COLUMBIA, Mo. -- So many questions and so few answers.
The University of Arkansas football program is broken. The wheels are off. It is bankrupt.
The light at the end of the tunnel was a train named Missouri on a track of disappointment that started in September and finally, ungraciously ended in a cold rain here Friday.
A 2-10 record is, to borrow a word from head Coach Chad Morris, unacceptable. The legacy of this team, no matter who is at fault, is the most single-season losses for an Arkansas program that dates back to 1894.
Who is responsible for this debacle? Jeff Long, the athletic director who was asked to resign months before he was fired? The one who brought us, among others, John L. Smith.
Maybe Bret Bielema -- the former head coach who didn't even get a team picture made of his last team, also a first in Razorback football history -- is to blame. He let assistants Jim Chaney and Sam Pittman get away, which was when the head-first slide to nowhere began.
Is it on the players, who jumped at a chance to compete against the best in the country but couldn't? Not all of them. You know, the few who fought hard every game.
Could it go further back to when Bobby Petrino squeezed blood out of a turnip but was also fortunate enough to have the best receiving group in Arkansas history come along and Ryan Mallett transfer in from Michigan. Recruiting, though, was not his forte. Ask Louisville. He could outcoach a lot of people, but not every year.
Chad Morris may not have been dealt a very good hand, but he didn't get much out of it either. Now it is up to him to turn a cargo ship into a speed boat. He personally needs to get in the left lane and put the hammer down, or he may not get as much time as he needs.
He was turning SMU around, but the Mustangs don't compete in the SEC.
Friday's loss to Missouri wasn't even a mild surprise. It was just another piece of the puzzling season.
The Tigers 38-0 win seemed ridiculously easy.
The Razorbacks had 41 yards of total offense in the first half, which included minus-38 yards in sacks and tackles behind the line of the scrimmage. At times the offensive line, which had three senior starters, seemed like it was allergic to the rain.
On the few occasions it appeared the Razorbacks might do something, they didn't. They opened the second half by going three and out, but the punt touched a Missouri player and Arkansas recovered. Connor Noland, who stepped in for Ty Storey in the second quarter, drove the Hogs to the 4 but ran out of downs.
Missouri answered with a 96-yard drive, 67 of which came on a pass from Drew Lock to Emanuel Hall.
Noland, whose play raises the question of did he really need to redshirt or should he have been playing more this season, connected on a 43-yard pass to Devwah Whaley on the Hogs' next possession, which ended with Missouri's fifth sack. The Hogs never came close to scoring in the fourth quarter.
The Tigers scored on their first possession of the game and never looked back. Lock looked like an All-American, running for two touchdowns and throwing for two more.
So many questions and so few answers, but now is the time for every person in the Razorback program -- from head coach to assistants to starters down to the walk-ons -- to make up their mind.
Do they want to walk the extra mile, do the workouts, take the responsibility and accept the discipline? Do they want to be difference-makers?
This season has been unacceptable.
Sports on 11/24/2018