Alabama Football: Post-Spring game-by-game predictions for 2019

Much like Tennessee, Alabama has similarly dominated Arkansas during Nick Saban’s tenure in Tuscaloosa, winning all 12 meetings between the two. 2018 was a disastrous debut season for Chad Morris in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks not only bottomed out in year one by going 2-10, their 10 losses included defeats to Colorado State and North Texas.

It won’t take much for Arkansas to show improvement in 2019, but making a bowl game is still going to be an uphill battle. Improvement begins and ends at quarterback for Morris and company, as below average play from that position plagued his offense all season long. A pair of graduate transfers – SMU’s Ben Hicks and Texas A&M’s Nick Starkel – are likely to battle it out in fall camp for the gig.

It’s safe to say that the offense will take a step forward in year two under Morris with either Hicks or Starkel taking the snaps. He’s an offensive coach, and the Hogs do have a good bit of talent at the skill positions, including a trio of supremely gifted running backs who could shoulder the offensive load.

But while his offenses consistently got better at SMU, his defenses typically went in the other direction. That’s not something he can afford to have happen this time around or Arkansas’s improvement in 2019 might be microscopic.

Morris was able to carve out some surprising offensive success against Alabama last year with the Hogs putting up 31 points. The problem is they had no answer for Alabama’s offense as Tua and company racked up 65 points. That’s not likely to change when the two meet again.

Pick: Alabama 62, Arkansas 24

Record: 8-0 (5-0)