think he's really good.
I wonder if they're not ripe for a letdown.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: I don't think they are. I think that if there's anything we've learned about Missouri over the past few years, they win the games that they're supposed to and they lose the games that they're supposed to and they're not.
[00:35:24] Speaker A: But you think they should lose this game?
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean they're underdogs. I know they're in underdog points on the road. They didn't look very good against Troy last week. I think they won that one like 2717 and it was closer than that for a lot of the game. I don't think this is a very. I think this is a very average Missouri team so far. That's my take on them. And I think that they're going to kind of do what they always do and they're going to, you know, beat Kansas like they're supposed to. They're going to lose a road game at a ranked Mississippi State like they're supposed to.
What's that?
[00:35:50] Speaker A: Missouri's got the second best defense efficiency in the SEC right now.
[00:35:54] Speaker B: With what games?
[00:35:55] Speaker A: Kansas and Troy.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: But in Arkansas, I guess you didn't include.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: No, I didn't include uapb. I might be number one if I included uapb.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and they're facing a Mississippi
[00:36:05] Speaker A: State offense and I know Mississippi State's been really good.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: That Mississippi State offense.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: I think Drinkwitz has got the ability and he's shown this a number of times to keep Missouri in games that most people feel like they have no chance of being in or winning.
[00:36:19] Speaker B: Yeah, they're usually in these games I've got Missouri winning aside from I think a morning game against Texas A and M a couple of years ago where they got wiped off the field. Missouri usually stays in these games and games that they're not favored. They just don't win them. Usually they. I feel like they always lose the games they're supposed to.
[00:36:34] Speaker A: I feel like Mississippi State and maybe I'm proven wrong this weekend.
I think that the two teams they've beaten may not be nearly as good as people think which makes those games look better than maybe they're going to look at the end of the year.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't disagree with that with the other teams not being as good. But I think the eye test with that offense right now with Kamari Taylor like they're they did in week one against Ulm, which I get it, it's Ulm, but it's an FBS team. They did what you're supposed to against an FCS team. They like absolutely just smoked them. That offense is really good right now I think. I think Mississippi State's going to be. I, I actually don't think this one's going to be that close. I think they're going to beat Missouri by a couple touchdowns.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: I want to see if Mississippi State can stop Jamal Roberts. He's been really good in the run game for, for Missouri so far. And then Arkansas, Tulsa. This is only going to be on SEC Network. Plus by the way, tomorrow night it's going to be a seven o' clock kickoff over at Razorback Stadium. Arkansas is a seven point favorite, seven and a half point favorite.
I think Arkansas wins. I think it comes down to they've got the better athletes. They're going to be able to win probably a lot more one on one matchups than they've been able to win the last couple of weeks. And Tulsa starting a backup quarterback on the road I think has got to be a concern for them.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I did want to, I wanted to squeeze this in earlier about Dexter Williams but now is a good chance I guess he was on Indiana fascinates me. The fact that Indiana had like all these, even the dark ages of Indiana football where they're really bad. They had these quarterbacks on their roster which I'm not calling Dexter Williams like he hasn't proven much of anything but he has played on Indiana teams with Michael Pennix Jr. With Connor Basilek, with Brendan Sorsby was there. It's like he's Indiana's randomly had all these quarterbacks that end up going and starting games other places and a lot of them become stars.
It's just kind of crazy. That's just a fun fact. I wanted to squeeze in. I don't know what to expect from Dexter Williams. I think this Arkansas defense, they need to have a good performance against them. I know Tulsa has a pretty good rushing offense. I think that with a backup quarterback in the game though if you look at the end of the game and you say Tulsa had the quarter the best quarterback play in this game, I think it's that's an upset in Fayetteville. That's going to happen. But I just think with a night game, tickets are.
The ticket prices are more expensive this week than they were last week for Georgia, which is telling to me that I think it's actually going to be a pretty decent night environment.
[00:38:54] Speaker A: I also think there's going to be a Tulsa people that make the drive over.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: This is the first night kick like true night kickoff since October 2024. It's because Arkansas got to control this kickoff time. But I just think that all this is kind of culminating in a way that Arkansas, I think we'll have a better performance than we've seen, and I think this is going to be their best showing they've had yet this year.
They have a way of surprising me as soon as you think. One thing, though, but I'm going to pick Arkansas to beat them.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: Remember when Tulsa came over in 08, which is this is their best year or their best start since 08? And the visitor section, it was like a giant blue L over on the east side of the stadium. The way that those seats are configured.
They brought a lot of people that day. I don't know if they're going to bring that many people this time, but I think that there's going to be a lot of Tulsa fans in the stadium, maybe not as many as Georgia had last week where, you know, like, you could really tell how many Georgia people were in there in the second half when a lot of the home crowd had moved out.
I think for Arkansas, the key going back to Silverfield in the preseason, we heard him talk about controlling the controllables. They got to win the penalty. They can't. They can't kill themselves with penalties. And they really need to win the turnover battle. And I think the longer you let Tulsa stay in that game, the more confident they become, the more you start to pucker up a little bit as the home team. And I think that's where the upset comes. I think if you're Arkansas, you got to get out on them early and keep your thumb down on them. Stay up by two scores, stay up by, you know, whatever.
They can't allow Tulsa to have that drive in the fourth quarter where they're going down trying to tie or take the lead. I think that that's where you lose this game.
So that's our thought on Arkansas. Tulsa. We're going to have plenty of coverage this weekend on our website, wholehogsports.com plenty of things going on with sports around here. We didn't talk about Mika Murinen and being ineligible yesterday. And John Calipari using that video as kind of an advertisement for the Protect College Sports Act.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: The most, I think I saw somebody tweet this that Calipari hasn't lost his fastball with that video. How he found a way to, you know, announce news while endorsing something while also roasting Mika's game, like at three
[00:41:06] Speaker A: different occasions in just two minutes. Yeah, Arkansas baseball, they're going to be scrimmaging again this weekend. I'll be at Baum Walker Stadium some. I'll have updates on that. A lot of things going on here in Fayetteville. Hope that we see you on Monday. Have a great weekend.
