FAYETTEVILLE — The resounding theme from the tightrope-walking Arkansas Razorbacks after Saturday’s 31-28 victory at Vanderbilt was they were happier to fly home being considered lucky winners rather than losers.
And the computers that crunch college football results hardly seem to care about Arkansas’ razor-thin victories over the lower-rated teams from the SEC. The Hogs moved from No. 10 to No. 7 in the Bowl Championship Series standings Sunday night, matching their highest position in the Bobby Petrino era.
Arkansas’ climb was made possible after previously undefeated Kansas State and Clemson lost. The Razorbacks also leaped over Oregon, which slipped from 7 to 8 after defeating Washington State. Arkansas was also No. 7 after defeating LSU 31-23 in last year’s season finale before falling to No. 8 in the final BCS standings.
The Razorbacks (7-1 overall, 3-1 SEC) remained at No. 8 in the Harris and USA Today Coaches polls, components of the BCS rankings. But it was their No. 7 computer average that helped them leap Oregon, which ranked No. 6 in the human polls but is No. 13 with the computers.
Arkansas remained at No. 8 in the AP poll, which has no bearing on the BCS.
The Razorbacks have consecutive home games against South Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi State the next three weeks, with Saturday’s matchup against South Carolina a meeting of top 10 teams. South Carolina (7-1) moved to No. 9 in the BCS after winning 14-3 at Tennessee on Saturday.
Arkansas won Saturday despite being held without an offensive touchdown in the second half for the first time this season, and has managed to do just enough to overcome its rocky starts in recent victories over Texas A&M, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt.
“I do want to give our kids a lot of credit for the way they continue to battle, and we end up finishing with more points than the other team when the clock runs out,” offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said on Saturday. “I don’t want to miss that. ... Of course at some point we’re going to get ourselves in trouble. It could have been today.”
Said quarterback Tyler Wilson, “Again, it’s not pretty, and we didn’t come out fast again.”
Senior defensive end Jake Bequette said the script of playing catchup is getting old.
“It’s very frustrating,” he said. “We’re definitely not satisfied with where we are right now. We’re not happy at all.
“We’re happy to be 7-1. That’s a great position. It looks good on paper, but we know we’re capable of being much better on defense and offense.”
Vanderbilt used two fourth-down conversions and a solid ball-control attack with Jordan Rodgers at the helm to take a 21-7 lead. But the Razorbacks rallied for a key touchdown with five seconds left in the half and received three secondhalf turnovers to aid its comeback.
“The thing I’m happy about is we’re going home [with] seven wins, one loss,” Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino said. “It’s been a tough go for our football team when you look at going on the road at Alabama, in Dallas, get one game home against Auburn, two more on the road. I’m proud we’re coming home 7-1.”
For a fifth consecutive week, the Razorbacks looked flat on offense and gave up chunk yardage on defense in the early going. Arkansas has trailed by at least 10 points at some point during the first half in all four of its games away from home, before coming back to win the last three.
Receiver Jarius Wright wouldn’t say the Razorbacks dodged another bullet.
“We’re a very good football team,” he said. “We’re very resilient and we never give up. We know what we’re capable of doing. ... We came back and won.”
Sports, Pages 13 on 10/31/2011