HOOVER, Ala. — After losing by one point and one touchdown to Alabama and Mississippi State respectively last season, Arkansas started to gain confidence.
The Razorbacks had chances to win both contests, but made a couple of mistakes late that was the difference between winning and losing. It did however, help them down the stretch, as the Razorbacks won three of their final four games, including a 31-7 victory over Texas in a bowl game.
“At the end of the year last year, not a lot of people would have wanted to play Arkansas, and that’s just fine by me,” Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said.
The Hogs shut out both Ole Miss and LSU at home, but fell to No. 17 Missouri on the road by only a touchdown. The close calls against the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs are what propelled Arkansas to the strong finish.
“Scars remind you of difficult places in your life that you’ve championed. We’ve championed those moments. We didn’t win them, but they’re not going to be a part of our history that’s lost forever. They’ll be things we carry with us forever, and I’ll remind our players how close we are,” said Bielema, who came to Arkansas from Wisconsin. “Everybody wants to point to Ole Miss and LSU, (but) I think Mississippi State and Alabama may have been a defining moment of who we are and what we are.”
Bielema brought three offensive players with him to SEC Media Days Wednesday. All three are seniors and Bielema felt they earned the opportunity. Quarterback Brandon Allen, running back Jonathan Williams, and wide receiver Keon Hatcher hope to keep the Razorback offense plugging along this season.
For Allen, he is looking to carry over the positives from last season to this season. As a junior, he passed for 2,285 yards and 20 touchdowns.
There is also a new offensive coordinator in Dan Enos and Hatcher believes the former Central Michigan assistant will open the playbook some.
“With this new offensive coordinator coach, I feel like we are going to open it up a little bit more and Brandon is going to show more of what he has done,” said Hatcher, who led the team with 43 catches, 558 yards, and six touchdowns last season.
Missouri
After leaving the Big 12 to come to the SEC in 2012, the Tigers were hit with a reality check in their very first year in the league.
Missouri went 5-7 overall and 2-6 in conference play. The Tigers did much better the last two seasons by winning the SEC East, before losing in the SEC Championship game.
However, critics haven’t been high on the Tigers, and they were picked to finish sixth and fourth respectively the last two seasons.
“I think it probably bothers my players a little bit more than me,” coach Gary Pinkel said. “I don’t really talk about that. I don’t really go there.”
Pinkel admitted he didn’t know where they were predicted to finish the last two seasons, but his players were well aware. The predicted finish of order is expected to come out today and that will only add fuel to the fire that is directly beneath the Tigers.
“We are back-to-back SEC (East) champs and we are coming for the third,” junior quarterback Maty Mauk said. “We are going to be ready. It’s not even a respect thing anymore. We are going to be disrespected, we are going to be on the bottom of everybody’s polls and it’s something we can’t control so we aren’t even going to worry about it.”
Mauk had a good sophomore campaign throwing for 2,648 yards and 25 touchdowns. He also rushed for 373 yards and another two touchdowns. But there were some flaws that Pinkel saw.
Mauk threw 13 interceptions and only completed 53.4 percent of his passes. And just like other quarterbacks, this offseason has been full working on the position for Mauk.
“We need more consistency out of the position,” Pinkel said. “He understands that. He’s a pressure pack player. He plays very well under pressure, but the consistency of having an offense that produces, I think, requires consistency from that position.
“He’s just worked very, very hard, all fundamentals, film study, defensive recognition, and timing with his players.”
Kentucky
Wildcat coach Mark Stoops is really happy that the last two years of rebuilding the program didn’t kill him.
He took over the Kentucky team ahead of the 2013 season, and had a tall task in front of him. After going to five-straight bowl games from 2006-10, the Wildcats had two losing seasons resulting in Joker Phillips being fired.
Stoops won two games in his first season and five last season.
“I feel like we learned a lot of valuable lessons,” said Stoops, who came to Kentucky from Florida State. “The team learned a lot of lessons. I did.
“And as we move forward, we’ve worked extremely hard to make Kentucky relevant in the SEC East. As we move into this third year, we really feel like we put ourselves in a position to do just that.”
The Wildcats won five of their first six games, with the only loss coming in three overtimes to Florida on the road. They lost the remaining six games to finish 5-7 overall.
Former East Mississippi Community College standout A.J. Stamps starts his second and final year at Kentucky and he has thought long and hard about the way last season ended.
“By the way the season ended last year, and the way we were playing, we’re using that as motivation and that adds hunger to the hunger we already have to go out and prove to the world that we are capable of winning games and keep up as a team,” said Stamps, who played his high school ball at Vicksburg.
Stamps made the move from cornerback to safety when he arrived in Lexington, Kentucky. He had a good first year on campus with 56 total tackles and led the team with four interceptions.
Ben Wait is a sports writer for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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