One game into the season, there is already concern about apathy among fans.
They are worried the offensive line didn’t block as well as expected.
They believe a Power Five school should do better than Saturday’s performance.
All of that surrounds the Ole Miss football program, which lost to Memphis — a Group of Five school — 15-10.
Yes, it sounds familiar.
Either way, this Saturday’s game in Oxford, near The Grove, was always going to be huge to both the Rebels and the University of Arkansas.
The loser likely will finish last in the SEC West, and the winner may have a shot at a bowl game.
Both teams face probable losses to Alabama, LSU, Auburn and Texas A&M.
That doesn’t leave much wiggle room, and the Rebels already lost a nonconference game, meaning they have to win three SEC games.
Ole Miss’ remaining nonconference games include Southeastern Louisiana, which won its opener 35-14 over Jacksonville State with the help of former UA quarterback Cole Kelley coming off the bench to hit 5 of 9 passes for 74 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also steamboated five times for 19 yards.
The Rebels also have California and New Mexico State left to play.
Their cross-conference opponents are Vanderbilt and Missouri, both losers last weekend.
The Razorbacks should win their remaining three nonconference games, but they must have two SEC wins to get to a bowl.
The Rebels are finally free of the NCAA sanctions that were aided and abetted by having the No. 17 (2015) and No. 5 (2016) recruiting classes in the country.
In 2016, the Rebels — with Hugh Freeze still in command — signed three five-star recruits. Shea Patterson now quarterbacks Michigan; Greg Little is in the NFL; and Benito Jones is remains at Ole Miss.
After the NCAA fiasco, the Rebels recruiting dropped to the 30s for two classes before rebounding to No. 22 last season.
Last week against Memphis, the Rebels played only six offensive linemen. That’s definitely not enough.
The Rebels netted 80 yards on the ground and 93 through the air. Those totals are not winning numbers.
The Ole Miss defense mostly kept the Tigers out of the end zone, allowing 364 yards of offense against the usually high-octane Memphis offense.
An old saying in football — especially among teams that lost or didn’t play well in their opening game — is that the most improvement made during the season is between the first and second games.
Arkansas and Ole Miss are saying that.
They mirror each other in where the programs are and where they need to be.
Since the end of last season — which included the Razorbacks literally giving the Rebels the win at War Memorial Stadium — this game has been circled on everyone’s schedule.
Midway through that fourth quarter, the Hogs led 33-24 before allowing touchdown drives of 84 and 97 yards to get a stranglehold on the agony of defeat.
Until those two drives, the Razorbacks had been the better team. They found a way to lose, mostly because they were gassed. They had no energy on those drives. Ole Miss’ game-winning drive took 1:20.
It was a bitter pill for fans to swallow, much like when Colorado State scored 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter for a 34-27 win earlier in the season.
This Saturday, the Razorbacks have an opportunity to really put those games in the history books.
It won’t be easy in Oxford against a team that knows it has a lot to prove, but that is what winners do.