FAYETTEVILLE -- Football traditionally has its "must" games.
Hollywood traditionally sings "the show must go on."
Regarding traditional "musts," these Arkansas Razorbacks must begin this week more Hollywood than football.
They lost, 31-17, their "must" game to the Ole Miss Rebels in last Saturday night's SEC opener in Oxford, Miss., for both SEC West teams.
Under now second-year Arkansas Coach Chad Morris, the Razorbacks in 2018 struggled 2-10 overall/0-8 in the SEC.
Coach Matt Luke's Rebels struggled 1-7 in last year's SEC. They beat only Arkansas.
Succeeding Saturday in Oxford marked a must for both programs.
The Rebels, 1-1 opening Aug. 31 with a 15-10 nonconference loss to Memphis at Memphis, have confidence they could build into 2019 near-future SEC success.
Arkansas remains amiss.
The 2017 Razorbacks under Bret Bielema wallowed 1-7 in the SEC. So today's math marks Arkansas winning only one of its last 17 SEC games including losing the last dozen. The Razorbacks will be heavy underdogs their next SEC game against Texas A&M, ranked 16th Sunday in the Associated Press rankings, at their Sept. 28 clash at the Dallas Cowboys' AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
For Arkansas fans this may seem despair, despair everywhere.
The Hogs themselves, if they learned anything from 2018, should know they have no time to wallow.
Hooray for Hollywood. The show must go on.
Holding off 4-touchdown underdog Portland State of the Big Sky Conference, 20-13 on Aug. 31 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, the 1-1 Razorbacks return these next two Saturdays to Fayetteville. They host nonconference games vs. Colorado State and San Jose State.
In the second of three nonconference games of a 2018 season opened 55-20 over Eastern Illinois, the Razorbacks after three quarters in Fort Collins, Colo., led Colorado State, 27-17.
They lost, 34-27. The next Saturday in Fayetteville the reeling Razorbacks were embarrassed, 44-17 by the underdog North Texas Mean Green.
Arkansas losing its North Texas focus after losing the fourth quarter to Colorado State was not lost postgame on Morris in Oxford.
"Our first loss last year wound up beating us twice," Morris said. "And as I shared with our team it's about responding. The only way you fail in life when you have adversity is when you don't get up. I promise you this, these young men will get back up."
They must correct mistakes from all phases at Oxford. Offense, defense, kicking game, even alignment causing the ineligible receiver downfield penalty voiding what would have been an Arkansas touchdown pass.
But they won't up their game until first getting up from losing the "must" game weighing them down.
"We've just got to flush this out tomorrow," junior safety Kamren Curl said Saturday. "We know we have a losing streak, but we've got to have faith and keep working to fix it. We've got 10 more guaranteed games. We can't dwell on this."
The show must go on.
NW News on 09/09/2019