Path to Razorbacks Landing Bowl Game Treacherously High

For folks having high hopes for Arkansas' coming football season even those could be dimmed if you're reading the ranking season we're in these days.

If you're looking for reasons to have high expectations here, I can't come up with any. Let's don't give up, but Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman is in a put up or shut up type situation.

To be fair, Pittman hasn't (and won't) make any predictions, either. I don't make mine until the week before the opening game of the season. That won't change this year.

But a recent story at CBS Sports on overreactions in the spring didn't exactly paint a glossy picture. It did paint up what probably should be a red flag in the program.

Some fans like to say everybody is losing players to othe transfer portal, which is true. Nobody in the SEC is losing players at the alarming rate the Razorbacks have after last season.

In case you're wondering that's tops in the SEC. Maybe the bigger problem is not being able to replace all those guys with players just as good. We're not even going into the number Pittman will see on the other team this season.

"It's foolish to predict just how good or bad the Razorbacks will be this season (that's not stopping us!) because of the roster's fluidity," Brandon Marcello wrote in the CBS story.

He's not wrong. It's also up to Pittman to figure all this out and we really have no idea how everything worked out in the spring. Nobody really got to look at much and there was no spring game due to an over-abundance of caution on the weather cancelling all that.

Pittman doesn't worry about all these rankings and projections. He has probably heard some of them whether he wants to or not.

He's busy trying to figure out how he can win games with what he's got. Looking at the schedule it's almost impossible to pick a path to a bowl game.

The over-under right now on Arkansas' season at CBS Sports is 5.5 wins. That's simply to get people coming down on one side or the other but that will require a second-win dream scenario similar to the 19-14 big victory over Tennessee last year.

"That's gotta be an uneasy feeling for coach Sam Pittman, who was on the hot seat last season. Reaching a bowl game will be difficult," Marcello said in the CBS Sports story.

It's hard to tell when Pittman is a max-worry level. This is a coach that worries when he can't think of something to worry about. He's afraid he's missed something he should be worried about.

He's got some more time rounding up players still available in the transfer portal before heading to Destin, Fla., for the spring meetings. Those are headed out the door but not this year.

In Destin, Pittman will be asked more questions. Don't be surprised when he doesn't have a lot of answers ready to go.

Nobody does at this time of the year, including the media. We'll be guessing right along with you.

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