Wadley’s Weekly: Hawg Tuah

By Will Hadley

Man oh man oh man. After a bye week that felt like a bye month, the road dogs are ready to eat yet again. And this week, Nico will be serving up some Kalua Pig in the heart of Northwest Arkansas. 

I find it very odd how little juice this game even has. It’s a primetime ABC matchup involving a top 4 team in the country, and yet we have seen absolutely no lead up to this one.

No trash talk from Arkansas fans on Twitter, no in-depth analysis from the national media, just crickets. I guess that’s the price you pay when you’re traveling the country with the Big Orange Boa Constrictor that is this defense.

I mean, what a showing we had at Oklahoma. For all the talk leading up to this season about how Nico would transform this team, he really hasn’t had to do much at all. He had some great plays and kept us alive on certain drives, but when we don’t have to worry about being scored on, we can simply play keep away for an entire half and win in any way we want. As much as Oklahoma fans want to pound their chest about “keeping it close” against us, we all saw what happened. They had no shot. 

I think this is the weekend that the narrative shifts. This Arkansas defense is not bad by any means, but it’s nothing compared to what we played last week. It would make no sense for them to let us gash them on the ground all night, and I think this is the week we see a team make Nico test them through the air.

They have a piss poor pass rush efficiency, we have both starting tackles back, and our receivers are simply going to be better than their DBs across the board. As much fun as it’s been to play Big 10 football, it’s time for Fast, Fun, Real to reemerge.

This Arkansas team is a wounded bird. Rather, it's a pig on its way to slaughter.

They needed that win last week against A&M and they failed to deliver. Pittman was already on the hot seat and it’s heating up even more now.

They’ve lost faith in their quarterback, and the confidence of the team and fanbase is running low. This is their last stand. Which means it’s the perfect opportunity for a team with a dynamic quarterback and a suffocating defense to put them out of their misery.

It’s clear they’re grasping at straws trying to get motivation. They made Doneiko Slaughter and Addison Nichols captains for the week. Nichols seems like a nice kid, but he wasn’t going to see the field here. And I’m sure this defensive line is excited to recreate what they did in practice every day for 2 years. 

Your Razorback captains for the week 🐗 pic.twitter.com/QM0wX9bcW3

— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) October 3, 2024

Sam Pittman is a sweet guy. He’s a great man.

So why don’t we do him a favor. You don’t want to be coaching this team,

Sam. They don’t deserve you. You don’t have to pretend to enjoy hanging out with Bobby Petrino anymore. You’ve done all you could do in this profession. You want to be on the couch at your lake house enjoying a col’beer. No need to fight it brother. 

Once again, it’s a fall Saturday night with all eyes on the Vols. 

Now let’s go Ned Beatty mode and make ‘em squeal like a pig.

-Will