Zach Turner
If losing six straight quarters wasn’t enough for Arkansas, Saturday’s second-half comeback might have done more for the team than give them their fourth win in 2011.
The team had three offensive records set by two if its starters, came back from an 18-point deficit and managed a huge neutral site victory without a consistent rushing attack.
The win just may have given Arkansas an identity. One of resilience, one of a group of fighters, a bunch that actually doesn’t quit (although it looked like that against Alabama in the second half).
It all starts with quarterback Tyler Wilson. The team should be lucky to have Wilson as its starter rather than Ryan Mallett had he returned for his senior season because the Greenwood, Ark., native fits the personality of the 2011 Razorbacks better.
After the team’s best player, running back Knile Davis, went down with a season-ending injury, Wilson has seemed to put the team on his shoulder and has performed great under pressure. Something that Mallett’s personality just wouldn’t have seem to fit.
Wilson has taken beating after beating, knockdown after knockdown, yet has still got up from it all and never made excuses for a team that at halftime of Saturday’s game looked like it was going to boast a 3-2 record having lost to both ranked opponents it faced, with its best win coming against a Troy team at home that nearly made its own second half comeback.
With a nonexistent running game at times with the exception of New Mexico and the fourth quarter against Texas A&M, Wilson has relied on himself and fellow captain Jarius Wright to lead by example and play through the first five games this season.
This do-whatever-it-takes to win mentality very well might be Arkansas’ identity in 2011.
On Monday, coach Bobby Petrino joked with the media about the team’s identity.
“That’s hard to say, the identity thing,” Petrino said. “I probably should’ve never ever said that to you all. That’s all I get asked anymore. We’re getting closer to knowing what we’re all about and each time we go to battle together we learn more about each other.”
Well the identity that Arkansas established during its six-game win streak to end the season in 2010 before losing to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl is definitely no longer existent.
That identity was one of getting the passing game going and then letting Davis do the rest to go on to victory. With Davis sidelined and the backfield failing to be consistent the do-whatever-it-takes mentality mentioned earlier has seemed to prevail.
As long as Wilson stays healthy, like many of the other Razorback starters have failed to do this season, Arkansas will continue to progress and rally around its energetic young gun slinger.
Look for Arkansas to defeat Auburn this Saturday to improve to 1-1 in conference and don’t be shocked if Arkansas manages to rally off seven consecutive wins until the Nov. 25 showdown in Baton Rouge, La., against LSU, all because of the do-whatever-it-takes to win mentality of the 2011 Razorbacks that seems to be catching steam.
Zach Turner is the assistant sports editor for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Wednesday. Follow him on Twitter @zwturner.