Arkansas Football: 2017 Season preview and predictions

Arkansas football always seems to have the look of a sleeping giant. Will this giant wake up in 2017 and shock the college football nation?

It’s really rather unfortunate that the Razorbacks had to get rid of Bobby Petrino. He brought the Razorbacks back into the national conversation, finishing 5th in the AP Poll following following his final season in Fayetteville in 2011. Following his unceremonious departure and a forgettable interim year under John Smith, the Hogs elected to hire Bret Bielema out of the Big Ten.

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Bielema has been fine. With the exception of a 3-9 start in year one, he’s kept the Razorbacks bowl eligible and picked up a few nice wins (2015 over No. 19 Ole Miss, 2015 over No. 9 LSU and 2016 over No. 12 Ole Miss). The problem has been the Hogs’ inconsistency. As mentioned above, they’ve had some great wins, but they’ve come with questionable (at best) losses.

Under Bielema’s direction Arkansas is 10-23 against FBS teams with a winning record. They can win a big game or two, but they can’t survive the grind of an SEC conference slate. They can’t beat Texas A&M either, and that poses a problem. Until the Razorbacks can upend the Aggies, they’re going to be perpetually mired in a .500 conference record. The talent at Arkansas is better than the talent in Mississippi, but the results on the field are hit and miss.

Arkansas is coming off a 7-6 campaign a year ago. They were picked by the media to finish fourth in the SEC West, right in the middle of the pack once more. Can they break out of their consistently average seasons and give the SEC front-runners a scare?