FAYETTEVILLE — If you want national credibility you have to beat teams who are nationally respected.
The challenge/opportunity for Arkansas is you play nationally ranked teams more often than not. Saturday's game against Auburn will be the Razorbacks' third consecutive game against a top 25 opponent.
Ole Miss arrived in Fayetteville ranked 12th in the country last week with the reputation as the best two-loss team in college football. That distinction could very well belong to the Razorbacks now.
I’ve fielded plenty of phone calls on the radio the last two weeks from Hog fans who wanted to know when Arkansas was going to be close to competing for the SEC West division title. Some feared a long, disappointing season after getting worked over by top-ranked Alabama and the Crimson Tide's biggest challenger, Texas A&M. It’s easy to forget the Razorbacks had their chances in both games, but made too many mistakes and paid the price.
Leading up to the Ole Miss game, it was interesting that the Rebels were viewed as a really dangerous team who had dropped a pair of games to top 10 opponents. The same could be said for Arkansas, but it wasn’t getting the same credit, which is really nothing new for the Razorbacks.
For all the hype and recruiting rankings coming out of Oxford, Miss., Arkansas coach Bret Bielema has now beaten Hugh Freeze three consecutive times and Arkansas is back to being nationally relevant.
Saturday’s win gave the Razorbacks their first victory over a ranked opponent while being ranked since 2011. After all the rebuilding this program has been through it is back to being nationally relevant.
Whenever Arkansas loses, the Bielema critics come out to complain as they did the last couple of weeks. They point to things like Bielema’s overall record of 23-22 or his losing SEC record of 8-19. What they don’t talk about are the numbers that indicate where this program currently resides.
Bielema has won 11 of his last 14 games and four of his last six against ranked opponents. Of his eight SEC wins, six have come in the last two seasons. Does that sound like a program going the wrong direction?
The preseason mantra for this team was to start fast, which at 5-2 it they've done, with their toughest opponents now in the rearview mirror. With five games left they are in a position to exceed last year’s regular season win total of seven, but it won’t be easy because it never is in the SEC. Nobody understands that better than Bielema.
“The SEC and the SEC West is just like it’s a whole other league, whole other world that you live in,” Bielema said after last week's win. “To have three (SEC) teams now, I think everybody has been in the top 15 that we played."
Another top 25 matchup awaits this week in Auburn. It’s the kind of challenge that brought Bielema to Arkansas. He’s excited about it.
“It’s just kind of fun,” he said. “It is what it is. It’s not fun when you lose. But it’s a lot of fun when you win. You have to keep it in perspective.
“I told those guys on Sunday, you lost to two teams that are undefeated, might be one of the two best teams in college football. Keep in perspective where we are, keep working, keep grinding, and someday we’ll be there.”
A version of this story appeared in Hawgs Illustrated magazine