Arkansas Football: Way-too-early game-by-game predictions for 2018

The 2017 season wasn’t kind to Arkansas football, but the Razorbacks are headed in a new direction. Here are early game-by-game predictions for 2018.

Change has hit the Arkansas football program, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Bret Bielema wasn’t cutting it for the Razorbacks during his time in Fayetteville so the athletic department felt that a change needed to be made.

Unsurprisingly, the former Wisconsin coach who left for the SEC to win championships was cut loose after an up-and-down career with the Razorbacks. He was replaced by former SMU head coach Chad Morris, an offensive mastermind.

Expectations may not be the highest for the 2018 campaign, but things are surely looking up in Fayetteville for the long term.

Will Arkansas have an even better season in 2018 under Morris?

Chad Morris’ first game as head coach of Arkansas will come against FCS foe Eastern Illinois and it’ll be a nice warmup for SEC play. In fact, the Razorbacks will have four extremely winnable non-conference games which could help them match their win total from 2017.

The offense will look much improved from 2017 when it ranked in the bottom half of college football in both rushing and passing yards per game. The Morris effect will be quite clear as Cole Kelley and Devwah Whaley have a great start to their 2018 seasons.

Kelley will pass for a career-high 275 yards and three touchdowns while Whaley will do something he wasn’t able to throughout the entire 2017 season and that’s rush for over 120 yards. He actually only rushed for over 100 yards once as a sophomore.

Arkansas wins easily.

Final Score: Eastern Illinois 13, Arkansas 38 (1-0)