Arkansas Football: Updated game-by-game predictions for 2020

About three minutes into this game is when Arkansas will wish non-conference games had happened.

The Razorbacks will be over matched in a big way in this game. Georgia is not only an SEC East contender, but also a College Football Playoff contender that returns eight starters from the No. 3 ranked total defense in the country. Going up against Arkansas’s 110th ranked offense, this could get ugly.

Arkansas quarterback Feleipe Franks has only faced Georgia once, where he only completed 7-of-19 passes with an interception. That was in 2017, and Franks is a much better player than he was then, but that stat line doesn’t leave much room to be impressed.

Georgia only has three guys back on offense, but Jamie Newman takes over at quarterback after transferring from Wake Forest. He could go down as the best transfer of the season and a good start against Arkansas would set the tone.

Expect Georgia to come out of the gates flying and put the rest of the SEC on notice.

Prediction: Georgia 48, Arkansas 10 (0-1)

This is going to be interesting.

New Mississippi State coach Mike Leach will still be working out the kinks in his air-raid system and complete overhaul of the Bulldogs’ offense.

Former Stanford quarterback KJ Costello takes over for the Bulldogs and that could be fun combination.

The dynamic of Leach makes this tougher to call because we’ve seen games before where his offense just disappears. They can light up a top five defense one week and then sputter out against a bottom defense the following week. Arkansas’ secondary ranked 69th against the pass last season and returns almost everyone from that unit.

This game might be close at the end, but not close enough to get Sam Pittman his first win.

Prediction: Arkansas 27, Mississippi State 37 (0-2)