As was noted Friday, Arkansas coach John L. Smith has had about as bad a week as any one person could imagine. Smith has almost no money to his name as he files Chapter 7 bankruptcy and had to bury his brother, who died last Monday.
Unfortunately, the football world is not forgiving or understanding to such hardships.
As a result, Arkansas’ incredible slide which began with a Week 2 loss to Louisiana-Monroe keeps coming and it doesn’t look like there’s much relief down the stretch. Rutgers became the third straight team to beat the Razorbacks, winning 35-26. Quarterback Tyler Wilson was back from his concussion, but that didn’t change the fact that Arkansas’ defense continues to be absolutely horrid. The Scarlet Knights were able to gain over 500 yards and Rutgers QB Gary Nova threw five touchdowns.
Consider the following: Arkansas has to go on the road to Texas A&M and Auburn next -- the Tigers just took No. 2 LSU to the wire tonight -- before getting a winnable stretch of home games against Kentucky, Ole Miss and Tulsa. But to end the season, Arkansas has South Carolina, Mississippi State and LSU.
And firing Smith now won’t help a thing.
The question will be how demoralized the Hogs are at that point. There may not be enough “United We Stand” videos to go around.