How many wins (minimum) makes you happy next season?

[hogsanity]

Capt Obvious

apparently it is not obvious to some posters here.

[Biggus Piggus]

The 2017 schedule vs. 2016:

* Nonconference *

TCU home vs. road - TCU only had nine seniors; young team. They could be much improved in 2017, more than offsetting the home/road swing. It's naive to assume this gets better solely because we get them at home. Gary Patterson gets another shot at us. Is that good? TCU has a great record of rebounding after down seasons.

New Mexico State home vs. Louisiana Tech home - This gets easier. NMSU is always bad. Their last winning season was 2002.

Coastal Carolina home vs. Texas State home - This gets a little harder. Coastal Carolina was 43-10 in the past four seasons. Next season is its first in FBS after reclassifying this season. Does not take much to be better than Texas State.

Florida A&M home vs. Alcorn State home - Both are terrible.

Bottom line - Arkansas easily could end up 3-1 in nonconference after going 4-0 in 2016.

* Conference *

Texas A&M at Arlington - unchanged location. The Aggies lose a bunch of receivers, both OTs, and Trevor Knight at QB. The pass rush loses Myles Garrett and Daeshon Hall, plus three other defensive starters.

South Carolina road vs. Florida home - This is not an improvement for us. Road game first week of October, week before we go to Alabama. Almost all of their offensive starters return, and their defense will gain from two years of good recruiting + the return of their star, Skai Moore, from injury. Florida was one of the few remaining pro-style offenses in the SEC. If our defense knew anything, it was how to deal with those.

Alabama road vs. home - No idea how good Bama might be next season. Their defense has five senior starters - all key players - and three juniors. Anyone leaving early? Their offense has three senior starters and three juniors. There's a chance the Tide has to field a pretty young team next season. Does it matter?

Auburn home vs. road - Auburn's offense might be much improved. Their defense loses two great players up front but should be OK. This game really ought to be a little more difficult matchup for the Hogs, because of the upgrades the Tigers are making on offense. It is better to have them at Fayetteville, but the matchup still could be tougher.

Ole Miss road vs. home - Shea Patterson might be a better QB than Chad Kelly. Freeze replaced both of his coordinators. NCAA's overhanging. Is this going to be a tougher game? Unclear.

LSU road vs. home - This certainly is not getting any easier. Not a bit.

Mississippi State home vs. road - They lose 12 senior starters (vs. Arkansas's nine), though seven off that terrible defense. This should be an improvement.

Missouri home vs. road - Mizzou loses only a handful of starters, and Damarea Crockett should be around to play against us this time. This game looks like even more of a challenge.

***

Games Arkansas lost that become more winnable: aTm (maybe?).

Games Arkansas won that become less winnable: TCU, @ South Carolina (compared with Florida at home).

***

It's not just a matter of saying home vs. road, to evaluate the schedule. We were fortunate to catch TCU at Fort Worth when they were inexperienced. Based on their returnees and recruiting, Auburn and Missouri could bring improved football teams to Fayetteville next season.

[GuvHog]

Calling South Carolina at Columbia a tougher game than Florida in DWRRS is a joke. It's also known that TCU doesn't play near as well on the road.

[DeltaBoy]

9-wins or somebody got to go.

[Biggus Piggus]

Trivia -

Arkansas's W-L record in its first SEC game of October, since joining the league, is 9-16.

Arkansas's W-L record in its final SEC game of the season is 9-16.

Arkansas's W-L record in all other regular-season SEC games is 71-77-2.

[hogsanity]

Trivia -

Arkansas's W-L record in its first SEC game of October, since joining the league, is 9-16.

Arkansas's W-L record in its final SEC game of the season is 9-16.

Arkansas's W-L record in all other regular-season SEC games is 71-77-2.

Didn't we have a long stretch of opening SEC play with Bama and closing it with LSU?

[Biggus Piggus]

Calling South Carolina at Columbia a tougher game than Florida in DWRRS is a joke. It's also known that TCU doesn't play near as well on the road.

You're silly - not putting even a couple of brain cells into the comparison.

[Biggus Piggus]

Didn't we have a long stretch of opening SEC play with Bama and closing it with LSU?

The opening SEC game is always in September. We're 1-2 so far finishing against Missouri, which is a worse losing percentage than we had against LSU.

[GuvHog]

You're silly - not putting even a couple of brain cells into the comparison.

Not silly at all. South Carolina is not a good team while Florida is Florida. There is no comparison between the 2. Florida is MUCH better. If South Carolina beats Arkansas in Muschamp's second year of a major rebuilding project then Bret is worse than I originally thought.

[Boss Hog in the Arkansas]

Its not even about wins and losses, not completely anyway. The issue lately has been our inability to be competitive for 4 quarters. Theres no excuse you should be worried about losing a game when you go to halftime up by 24 points. Theres no reason you should get blown out by 53 points TO ANYONE. We don't even look like we belong on the field with some of these teams and that's the problem. What makes matters worse is our coaches, writers, and media members lie about how good we are at different positions. They get our hopes up for enormous failure every year

[Biggus Piggus]

Not silly at all. South Carolina is not a good team while Florida is Florida. There is no comparison between the 2. Florida is MUCH better. If South Carolina beats Arkansas in Muschamp's second year of a major rebuilding project then Bret is worse than I originally thought.

We had Florida, with a gimped offense + no run threat at QB + runs an offense we know inside out, at home when we were coming off an idle week.

Now we go to South Carolina, which is good on defense and probably getting better, with a promising young QB in a spread offense, for a road game on the first week of October, a week before we go to Alabama.

Do you get it?

[GuvHog]

We had Florida, with a gimped offense + no run threat at QB + runs an offense we know inside out, at home when we were coming off an idle week.

Now we go to South Carolina, which is good on defense and probably getting better, with a promising young QB in a spread offense, for a road game on the first week of October, a week before we go to Alabama.

Do you get it?

That should be a double digit win for the Hogs.

[hogsanity]

What makes matters worse is our coaches, writers, and media members lie about how good we are at different positions. They get our hopes up for enormous failure every year

you get your hopes up because you WANT to get your hopes up. I have never understood how it makes people think the team is good when they hear that, for example, the teams rs jr Qb that has hardly played in any games is tearing up the D in practice. That tells me the D is horrible. Or we hear how the DL is doing really well against the offense in practice, that tells me there may be an oline problem. But what most people hear is " Our Qb is a stud passer " or " the DL is a stone wall no one will run on ".

[dsf]

The worst thing that could happen for the future of the program is for 8-9 wins next season. If that happens BB will get a raise and an extension.

Good luck finding a better coach and man than BB.

[dsf]

you get your hopes up because you WANT to get your hopes up. I have never understood how it makes people think the team is good when they hear that, for example, the teams rs jr Qb that has hardly played in any games is tearing up the D in practice. That tells me the D is horrible. Or we hear how the DL is doing really well against the offense in practice, that tells me there may be an oline problem. But what most people hear is " Our Qb is a stud passer " or " the DL is a stone wall no one will run on ".

Absolutely right.

[Hogwild]

The opening SEC game is always in September. We're 1-2 so far finishing against Missouri, which is a worse losing percentage than we had against LSU.

No, its the same.  We closed the season with LSU 18 times, we were 6-12 in those games.

Edit I was looking at the season series since it became the battle for the boot.  We played LSU to close the season 4 other times prior to it becoming the battle of the boot.  We won 2 of those 5 games, so we were 8-15 against them to close the season, which is better than 33%.  Hopefully next year we beat Mizzou to move that series finale against them to .500

Nov. 29, 2013   #15 LSU def. Arkansas   31-27   Baton Rouge, La.
Nov. 23, 2012   #8 LSU def. Arkansas   20-13   Fayetteville, Ark.
Nov. 25, 2011   #1 LSU def. #3 Arkansas   41-17   Baton Rouge, La.
Nov. 27, 2010   #12 Arkansas def. #6 LSU   31-23    Little Rock, Ark.
Nov. 28, 2009   #17 LSU def. Arkansas   33-30 (OT)   Baton Rouge, La.
Nov. 28, 2008   Arkansas def. LSU   31-30   Little Rock, Ark.
Nov. 23, 2007   Arkansas def. #1 LSU   50-48 (3 OT)   Baton Rouge, La.
Nov. 24, 2006   #9 LSU def. #5 Arkansas   31-26   Little Rock, Ark.
Nov. 25, 2005   #3 LSU def. Arkansas   19-17   Baton Rouge, La.
Nov. 26, 2004   #14 LSU def. Arkansas   43-14   Little Rock, Ark.
Nov. 28, 2003   #3 LSU def. Arkansas   55-24   Baton Rouge, La.
Nov. 29, 2002   Arkansas def. #17 LSU   21-20   Little Rock, Ark.
Nov. 23, 2001   LSU def. #24 Arkansas   41-38   Baton Rouge, La.
Nov. 24, 2000   Arkansas def. #24 LSU   14-3   Little Rock, Ark.
Nov. 26, 1999   LSU def. #17 Arkansas   35-10   Baton Rouge, La.
Nov. 27, 1998   #13 Arkansas def. LSU   41-14   Little Rock, Ark.
Nov. 28, 1997   #17 LSU def. Arkansas   31-21   Baton Rouge, La.
Nov. 29, 1996   #19 LSU def. Arkansas   17-7   Little Rock, Ark.

[Boss Hog in the Arkansas]

you get your hopes up because you WANT to get your hopes up. I have never understood how it makes people think the team is good when they hear that, for example, the teams rs jr Qb that has hardly played in any games is tearing up the D in practice. That tells me the D is horrible. Or we hear how the DL is doing really well against the offense in practice, that tells me there may be an oline problem. But what most people hear is " Our Qb is a stud passer " or " the DL is a stone wall no one will run on ".

Yes I DO want to get my hopes up, but when you don't get to see practices and coaches get to put their own spin on whats really going on you end up thinking you have a team full of potential all americans

[hogsanity]

Yes I DO want to get my hopes up, but when you don't get to see practices and coaches get to put their own spin on whats really going on you end up thinking you have a team full of potential all americans

That is where program history and knowing how the other teams you have to play have recruited.  Program history says we NEVER have a team with more than 1 or 2 all americans - at most. Recruiting says that most of the teams in the sec have better players than we do.

[Porkette]

Our schedule is tough,  but it always is with the current state of things.

Given how this year was a step back, I think BB really needs to win 9 next year (either 9-3 or 8 plus a bowl win). Year 5 should be "the year" in the first steps of building his program.

[HF#1]

8-9 wins. Gotta start winning meaningful games.

[Jonteviosk]

Our schedule is tough,  but it always is with the current state of things.

Given how this year was a step back, I think BB really needs to win 9 next year (either 9-3 or 8 plus a bowl win). Year 5 should be "the year" in the first steps of building his program.

I'm calling bs building should already be taking place by yr 3. Yr 1 you do the best you with what you got. Yr 2 start getting some of your own recruits and are at least improved. Year three your winning more games and more competitive in your losses. Yr 4 your winning more games by 5 you should have turned the corner. Barring extenuating circumstances  which do not apply in this case for Burt Bielema. There was no excuse for regressing on defense like we have. Offense did improve as year went along at least until last 2 second halves. I wasn't angry about Virgina Tech a really good team. Missouri was inexcusable but yet a lot of you sicophants still want Burt to keep coaching. Hey we have integrity well not hear to open that can of worms. Since there is a change at DC I say he gets 1 more year and he had better win more than 8 freaken games better not have any meltdowns outside Alabama and no emberassing losses or near misses ala LA TECH OR TOLEDO.

[Youngsta71701]

I'm calling bs building should already be taking place by yr 3. Yr 1 you do the best you with what you got. Yr 2 start getting some of your own recruits and are at least improved. Year three your winning more games and more competitive in your losses. Yr 4 your winning more games by 5 you should have turned the corner. Barring extenuating circumstances  which do not apply in this case for Burt Bielema. There was no excuse for regressing on defense like we have. Offense did improve as year went along at least until last 2 second halves. I wasn't angry about Virgina Tech a really good team. Missouri was inexcusable but yet a lot of you sicophants still want Burt to keep coaching. Hey we have integrity well not hear to open that can of worms. Since there is a change at DC I say he gets 1 more year and he had better win more than 8 freaken games better not have any meltdowns outside Alabama and no emberassing losses or near misses ala LA TECH OR TOLEDO.

Once all of your players are in and all of the former coaches players are out you have no more excuses.

[Porkette]

I'm calling bs building should already be taking place by yr 3. Yr 1 you do the best you with what you got. Yr 2 start getting some of your own recruits and are at least improved. Year three your winning more games and more competitive in your losses. Yr 4 your winning more games by 5 you should have turned the corner. Barring extenuating circumstances  which do not apply in this case for Burt Bielema. There was no excuse for regressing on defense like we have. Offense did improve as year went along at least until last 2 second halves. I wasn't angry about Virgina Tech a really good team. Missouri was inexcusable but yet a lot of you sicophants still want Burt to keep coaching. Hey we have integrity well not hear to open that can of worms. Since there is a change at DC I say he gets 1 more year and he had better win more than 8 freaken games better not have any meltdowns outside Alabama and no emberassing losses or near misses ala LA TECH OR TOLEDO.

I said 9 because it would be another step forward. How many wins do you expect next year in order to be happy with their progress?

[Jonteviosk]

I said 9 because it would be another step forward. How many wins do you expect next year in order to be happy with their progress?

Honestly Burt owes us a 10 win season because of this years incompetence. Shoulda been a 9 win team this year with competent coaching.

[Al Boarland]

It's very simple. SC isn't near as good as the Florida team the Hogs just beat and Ole Miss is in shambles under an NCAA investigation so those are wins by any stretch of the imagination. The toughest home game is Auburn and after what happened this last year, you can bet Bret and the Hogs have that one circled on the calendar. As for A&M, the Hogs are overdue for a win in Arlington and will have by far the most experienced QB. That just leaves Bama and LSU which I predict will be losses.

I've see some questionable logic, but this is hilarious. Even with the NCAA Ole Miss is still more talented. Circling games? Lol. Overdue? LMAO. SCar is about equal talent and if this season is any indication they will scrap and claw for 4 quarters. Will the Hogs?

Let me guess, you are one of those fans that automatically throws a W by MS St.

The best way to discuss next season is to hope CBB takes care of business against the cupcakes. After that it's L's or Toss Ups.

[bennyl08]

For the record, I only compared road v home because it was easier. If you really want to go into depth, you need to look at where the games fit into THEIR schedules as well. I didn't/don't have time for that at the moment.

The 2017 schedule vs. 2016:

* Nonconference *

TCU home vs. road - TCU only had nine seniors; young team. They could be much improved in 2017, more than offsetting the home/road swing. It's naive to assume this gets better solely because we get them at home. Gary Patterson gets another shot at us. Is that good? TCU has a great record of rebounding after down seasons.

And you think we won't? We were both in a similar position last year as far as roster losses go, and we are both in a similar position this year. TCU should be better next season, but any improvement to them should be negated by improvement to our team. Thus, game being at home is what's left, and therefore, we have a better chance winning this game in 2017 than we did in 2016.

Coastal Carolina home vs. Texas State home - This gets a little harder. Coastal Carolina was 43-10 in the past four seasons. Next season is its first in FBS after reclassifying this season. Does not take much to be better than Texas State.

Indeed, but negligibly so. The best FCS team should not present a challenge for a good FBS team. We are talking about the difference between playing a junior high team in Texas State vs a top level  HS team in CoCa (obviously both are better than the comparison, but the point remains). Say playing Bama is a difficulty 10 game at their house. Difference between the worst FCS team and the best should be less than 1 unit for a team with top 25 talent like we do.

Bottom line - Arkansas easily could end up 3-1 in nonconference after going 4-0 in 2016.

For sure, but we by all accounts, we should have gone 3-1 last year instead of 4-0. Not talking about what-ifs with plays. We were expected to lose to TCU. http://www.oddsshark.com/ncaaf/odds/line-history/729660 The best line was -7, and was mostly close to being 10 point under dogs. It was a pretty big upset for us to win last year.

We still could lose this coming season, but I expect the odds to be much more of a tossup this season than last.

* Conference *

Texas A&M at Arlington - unchanged location. The Aggies lose a bunch of receivers, both OTs, and Trevor Knight at QB. The pass rush loses Myles Garrett and Daeshon Hall, plus three other defensive starters.

Roster wise this game is a plus for us, location wise is the same. Don't know about schedule fits this year and how it fits different from last year for the two teams.

South Carolina road vs. Florida home - This is not an improvement for us. Road game first week of October, week before we go to Alabama. Almost all of their offensive starters return, and their defense will gain from two years of good recruiting + the return of their star, Skai Moore, from injury. Florida was one of the few remaining pro-style offenses in the SEC. If our defense knew anything, it was how to deal with those.

Strongly disagree here. When we played Florida, we played more NFL talent who will be taken this draft alone than SC has on their entire roster, much less the next handful of drafts. Florida's team last year probably has more first round NFL draft picks than SC has total NFL draft picks. JLSmith could have been Florida's coach and Urban Meyer SC's, and I'd still call the change a wash simply due to the vast difference in talent level. They gave up 15 yards fewer per game on defense than we did despite playing a significantly easier schedule. On offense, they had the 115th ranked offense. Florida had the 116th. Offensively, returning starters is probably a bad thing for them. Plus, Muschamp is their HC and I'm not impressed with Roper. Florida at least had the 5th ranked defense in the country while SC's ranked 66th. They've had 1 recruiting class that was more than 4 spots different from us in the past 3 completed recruiting classes, and even then, it wasn't that much different from ours.

Alabama road vs. home - No idea how good Bama might be next season. Their defense has five senior starters - all key players - and three juniors. Anyone leaving early? Their offense has three senior starters and three juniors. There's a chance the Tide has to field a pretty young team next season. Does it matter?

Until we beat them, I just assume have this game on the road and a tossup game like auburn at home.

Auburn home vs. road - Auburn's offense might be much improved. Their defense loses two great players up front but should be OK. This game really ought to be a little more difficult matchup for the Hogs, because of the upgrades the Tigers are making on offense. It is better to have them at Fayetteville, but the matchup still could be tougher.

How often have we heard about upgrades on offense for the tigers only for them to fall flat? Jeremy Johnson, that big time JUCO wideout, etc... The more they try to advertise how good they are, IMO the less likely they are to be so. Look at Cam Newton. There was some chatter about him, but mostly from outside reporters at the spring game and such. Don't remember the university trying to hype him up before the season.

Overall, Auburn is a very comparable program to the hogs. We have more talent level. Win/loss record over the past decade is pretty close to even, maybe slightly in our favor, don't recall exactly. We have more NFL draft picks than they do over the past decade. I agree, and would say this is probably the third best team we will face all season, but the game is very winnable for us. Last season's matchup was a fluke performance. Well outside for their own norm last season as well as ours, as well as recent games. I expect this game to be a tossup and having it at home is a big boost to our schedule.

Ole Miss road vs. home - Shea Patterson might be a better QB than Chad Kelly. Freeze replaced both of his coordinators. NCAA's overhanging. Is this going to be a tougher game? Unclear.

Playing in Miss is always tough for the hogs. Particularly Starkville where we could be 10-0 and them 0-10 and I still wouldn't feel too comfortable. However, the grove has given us undue troubles before as well. At this point, this game is the 4th toughest opponent we will face next season, but is also a winnable game. Having it on the road at a place where we have struggled in their stadium before hurts us.

LSU road vs. home - This certainly is not getting any easier. Not a bit.

Doesn't make it any easier. However, this is our rivalry game of the season. Going back over the past decade, we are 2-3 at their house, 1-2 in Fayetteville, and 2-1 in LR. Doesn't really seem to matter where we play, we are about even. If we have the ability to beat them, doesn't seem to matter whose house we play in. If we don't, this is the 2nd toughest team we will play and therefore the 2nd least likely game we will win next year. So, it goes back to what do you want more in a schedule. Have the winnable games be tougher by playing them on the road and the least winnable games at home to give you an off chance at an upset, or the toughest games on the road that you will likely lose anyways and the most winnable games at home giving you the best chance to avoid upsets?

Missouri home vs. road - Mizzou loses only a handful of starters, and Damarea Crockett should be around to play against us this time. This game looks like even more of a challenge.

Mizzou loses a handful of starters, but we only lose a handful of starters. Mizzou should be better next season, sure, but again, you are neglecting that we should be much improved next season as well. At best, their improvement should cancel out ours. Last year's missouri team lost to Middle Tennessee and Kentucky. They didn't beat us so much as we beat ourselves in that game. Our team was having to overcome mental errors due to being a very young team. Their team was having to overcome straight up talent issues.

***

Games Arkansas lost that become more winnable: aTm (maybe?).

You are being either dishonest or just using bad logic in your use of only games we lost becoming more winnable or only games we won becoming less winnable. Games that we won that become more winnable is just as much an improvement to the schedule as games we lost becoming more winnable unless we are very likely to win. Playing NMst at home vs on the road doesn't change the favorability of that game any more than playing Bama away vs home changes things.

Games that become more winnable overall: TCU, MSU, Auburn, SC. (maybe aggies).

Games Arkansas won that become less winnable: TCU, @ South Carolina (compared with Florida at home).

Games that become less winnable: Bama, LSU, OM. (CoCa).

How you think a team with the 115th offense and 66th defense is a harder game than the team with the 116th offense but 5th ranked defense is beyond me.

***

It's not just a matter of saying home vs. road, to evaluate the schedule. We were fortunate to catch TCU at Fort Worth when they were inexperienced. Based on their returnees and recruiting, Auburn and Missouri could bring improved football teams to Fayetteville next season.

See first stuff I wrote for your first sentence.

We were fortunate? TCU was fortunate to catch an Arkansas team that had even less experience then they had, at home, and still couldn't beat us. Now, they have to face a much more experienced hogs squad at our place.

Based on the amount of returning talent and our recruiting, we will be hosting both of those teams with our own improved football team in Fayetteville next season. Auburn loses the players that harassed us this year. That game was an outlier in how well they played last season and at least the first half of that game was an outlier for us. We've been pretty even the past decade and will likely be closely matched season. For mizzou, they have yet to outclass us with talent on the field. Until they ever do that, I will always favor the hogs, and home game should do nothing but help us.

[PorkSoda]

It is not how many. We do not have the players to win 9-12 games on the hill.
It is all about winning the games we should and forcing the other team to win.
And when the better team slips up, we take advantage an win one we should not.
I tired of these second half melt downs

how else are we going to force other teams to win?

[HiggiePiggy]

how else are we going to force other teams to win?

I looked up the stats of our second half scoring since beliema has taken over. 

Year one you would think was the worse year.  Nope. Year 4 was.  123rd in the nation. 

2013 104th
2014 101st
2015 64th
2016 123rd.

[Letsroll1200]

5th year 10 wins!! It's time for Coach B to put up or shut up. No low tier bowl game next season. Capital One, Cotton, Sugar, etc... No more Texas, Liberty or Bell. Find away to win 10!!

[Locutus_of_Boar]

Sept. 2 Florida A&M War Memorial Stadium - 1-0
Sept. 9 TCU Fayetteville, Ark. 2-0
Sept. 23 Texas A&M Arlington, Texas - nothing short of ending the losing streak to A&M is acceptable 3-0
Sept. 30 New Mexico State Fayetteville, Ark. 4-0
Oct. 7 at South Carolina Columbia, S.C. 5-0
Oct. 14 at Alabama Tuscaloosa, Ala. 5-1 the minimum, acceptable is that this game for once should be for the lead of the division
Oct. 21 Auburn Fayetteville, Ark. after last year's performance only a win over Auburn is acceptable 6-1

Oct. 28 at Ole Miss Oxford, Miss. this series is to close to have many 4 game win streaks 6-2
Nov. 4 Coastal Carolina Fayetteville, Ark. 7-2

Nov. 11 at LSU Baton Rouge, La. 7-3
Nov. 18 Mississippi State Fayetteville, Ark. 8-3
Nov. 24 Missouri Fayetteville, Ark. 9-3
Jan 1 weekend Orlando, Jacksonville, Tampa, with a shot at NY6 in Arlington

8-4 with a loss to Auburn or USCe would be disappointing

7-5 would be unacceptable

[PORKULATOR]

Couldn't vote... there wasn't an 15-0 option.

[Jonteviosk]

Couldn't vote... there wasn't an 15-0 option.

No but it is mathematically possible lol 12-0 reg season, SEC CHAMPIONSHIP and college playoffs. Mathematically

[LZH]

Gawd, Guv, do you black out for years at a time?

No, that would be me.

Wait, what were we talking about.........?

[hog.goblin]

No but it is mathematically possible lol 12-0 reg season, SEC CHAMPIONSHIP and college playoffs. Mathematically

Math is your friend.  If you are going to abuse it, don't use it.

[Youngsta71701]

Honestly Burt owes us a 10 win season because of this years incompetence. Shoulda been a 9 win team this year with competent coaching.

I agree with this part.

[hogsanity]

5th year 10 wins!! It's time for Coach B to put up or shut up. No low tier bowl game next season. Capital One, Cotton, Sugar, etc... No more Texas, Liberty or Bell. Find away to win 10!!

hmm a 5th year .500 record and no post season was good enough for you last March.

[Letsroll1200]

hmm a 5th year .500 record and no post season was good enough for you last March.

That was after a very good 4th year!!! We have yet to have a breakout year in football.

[31to6]

Mainly for the Bielema-darksiders, but also for everyone else: What is the minimum number of wins next year makes you happy with the performance and hopeful moving forward?

More.

[GuvHog]

For the record, I only compared road v home because it was easier. If you really want to go into depth, you need to look at where the games fit into THEIR schedules as well. I didn't/don't have time for that at the moment.

And you think we won't? We were both in a similar position last year as far as roster losses go, and we are both in a similar position this year. TCU should be better next season, but any improvement to them should be negated by improvement to our team. Thus, game being at home is what's left, and therefore, we have a better chance winning this game in 2017 than we did in 2016.

Indeed, but negligibly so. The best FCS team should not present a challenge for a good FBS team. We are talking about the difference between playing a junior high team in Texas State vs a top level  HS team in CoCa (obviously both are better than the comparison, but the point remains). Say playing Bama is a difficulty 10 game at their house. Difference between the worst FCS team and the best should be less than 1 unit for a team with top 25 talent like we do.

For sure, but we by all accounts, we should have gone 3-1 last year instead of 4-0. Not talking about what-ifs with plays. We were expected to lose to TCU. http://www.oddsshark.com/ncaaf/odds/line-history/729660 The best line was -7, and was mostly close to being 10 point under dogs. It was a pretty big upset for us to win last year.

We still could lose this coming season, but I expect the odds to be much more of a tossup this season than last.

Roster wise this game is a plus for us, location wise is the same. Don't know about schedule fits this year and how it fits different from last year for the two teams.

Strongly disagree here. When we played Florida, we played more NFL talent who will be taken this draft alone than SC has on their entire roster, much less the next handful of drafts. Florida's team last year probably has more first round NFL draft picks than SC has total NFL draft picks. JLSmith could have been Florida's coach and Urban Meyer SC's, and I'd still call the change a wash simply due to the vast difference in talent level. They gave up 15 yards fewer per game on defense than we did despite playing a significantly easier schedule. On offense, they had the 115th ranked offense. Florida had the 116th. Offensively, returning starters is probably a bad thing for them. Plus, Muschamp is their HC and I'm not impressed with Roper. Florida at least had the 5th ranked defense in the country while SC's ranked 66th. They've had 1 recruiting class that was more than 4 spots different from us in the past 3 completed recruiting classes, and even then, it wasn't that much different from ours.

Until we beat them, I just assume have this game on the road and a tossup game like auburn at home.

How often have we heard about upgrades on offense for the tigers only for them to fall flat? Jeremy Johnson, that big time JUCO wideout, etc... The more they try to advertise how good they are, IMO the less likely they are to be so. Look at Cam Newton. There was some chatter about him, but mostly from outside reporters at the spring game and such. Don't remember the university trying to hype him up before the season.

Overall, Auburn is a very comparable program to the hogs. We have more talent level. Win/loss record over the past decade is pretty close to even, maybe slightly in our favor, don't recall exactly. We have more NFL draft picks than they do over the past decade. I agree, and would say this is probably the third best team we will face all season, but the game is very winnable for us. Last season's matchup was a fluke performance. Well outside for their own norm last season as well as ours, as well as recent games. I expect this game to be a tossup and having it at home is a big boost to our schedule.

Playing in Miss is always tough for the hogs. Particularly Starkville where we could be 10-0 and them 0-10 and I still wouldn't feel too comfortable. However, the grove has given us undue troubles before as well. At this point, this game is the 4th toughest opponent we will face next season, but is also a winnable game. Having it on the road at a place where we have struggled in their stadium before hurts us.

Doesn't make it any easier. However, this is our rivalry game of the season. Going back over the past decade, we are 2-3 at their house, 1-2 in Fayetteville, and 2-1 in LR. Doesn't really seem to matter where we play, we are about even. If we have the ability to beat them, doesn't seem to matter whose house we play in. If we don't, this is the 2nd toughest team we will play and therefore the 2nd least likely game we will win next year. So, it goes back to what do you want more in a schedule. Have the winnable games be tougher by playing them on the road and the least winnable games at home to give you an off chance at an upset, or the toughest games on the road that you will likely lose anyways and the most winnable games at home giving you the best chance to avoid upsets?

Mizzou loses a handful of starters, but we only lose a handful of starters. Mizzou should be better next season, sure, but again, you are neglecting that we should be much improved next season as well. At best, their improvement should cancel out ours. Last year's missouri team lost to Middle Tennessee and Kentucky. They didn't beat us so much as we beat ourselves in that game. Our team was having to overcome mental errors due to being a very young team. Their team was having to overcome straight up talent issues.

You are being either dishonest or just using bad logic in your use of only games we lost becoming more winnable or only games we won becoming less winnable. Games that we won that become more winnable is just as much an improvement to the schedule as games we lost becoming more winnable unless we are very likely to win. Playing NMst at home vs on the road doesn't change the favorability of that game any more than playing Bama away vs home changes things.

Games that become more winnable overall: TCU, MSU, Auburn, SC. (maybe aggies).

Games that become less winnable: Bama, LSU, OM. (CoCa).

How you think a team with the 115th offense and 66th defense is a harder game than the team with the 116th offense but 5th ranked defense is beyond me.

See first stuff I wrote for your first sentence.

We were fortunate? TCU was fortunate to catch an Arkansas team that had even less experience then they had, at home, and still couldn't beat us. Now, they have to face a much more experienced hogs squad at our place.

Based on the amount of returning talent and our recruiting, we will be hosting both of those teams with our own improved football team in Fayetteville next season. Auburn loses the players that harassed us this year. That game was an outlier in how well they played last season and at least the first half of that game was an outlier for us. We've been pretty even the past decade and will likely be closely matched season. For mizzou, they have yet to outclass us with talent on the field. Until they ever do that, I will always favor the hogs, and home game should do nothing but help us.

A very, very good breakdown Benny. The only game I disagree with you on is Ole Miss. As I said, they are in shambles and under an NCAA investigation so at the very least, that game is just as winnable as it was last year if not a little more so. If they get hit with major sanctions, I could see Freeze getting terminated before next season.

[Hogwild]

How many wins do we need next season to go bowling, 6 or 7?

Since we play 2 FCS schools (Florida A&M & Coastal Carolina) will both victories count toward bowl eligibility?  I remember that you used to be able to only count 1, is that rule still in effect?

[hogsanity]

How many wins do we need next season to go bowling, 6 or 7?

Since we play 2 FCS schools (Florida A&M & Coastal Carolina) will both victories count toward bowl eligibility?  I remember that you used to be able to only count 1, is that rule still in effect?

Coastal Carolina is FBS next season.

[bkjbearcat]

10-2 losses to LSU & Bama

This. Year five no excuses. There will be all HCBB guys. New Years Day Bowl or bust. If it's another 7-5 season then I guess it was all Barry in Wis. So long, it hasn't been pleasant.

[Hogwild]

Coastal Carolina is FBS next season.

Thanks, good to know.

[AirWarren]

12-0

#NeverYield#NoExcuses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry4iwzS4Na0

[Biggus Piggus]

It does not make the least bit of sense to couch an analysis of schedule difficulty in a review of changes on our own team. Is the 2017 schedule more difficult than 2016, or is it not? You can't say "oh but we'll be better too," because that is irrelevant.

Let me simplify this: Will our opponents in 2017 have better records against other teams (not us) than they had in 2016?

[hog.goblin]

Let me simplify this: Will our opponents in 2017 have better records against other teams (not us) than they had in 2016?

Yes, unless they don't

[Wildhog]

Yes, unless they don't

haha, seriously.  We have no idea.

[jkstock04]

8-10 win expectations for next year huh? Are those spiteful 'this year sucked so we better be good next year' expectations?

Or does the majority seriously expect Bielema to produce an 8+ win season? I could see us getting to 8 wins regular season but I think that's Bielemas ceiling at Arkansas.

Avg Expectations for '16 were probably 7 wins.

[hog.goblin]

8-10 win expectations for next year huh? Are those spiteful 'this year sucked so we better be good next year' expectations?

Or does the majority seriously expect Bielema to produce an 8+ win season? I could see us getting to 8 wins regular season but I think that's Bielemas ceiling at Arkansas.

Avg Expectations for '16 were probably 7 wins.

My expectation for 2016 was 7 wins, 6 regular season and a bowl victory.

But that would not have made me happy, it's just what I expected.

I'm not upset or mad either.  Just disappointed.  It seems like we took a huge step back at the OL and on the defense.  The OL was expected, I figured the defense would improve some.  It got worse.

I like Bielemma.  I think he is a good coach and is doing it the right way.  I don't know if he can build a program.  I don't know if he can hire the right assistants.

I'm willing to wait and find out.  How long depends on how well we play more than Wins and Losses.

I'm not sure what to expect for next year.  8 wins, maybe 9, including the bowl game.  I might be happy with 8 - 5 if there are some close road losses that are understandable.

[hog.goblin]

haha, seriously.  We have no idea.

no kidding.  I wouldn't be shocked to see us go 5 - 7 or 9 - 3.  That's a pretty big range. 

LSU might be great, or might take a step back.  Same with Ole Miss.

Who the heck knows.