Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

2/15/2012 at 10:03pm

Image by Mark Wager

Jerry Franklin won't be around to make big plays for the defense in 2012. He's one of several mainstays that will be gone, leaving some to wonder how the Razorbacks will fare.

The last time Beano Cook thought this highly of the Arkansas Razorback football program — proclaiming the Hogs likely to play for a national championship — he was 43 years younger, and Arkansas was returning most of the team that throttled a Southeastern Conference powerhouse in a New Year's Day bowl game.

Then, as now, Cook cited one major factor in Arkansas' favor: the upcoming schedule.

In the winter-spring of 1969, Cook was working for ABC Television's Roone Arledge, who was wanting to make college football's centennial season extra special. Arledge wanted the best TV package possible — and remember, this was when one network carried college football, and often only one game was shown each Saturday, and games weren't moved from afternoon to nighttime on a whim a week before kick off. Also, the NCAA frowned upon teams being shown more the twice in one season.

My, how times have changed.

But in 1969, Cook had the foresight to see that Texas and Arkansas, if they moved their game from the usual mid-October date to Dec. 6, at the end of the season, they could both arrive there unbeaten and perhaps ranked Nos. 1-2. Of course, Ohio State was the defending national champion and had almost everyone back, and the Buckeyes would have to stumble.

And it all came to pass. Arkansas and Texas were both televised three times that year. The Texas-Arkansas game was so big, President Richard Nixon attended, and Billy Graham gave the invocation. What's fascinating is to read Orville Henry's preseason writeup of the season in the Arkansas Gazette that also forecast those events for Dec. 6, 1969.

Flash forward to now, with Cook being the first of several sports columnists/would-be seers who have penciled Arkansas in for at least playing for the national championship. Cook said the Hogs and Southern Cal, which will be back on the bowl scene after a year away because of probation, will meet in the BCS Championship Game.

If you're fully expecting another SEC team to make the title contest for the seventh year in a row and are simply tired of naming Alabama or LSU for one of the spots, then Arkansas probably seems like the next logical choice from the league based on the success of Hogs' past two seasons.

Arkansas' five losses over 2010-11 have come against teams that at one point were No. 1 in the polls in the past two years — Alabama (twice), LSU, Auburn and Ohio State.

With maybe the best quarterback in the country returning, along with four offensive linemen, one experienced receiver, and running back Knile Davis healthy after a year's absence, the national prognosticators and columnists don't see much if any fall-off in Bobby Petrino's offense.

National writers who are hesitant to crown Arkansas as the next SEC king always point to the Hogs'  shortcomings on defense the past four seasons under Petrino. Arkansas fans we've encountered, however, seem outright giddy at the Hogs' performance in the Cotton Bowl win over Kansas State, proclaiming it proof that ousted defensive coordinator Willy Robinson won't be missed.

The thought appears to be that all is about to be well with Arkansas defensively with new coordinator Paul Haynes and a recruiting class that was heavy in star-studded defensive talent (well, relative to what had been recruiting the past few seasons).

Cook was the first, again, to point to Arkansas' schedule as favorable in 2012: Both Alabama and LSU will play in Arkansas this fall, though the Hogs haven't beaten Alabama anywhere since Nick Saban showed up in Tuscaloosa.

We still don't know who the 12th game will be, now that former nonconference foe Texas A&M has joined the SEC; but, it sounds more and more likely that a home-and-home series will be starting with Rutgers. That surely can't hurt the Hogs' strength of schedule.

The addition of Missouri to the SEC East will reduce Arkansas' East rivals this fall to two: South Carolina (road) and Kentucky (home). We suppose if Petrino were to order up the two teams in the East he'd most like to play, that would be it. No Georgia, Florida, or a road game to Tennessee, which originally was on the schedule until the league expansion.

The SEC trips away from home are Auburn, Mississippi State and Texas A&M — each figures to be a dangerous roadblock to a division title, even if Arkansas manages to solve Alabama and beats LSU, which will return the most talent in the West. Arkansas beat Texas A&M in College Station ONE time between 1983-91 before leaving the Southwest Conference. The Hogs have had road success at Auburn, and they've also been able usually to escape Starkville, though not without a tussle.

Arkansas still must replace the big-play abilities of Jarius Wright and Joe Adams at receiver (as well as Adams' special teams talents), and Davis must prove he can keep his ankles in one piece, or the Hogs will be back where they've been in a running game that seems to take half the season to develop.

Defensively, no freshman or redshirt freshman can be expected to step in September and not make first-year mistakes. Arkansas will have to rely on first-year or second-year-redshirt players throughout its defensive depth chart, particularly at linebacker, at end and in the secondary.

Who will take over Tramain Thomas' role as the steady safety? Word is out that hard-hitting outside linebacker Ross Rasner will get a look there. Speedy Eric Bennett, built more like a cornerback, will be back at the other safety. Tevin Mitchel and Darius Winston lead the experienced players at corner.

The interior defensive line should be improved. The ends may be deeper and more athletic. But who will replace the leadership provided for four years by Jake Bequette?

Athletic Alonzo Highsmith returns at linebacker, but who steps up and plays like an SEC linebacker at the other spots? Who replaces the big-play ability and four-year experience of Jerry Franklin and Jerico Nelson?

Though Arkansas' defense often was maligned during the past three seasons of 29 wins, and a 21-5 record of the past two, Thomas, Bequette, Nelson and Franklin were the consistent, instrumental cogs in that defense and in turning games Arkansas' way. Franklin, in particular, seemed to change games all by himself, including last year's fumble return for a touchdown at Vanderbilt.

Until their replacements surface, it's hard to believe Arkansas will be a team good enough to be talked about as an SEC winner, must less a national title contender. But for the fans, we suppose, it's nice to be in the conversation.

E-mail: jharris@abpg.com or follow on Twitter @jimharris360.

Tagged: Jerry Franklin, Bobby Petrino, Knile Davis, Jerico Nelson, Jake Bequette, Tramain Thomas, Eric Bennett