Alabama-Arkansas Preview And Prediction

Poor Bobby.

Bobby Petrino left a mess when he took that motorcycle ride back in the spring. He left a mess on the highway, and in the Athletic Department when he was subsequently fired for embarrassing the university. But he had no idea, nor could anyone else, the mess that would be left.

John L. Smith was hired to take his place, on an interim basis. John L. Smith, y'all. Too many LOL's to even get into. All you need to do is look at what happened Saturday night against Louisiana Monroe to see what everyone should've expected when Smith was named the man in charge. He is a clown. Hell, I wish he'd never leave.

This guy wants Petrino back.

Smith also has no idea what he is getting into this Saturday afternoon. And that is whether he has his star QB Tyler Wilson on the field or not. Wilson was beat to hell and back by LaMo Saturday night, to the point that he was put out of the game with what they called a head injury. A concussion was what was said at first. Then it was reported somewhere that he had a broken collarbone and would be out for possibly a month or more. Then that talk quickly turned back to that it was a head injury, and on Monday Arkansas stated that Wilson was day to day. Smith added that having Wilson back for practice this week would be "The icing on the cake". 

What cake, John? All I see you eating is crow. That is, if you ever seriously meant it when you said this would be a championship season at Arkansas. Good one.

Tyler Wilson, if he plays.

I think they are BS'ing us about Wilson, so that we will prepare for him regardless. Too bad Wilson doesn't play 3 or 4 positions on defense as well, or we'd really have something to worry about. If Wilson plays, he won't be 100 %. And if he's even close to that, he won't be in the game for very long when Bama gets done with him. Everyone knows they will come at him from all angles and absolutely pound him. La Monroe was able to get all over him. Alabama will re-injure whatever injury he may have to a greater extent. 

If he plays, and lasts the whole game, I still don't see Arkansas coming within 10 points. Bama will have no problem scoring over 30 points in this game, maybe 40. With Wilson at his best, they only scored 14 last year and wouldn't get over 20 this year. If Wilson doesn't play at all, they have ZERO shot and this could turn into a 30 something point beatdown with Bama's backups in the game for the 4th quarter. 

The Hogs will also be without their best corner, Tevin Mitchel who was hurt in the ULM game as well, with that they have termed "an injury above the shoulders". These people are bad at describing injuries. AJ is going to throw for another 4 TD's if they're not careful. And maybe even if they are.

Entering the season, this was one of the biggest games of the season. It was a top 10 matchup. College Gameday was going to be there. It would be the first test for two teams who were each expected to compete for the National Title. Thanks for screwing all that up, Piggies. Now Gameday will be at the Tennessee-Florida game. Now that Arkansas has been knocked completely out of the top 25, there is also another interesting tidbit of info for this game: Alabama has won their last 32 games against unranked opponents. The last unranked opponent that we lost to was in 2007. It was the same team that just beat Arkansas and the same team that is about to beat Auburn. Louisiana Freaking Monroe. If Monroe does win this Saturday, I say we trade Ole Miss for them. Seems fair, at this point. Also, entering the season, Alabama was a 6 pt favorite in this game. With the current events, that line has risen to 22 points and higher in some places. That's crazy.

CBS's Gary Danielson said on Tuesday on the Paul Finebaum radio show that Arkansas's only chance in this game is to give Bama a heavy dose of RB Knile Davis. Davis may be a bruiser, but he's not what he was before his injury last year, and even if he was. I'm not afraid of any dose of ANY running back in the country against our D. That's one thing that nobody is going to do on a consistent basis, run the ball.

I can't help but like Gary. He entertains me. I look forward to hearing him call the game. But I swear to God, if he mentions Tim Tebow or Cam Newton ONE TIME during this week's game....

At least he's better than Verne Lundquist, who doesn't even know how to pronounce players names. Orlando McCain says hi.

I think CJ Mosley will be one of the key players for Bama on defense regardless of who Arky's QB is, because he is such an asset in pass coverage, and Arky's leading receiver is their tight end, who CJ will more often than not be matched up against in the middle. Look for a pick for CJ. I'm gonna go ahead and call that one.

As for the predicted score, I still think there are ways that Arkansas could give us problems, but the matchup in the trenches favors Bama greatly on both sides. This could be similar to the Michigan game and I'll predict a similar score

Alabama 44
Arkansas 13


Funny stuff I found around the web:

This is actually kinda cool in a weird way.

No words.

Woo Pig Tramp stamp!