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Tennessee vs. Arkansas Game a Major Letdown Compared to Preseason Hype

By Caleb Calhoun

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The Tennessee vs. Arkansas football match-up does not have the same buzz initially expected given the preseason hype behind the Volunteers and Razorbacks.

Think back to not even three weeks ago. The Tennessee Vols and Arkansas Razorbacks were both 1-0 and living up to their Top 25 preseason hype.

Going into this week, after looking at the schedule for both teams, it was very conceivable that this could be a match-up between two undefeated programs.

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Both teams are under a third-year head coach who had strong finishes to last year, and given their returning starters, they were expected to be programs on the rise this year.

At worst, these two teams would be 3-1 going into this game, as Arkansas losing to Texas A&M and Tennessee losing to Oklahoma would be acceptable. But by and large, this would be an inter-divisional game between two programs that would have both re-established themselves among college football’s elite and fighting to prove who was there first.

Instead, however, we are looking at a 1-3 team vs. a 2-2 team, and this is a game for each team to save their season. Whichever team loses this game might as well consider this year a wash.

And the losing coach may have to coach his way out of being fired at the end of the year.

The worst part is how close these two teams are to being undefeated for this game, though. Tennessee had to blow two 13-point fourth quarter leads, and show a complete inability to get off the field on fourth down, to fall to 2-2.

Arkansas, meanwhile, overlooked Toledo and gave a game away, then lost to Texas Tech by 11 after coming away with only three points in the second have despite two trips inside the Red Raiders’ five-yard line, and then committed two turnovers to lose to the Texas A&M Aggies in overtime.

This just shows you how close a team can be from a good season and a bad season.

The Razorbacks and Vols have shown that they could be great this year, and the pieces are in place for them to be as good as we expected. But the mentality to close out games is not there.

But fortunately, somebody will have to finish this weekend, which will at least give one of these teams the boost it may need to get the season on the right track. At the same time, the loser’s season could be lost, and morale could be so low that they might quit on the rest of the year.

So much for the Top 25 matchup we were hoping for.

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