Tulsa is the tie that binds the top college football teams in our state and provides a marker past the halfway point of the season.
It doesn’t look good with Arkansas, Arkansas State, Central Arkansas and Arkansas-Pine Bluff a combined 11-16 heading into the Saturday night schedule of games. I failed a midterm exam in biology one year and worked my way back up to a D-plus. So, there is hope.
ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS
Arkansas won 23-0 over Tulsa, which beat Central Arkansas 38-27 and lost to Arkansas State 29-20 in games in September.
The highlight for me Saturday was the decision by Chad Morris, who sent a player to the locker room after he slapped a Tulsa punt returner on the helmet and drew a penalty after a fair catch. Good for Morris, who also deserves much credit for a 2019 recruiting class that looks promising. Keeping Hudson Henry and Treylon Burks at home is huge.
Still, the reaction to some Arkansas defeats this year have surprised me. I listened to sports talk radio for 20 minutes after the loss to Ole Miss when the discussion was about injuries, the artificial turf at War Memorial Stadium, and the excuse Arkansas was inconvenienced by having to board a plane and fly to Little Rock.
Inconvenienced, really?
Try telling that to players from Ole Miss, who bussed over from Oxford, Miss., or Florida A&M, who rode nearly 700 miles and spent over 11 hours on a bus to play the Razorbacks last year in Little Rock.
The fact is Arkansas would’ve beaten Ole Miss if only the defense had made a final stop. Instead, Ole Miss quarterback Jordan Ta’amu stood in his own end zone and guided his team into the Arkansas end zone in just over one minute.
Ball game.
Grade: D
ARKANSAS STATE
RED WOLVES
I doubt any team throws the sideways pass from quarterback to receiver with such little success as Arkansas State.
The play sure didn’t work against Alabama or Appalachian State despite repeated attempts. Over and over and over.
Arkansas State had a chance for some national recognition in a rare Tuesday night game against Appalachian State on ESPN. But the Red Wolves weren’t up to the challenge and lost 35-9.
Arkansas State did beat Georgia State 51-35 in another televised game on Thursday. ASU (4-3) is the only team with a winning record in the Western Division of the Sun Belt Conference, so reaching the league championship remains a possibility. But the Red Wolves so far have failed to live up to the hype they set for themselves at the beginning of the season.
Grade: C-minus.
CENTRAL ARKANSAS BEARS
Central Arkansas received a blow when sophomore quarterback Breylin Smith broke his ankle during a 34-31 overtime defeat to Sam Houston State on Oct. 2. Smith, the former high school standout from Conway, will miss the rest of the season.
Still, UCA is 4-2 after going 10-2 and reaching the second round of the Football Championship Series last season. The Bears can still put together another successful season with three of their next four games at home.
Grade: B-minus
ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF LIONS
Arkansas-Pine Bluff does not played Tulsa, which is a good thing considering the Lions lost 90-6 to the Jackrabbits from Division II South Dakota State earlier in the year.
UAPB is far removed from 2012, when the Lions went 10-2 and beat Jackson State in overtime in the championship game of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
Grade: F
College football fans in the state can find success at the lower levels, especially with Ouachita Baptist, which improved to 8-0 with a 41-0 win over Southern Nazarene on Thursday night.
Ouachita Baptist, Southern Arkansas and Harding are all ranked in the Division II poll with rosters full of in-state players. That says a lot about the quality of play in the Great American Conference.
Rick Fires can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter@NWARick.