Nobody hands out a trophy for finishing last in the SEC.
You don’t get a banner or a ring for it, either. You just get your name at the bottom of the standings for everybody to look at.
One team’s going to get that spot all to itself tonight.
Arkansas and Vanderbilt kick off at 6 p.m. at FirstBank Stadium in Nashville. ESPN2 has the game, if you’re up for it.
The loser leaves the stadium alone in last place in the league. The winner at least gets a week off from hearing about it.
That’s about the only thing I’m sure of in this one.
Vandy isn’t great, but it’s not Tulsa
Let’s just be straight up about the Commodores. They aren’t anywhere near the top of the SEC.
They’re still better than anybody the Razorbacks have beaten this year.
That list is short. It’s North Alabama and Tulsa, and that’s it.
The Hogs are going on the road against a team that’s a step up from the only two they’ve handled. I wouldn’t call that a comfortable spot in mid-October.
Arkansas does have the series on its side. The Razorbacks lead it 7-3 and are 4-0 in Nashville.
They just haven’t been there in a while. Saturday marks 5,467 days since Arkansas last played at Vanderbilt, a 31-28 win on Oct. 29, 2011.
The quarterback edge goes to Vanderbilt
These two haven’t met anywhere since 2018, which means old results won’t help much tonight.
What will help is the guy taking snaps.
Vanderbilt’s Jared Curtis just might be a better quarterback than KJ Jackson. He still makes freshman mistakes, and you’ll probably see a throw or two tonight that makes you wonder what he saw.
Jackson makes a lot of those same mistakes. The difference is he’s been around for three years.
At some point you’d expect those to go away. They haven’t.
It’s a big reason I don’t trust the passing game to carry this team on its own. Chris Marshall can’t be the only receiver Jackson looks for on passing downs, and that’s how it’s looked all season.
Everything starts with the run game
The biggest question tonight is pretty basic. Can the Razorbacks run the ball with any kind of sustained success?
They need to pick up steady yards on drive after drive, not one long run and then three stuffs at the line.
If the Hogs can do that, they keep the ball away from Curtis and take some heat off Jackson.
If they can’t, things get interesting. Then we find out if Arkansas can throw it well enough, and often enough, to win.
Marshall is the main reason the passing game has a chance at all. He’s led the Razorbacks in receiving yards in all six games this season.
No Arkansas receiver had done that since Anthony Eubanks went nine straight games in 1996.
Marshall also leads the SEC with 27 catches that went for 10 or more yards. That’s third in the country.
My worry is a bad decision sneaking in on a drive that’s going well. We’ve seen enough of those already.
Defense is doing its part
On the other side, linebacker Ben Bogle has been steady. He’s led Arkansas in tackles the last two weeks, with 16 at Texas A&M and nine against No. 15 Tennessee.
He’s got 44 tackles on the year, plus 2.5 tackles for loss, a sack, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery.
Defensive lineman Quincy Rhodes Jr. leads the team with three sacks. He also returned a fumble 58 yards against Tennessee.
No Hog had gone that far on a fumble return since Kam Curl’s 69-yard score at Ole Miss in 2019.
Arkansas has picked up four fumbles this year, one more than all of last season. That ranks fourth in the SEC and 22nd nationally.
Takeaways help, but not much if the offense turns around and gives the ball right back.
A few streaks worth keeping
The Razorbacks have scored in 64 straight games, the sixth-longest run in school history. The last shutout came Oct. 2, 2021, against No. 2 Georgia.
They’ve also made 239 extra points in a row going back to Dec. 5, 2020. Nobody in the country has a longer active streak by date.
Max Gilbert added a career-long 55-yard field goal against Tennessee. That gives Arkansas a 50-yard make in six straight seasons.
None of that will mean much if the Hogs lose tonight.
Nobody looks at the standings in December and checks who made the most extra points.
And like I said, there’s no trophy for last.
