FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – There's no reason to write more than one paragraph about what happened in Reynolds Razorback Stadium Saturday night. Here it is:
Arkansas scored. Kentucky stumbled. Arkansas scored more and more. It rained. Lightning filled the air. They suspended play. They resumed play. Arkansas kept scoring. Kentucky surrendered. Nasty weather returned. They stopped the game with 5:08 left in the third quarter. Arkansas won, 49-7.
Good enough? I thought so.
"It's never bad to beat Kentucky," Arkansas coach John L. Smith said. His giddiness was real.
Smith learned to dislike UK when he coached five seasons at the University of Louisville. He clutched the game ball, which was awarded to him in the locker room by quarterback Tyler Wilson after the game.
Now, let's move to the two questions that danced around this stadium like the lightning throughout the soggy proceedings:
Question 1: With Smith five games from finishing his lame-duck run as the Arkansas coach, are the Razorbacks primed to make a legitimate run at U of L's Charlie Strong (obligatory mention – Strong is an Arkansas native) as the Razorbacks' coach?
Question 2: Attendance is soft and unhappiness is surging in Lexington with the Wildcats now 1-6. How can Joker Phillips survive a six-touchdown loss to a mediocre (3-4) Arkansas team that averaged nearly 10 yards per snap in the first half?
And the answers are?
Answer 1: Strong is a second-tier candidate at Arkansas. Names like Chris Petersen (Boise State), Art Briles (Baylor), Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), Pete Carroll (Seattle Seahawks) and Sonny Dykes (Louisiana Tech) were all names I heard before Strong.
Answer 2: UK looked thoroughly overmatched and overwhelmed. Circumstances, performance and results are mounting mightily against Phillips. Many fans have already voted on his future as the head coach by avoiding Commonwealth Stadium this season. Looking for improvement, Kentucky saw misery.
I'll answer my question with a question: How is Kentucky going to keep selling tickets?
He's got five games to get fans back on his shrinking side.
"(Phillips must) tune that out because they're doing the same thing to me," Smith said.
The Strong and Arkansas story will continue to percolate until Jeff Long, the school's athletic director, selects his next coach at season's end. Doesn't matter how many times Strong says he isn't interested or the words that he uses to say it. It's how the job speculation and mating game works. Too many coaches have back-tracked on too many denials.
Strong is a superb coach whose team has delivered a 6-0 start. Louisville is a program that appears to be at a disadvantage in the national championship and bowl picture as the Bowl Championship Series system disappears after next season.
Arkansas is a program with Top 10 facilities – and Top 10 ambition. It's misguided, but that's what they believe. Strong should be flattered that somebody such as Alabama radio host Paul Finebaum mentioned him as a coach Arkansas should pursue during a speech in Little Rock last week.
Keith Jackson, analyst on the Arkansas radio network as well as a former all-pro tight end, was not as convinced that Strong would get one of the first calls.
"I'd like to see a coach with NFL connections with former NFL players on his staff," Jackson said. "That's what a lot of kids are looking for, somebody who knows what it's like to play at the next level and can show them how to get there."
Jackson also mentioned another qualification stressed by others: Arkansas needs a coach with strong (no pun intended) ties to Texas high school football.
Arkansas high school football isn't as formidable as Kentucky high school football. One veteran FBS head coach told me the state is fortunate to produce six SEC quality prospects per season.
"If you sign nine or 10 guys from Arkansas, you're in trouble," the coach said. "You've got to go into Texas, but even that won't be as easy as you think because now that Texas A&M is in the league there's another SEC option for Texas kids. So you've got to go everywhere – California, Illinois, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida."
In other words, Arkansas is a nice job. The Razorbacks will be willing to pay prime dollars. But it's not a Top 10 job. It's not in the top half of the jobs in the SEC.
Of course, neither is Kentucky. And the UK job is becoming more challenging for Phillips with every snap. This game was over the first time Wilson wiggled his shoulder pads and found Jonathan Williams, a true freshman, with a 74-yard touchdown pass on the Hogs' first snap.
It never got better – except during the rain delays. Those were the only stretches when Arkansas did not thunder down the field. The Razorbacks scored touchdowns on their first six possessions. This game was a channel-changer after five minutes.
"This is one of the most embarrassing games that we've been a part of," UK offensive lineman Matt Smith said.
Now Kentucky is 1-6, with Georgia coming to Commonwealth Stadium. Now the Wildcats are tracking toward their first three-win season since 2005 or their first two-win season since 2004.
Injuries have forced Phillips to rush young players into the lineup. But this was a bad loss to a bad team. This was a loss that suggested Kentucky has lost hope. Coaches can overcome injuries. They cannot overcome a loss of hope, especially when fans lose hope.
"Too bad I didn't get to see Joker tonight," Smith said. "You've just got to hang in there. He knows the profession, my goodness. You have to be optimistic. You have to get your chin off the floor. You can't be worrying about things."
Even if everybody else is.
Copyright 2012 WDRB News. All Rights Reserved.
John L. Smith advised Joker Phillips to ignore the noise.
