Whew. Arkansas fans, players and coaches can finally breathe a sigh of relief, as the football team has its first bye of the season Saturday, after playing eight consecutive weeks to start the season.
The Razorbacks were just one of 10 FBS schools to play in each of the first eight weeks of the college football season.
Head coach Bret Bielema knew it would be a tough stretch when he first saw the schedule.
After three relatively easy nonconference games to start the season, Arkansas traveled to Rutgers for its first road game, followed by four consecutive games against preseason top 10 Southeastern Conference foes.
As it played out, the Razorbacks lost to Rutgers, as well as No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 18 Florida, No. 14 South Carolina and No. 1 Alabama by an average margin of 26.6 points per game.
This was a completely new experience for Bielema, as he had only coached back-to-back games against top 20 teams, never four consecutive games. In 2010, he led Wisconsin to back-to-back victories over No. 1 Ohio State and No. 13 Iowa.
“That took everything we had,” Bielema said. “The third week, we had a bye week and we had seven players (with injuries) that would not have played that week.”
Injuries were certainly a factor during this stretch for the Razorbacks, as well. Most notably, senior defensive tackle Robert Thomas broke his leg in the game against South Carolina and will miss the remainder of the season.
Sophomore cornerback Will Hines will miss significant time, as well, after breaking his arm playing against Florida. He originally tweeted that he would miss the rest of the season, but Bielema said he could possibly return for the last two regular season games.
Several other Razorbacks have also missed at least some game time, including sophomore quarterback Brandon Allen, senior center Travis Swanson, freshman tight end Hunter Henry, junior linebacker Martrell Spaight, senior defensive tackle Byran Jones, senior linebacker Austin Jones, sophomore safety Rohan Gaines and sophomore wide receiver Keon Hatcher.
The bye week will allow these players, and the rest of the team, extra rest to nurse their various bumps and bruises that they have been playing on for eight weeks.
Schematically, Arkansas will have two weeks to prepare for No. 11 Auburn’s high-octane offense.
Led by first-year head coach Gus Malzahn, the Tigers are averaging 35.9 points per game and 494.3 yards per game. That is sixth and third in the SEC, respectively.
The Razorbacks will also need to focus on how to take advantage of Auburn’s defense. The Tigers give up 428.1 yards per game, which is 12th in the SEC, ahead of only Kentucky and Texas A&M.
During the bye week, Arkansas should continue to work on its struggling passing game. If Allen improves his accuracy, the offensive line protects better and the receivers catch the ball when it’s thrown to them, the Razorbacks could have a big game offensively because Auburn is dead last in the SEC with 282 passing yards allowed per game.
Despite the five-game losing streak, Arkansas fans should expect to see a much better performance by the Razorbacks after the bye week.
At Wisconsin, Bielema was 4-1 in games following a bye week. The only loss was a 27-25 road loss to Michigan, while the four victories were won by an average margin of 39.5 points per game.
In 2009, his Wisconsin team lost back-to-back games against No. 9 Ohio State and No. 10 Iowa going into the bye week. Coming out of the bye week, they won their next three games and went 5-1 the rest of the season, including a 20-14 win over No. 15 Miami in the Champs Sports Bowl.
Auburn plays Florida International 6:30 p.m. Saturday. before traveling to Fayetteville Nov. 2 to play the Razorbacks. The Nov. 2 game will either kick off at 5 p.m. and air on ESPN2 or at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
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