I've never enjoyed kicking the downtrodden. But to ignore the debacle every Razorback fan and supporter witnessed during the disastrous final month of our 2016 season is pure-dee denial.
The Hogs blowing a 24-7 lead in the season's final SEC game at lowly Missouri followed by losing 35-24 in a nearly identical nightmare to Virginia Tech in the Belk Bowl exposed obvious flaws in the program that lie largely with recruiting and coaching.
While no sports columnist, I do offer opinions on current events. With all the money, time and widespread emotion involved in our team's late-game faceplants, the issue qualifies as a matter of public concern.
Every Razorback fan likely still feels the embarrassment of that nationally televised Belk Bowl disaster. Many believe it was entirely avoidable with proper halftime and real-time coaching adjustments, as Virginia Tech did to repeatedly sack and ultimately blank our inept Hogs in the second half.
Razorback Coach Bret Bielema, who before the final game promised his offense and defense alike would finally play "four quarters" of football, instead was left as exposed as that fabled emperor sans clothing. These shocking defeats were equally excruciating for him and assistant coaches, as well as this team and others that have allowed more than a dozen late-game disappointments since Bielema's arrival in 2013.
While competent coaching makes such a difference in the outcome of games, it's the ability and performance of college athletes playing wholeheartedly and in unison that ultimately produce victories. I'll not even address the shocking character problems two Razorbacks revealed surrounding the bowl game.
Yet for whatever reasons, the 2016 team twice failed to muster the ability, fortitude, intelligence, timing, character, speed, muscle and teamwork required to maintain big leads for even 30 minutes of both season-ending games.
What we're left to anticipate going into 2017 is an inconsistent program in obvious need of effective revisions and direction. For me, such reforms demand a revamped defense (see Alabama and Clemson game films) and a truly capable offensive line with two fundamental skills: Protecting the quarterback and opening holes for proven running backs.
It also includes a wise and agile quarterback who passes well while managing pressure and running with the speed and elusiveness of a halfback (see most quarterbacks who beat us this year).
Mike Rogers of Cabot, a veteran Razorback observer, tells me his (and others') chronic pet peeve is the apparent lack of speed and physical and mental toughness when compared with most SEC opponents (even hapless Missouri).
Until such changes become the norm and ineffective pass-protection and arm-tackling land Hog defensive players on the bench, I fear our beloved Razorbacks are doomed to remain a second-tier SEC West team constantly laboring at or below the middle of the pack, just where we finished again this year.
Watching Alabama systematically defeat quality teams by using intelligence, speed, coaching skills and character reinforces the feelings. I recall Bielema saying he didn't come to the SEC West to play the Tide, but to beat Alabama. Sounds good, eh?
But the painful truth is we are at the stage where we couldn't hold Missouri after a 24-7 halftime lead, or those Virginia Tech Hokies after a 24-point lead with fewer than 30 minutes remaining. Ouch!
Any realistic hopes for a Razorback ascension must include significant reforms. That likely means at the least a change in assistant coaches who couldn't leap even relatively low hurdles when it counted most to close what became our nationally embarrassing season.
Bielema said he's soul-searching his program from A to Z. Great idea. Please hurry.
Since the Belk Bowl blistering, I've witnessed so much grumbling about the Razorbacks' ineffective style of play, grit and results, up to and including asking for Bielema's head. But with the hefty $15 million buyout Athletic Director Jeff Long promised him in his last contract extension, I doubt that sort of radical move would happen this year. I'm also not sure that would be the wisest move.
Sadly, these clearly are difficult and humbling times for our beloved Razorbacks. Either Bielema will take whatever radical steps he believes necessary to join the top-tier teams, or it's obvious the pressures are building to find someone who will (and play two full halves).
Until then, supporters can only be expected to hear the same vague excuses and apologies for a litany of repeated losses that might well have been victories.
I look at the controversial $160 million expansion to Razorback Stadium that Long so vigilantly pursued and wonder how any Razorback team that loses its final two games so miserably can fill the seats when so much understandable uncertainty about their abilities persists.
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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at mmasterson@arkansasonline.com.
Editorial on 01/07/2017