FAYETTEVILLE - Like the motorist on a quarter tank passing the Last Chance gas station before the desert, the Arkansas Razorbacks proceed to a long, barren stretch short on fuel.
Rutgers drained Arkansas dry of momentum. The last chance in the last nonconference game not to be a heavy underdog with four preseason Top Ten teams looming to start the SEC season, Arkansas led the Scarlet Knights 24-7 during the third quarter but lost 28-24 Saturday afternoon at Rutgers’ High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway, N.J.
The ‘How did you lose this one?’ questions to new Coach Bret Bielema of the now 3-1 Razorbacks quickly are replaced by ‘How do you possibly regroup?’
Most every predictor will have Arkansas starting the SEC 0-4.
Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Johnny Manziel and his nationally No. 10 Texas A&M Aggies begin Arkansas’ gauntlet at 6 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2 from Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
Following that are at No. 19 Florida on Oct. 5 in Gainesville, No. 12 South Carolina on Oct. 12 in Fayetteville and at reigning national champion and No. 1 Alabama on Oct. 19 in Tuscaloosa.
Like former Oklahoma State head coach and Little Rock native Pat Jones said addressing last Wednesday’s meeting of the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club, defeating Rutgers seemed almost mandatory for these Razorbacks to conclude the season at the minimum six wins bowl eligible.
The eight-game SEC season is unforgiving. Six Top 25 teams are on tap, the aforementioned fearsome foursome plus Nov. 9 and Nov. 29 visits to No. 21 Ole Miss in Oxford and No. 6 LSU in Baton Rouge.
That leaves only Auburn on Nov. 2 in Fayetteville, and Mississippi State on Nov. 29 in Little Rock, as games the Razorbacks aren’t apt to enter as decided underdogs. And they could be heavy underdogs in those games depending on injuries and other factors determined into November.
First-year Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema had just seen his Razorbacks sack Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova five times and intercept one of his first-quarter passes and return it for a 26-yard touchdown. Yet Nova, beating the 2012 Razorbacks of interim Coach John L. Smith, 35-26 last year in Fayetteville with a career-night 397 yards passing including five touchdown tosses, again put it away in Piscataway completing 22 of 43 for 343 yards and three touchdowns, one a 33-yard strike on fourth and 12.
To improve against Nova yet again be bedeviled by him doesn’t bode well for Arkansas busting the ghost of Manziel past.
Last year against Arkansas at Texas A&M’s Kyle Field in College Station, Manziel in a 58-10 rout accounted for 557 total yards, 104 rushing with a touchdown and 453 yards with three touchdowns.
This year in 3½ games, Manziel has completed 77 of 110 for 1,228 yards and 12 touchdowns and rushed 39 for 272 yards and three touchdowns.
Those numbers add up to the Razorbacks regretting they didn’t refuel at Rutgers.
Sports, Pages 14 on 09/23/2013