Arkansas football is awful, but one thing is keeping Hog fans sane
As bad as the current reality is for Arkansas football fans and the awful product they are being exposed to, it could be worse. How so, some might ask - it can't really be much worse than this, right? Well, it could be worse: Alex Golesh of Auburn could be getting off to a great start in the SEC. Instead, that's not the case. Auburn lost at home to Florida this past weekend in a battle of first-year SEC head coaches. Jon Sumrall and Florida got the upper hand on Golesh, who is stumbling out of the gate on The Plains.
Remember that Alex Golesh, whose wife is from Arkansas, was heavily rumored to be the next Razorback head coach last fall during the heart of the coaching carousel season. The idea of a successful coach at South Florida - someone who achieved more last year than Ryan Silverfield did at Memphis - coming to Fayetteville was exciting. We also knew that if Arkansas did finalize a deal to hire Alex Golesh, it would get Byrum Brown - the 2025 quarterback for Golesh at USF - as its 2026 signal-caller.
Yes, it's true that Byrum Brown would still be an upgrade over KJ Jackson and AJ Hill at quarterback. However, just imagine how miserable Arkansas fans would be if Brown was really nailing it at Auburn and playing his best football (or anything close to it). There would be a deafening roar of outrage if Golesh and Brown were thriving at Auburn.
Fortunately, they are not. It is removing one dark and explosive talking point from the larger conversation at Arkansas about the athletic director, the head coach, the quarterback position, and the generally sorry state of the football program, particularly the offense. It would be 10 million times worse for Arkansas fans if Golesh and Brown were really putting together something special at Auburn, and if the Tigers were instantly establishing themselves as a threat and a relevant program in the SEC. That scenario is not materializing, at least not now.
So many moments and seasons in sports - any sport, not just college football - are accompanied by the most painful question imaginable: What if? What if this school had hired this coach instead of whiffing on him or hiring someone else? Arkansas fans entered this season dreading the possibility of having to ask themselves "What if?" about Alex Golesh. Not having to do so is a source of immense relief. At least we don't have to talk about this. We can simply worry about the 5,000 other things wrong with Arkansas football. It's a small thing, but it's something.
