FAYETTEVILLE -- Without meeting Rutgers, Arkansas this season has won twice those two "Rutgers" nonconference games so pivotal in dooming the Razorbacks to 4-8 and 3-9 seasons for 2012 and 2013.
Arkansas these last successive nonconference Saturdays trounced Texas Tech 49-28 at Tech's Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock, Texas, and thumped the Northern Illinois Huskies 52-14 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, ceasing Northern Illinois' nation-best 17-game road winning streak.
Arkansas' misbegotten 4-8 season of 2012 under the hastily hired John L. Smith derailed permanently with the 34-31 overtime upset loss to 30-point underdog Louisiana-Monroe in Little Rock, but losing 35-26 nonconference to Rutgers between 52-0 and 58-10 SEC shellackings administered by Alabama in Fayetteville and Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, assured the tale of woe would not be remedied.
Last year's 28-24 to loss to Rutgers in New Jersey foreshadowed that new Arkansas coach Bret Bielema indeed had inherited a mess. Mess was an understatement as Rutgers marked the first of nine consecutive Arkansas losses in a 3-9 season that included 0-8 in the Southeastern Conference.
Tech, 3-1, of the Big 12 coming off an 8-win, Holiday Bowl-winning season, and Northern Illinois 12-2 the past two seasons out of the Mid-American Conference and also 3-1 for 2014, certainly seem in Rutgers' league for caliber.
Northern Illinois this season won at Northwestern, which is in Rutgers' league of the Big Ten.
That Arkansas, 3-1 with only a 24-0 bad second half in the 45-21 loss at fifth-ranked reigning SEC champion Auburn as a blemish, is thumping the Rutgers-caliber nonconference teams bedeviling them in 2012 and 2013 verifies the Bielema staff progress developing inherited players and adding to them with recruiting.
The improvement began late season with closer SEC losses to Auburn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, in overtime at Little Rock, and LSU, losing a late lead to LSU in Baton Rouge, La.
This season's Hogs, on a roll since romping 73-7 over outclassed Nicholls State three games ago, have proven not only better offensively, but defensively and on special teams. They scored tangibly off all three aspects against Northern Illinois. Osceola native Korliss Marshall's 97-yard kick return and defensive tackle Darius Philon's 14-yard scoop and score off a Trey Flowers-forced fumble preceded Arkansas' five touchdowns plus a field goal.
Arkansas not only is better all-round offensively but more adaptable.
The Razorbacks needed a grinding, clock-consuming ground game to keep the ball out of the hands of Texas Tech's capable passing game. Arkansas consumed over 40 minutes and ran for 438 yards and passed just 12 times for 61.
With Northern Illinois stout against the run, 13th in national running defense, Bielema knew the Hogs must be offensively balanced, unveiling a passing game he called "Fayetteville's best kept-secret."
Arkansas balanced 215 passing and 212 running with junior starting quarterback Brandon Allen 15 of 22 for 199 yards, two touchdowns and no picks.
"How about that passing game?" a smiling Bielema more stated to than asked the media postgame. "I think our throwing game has gotten better for three basic reasons. Brandon Allen is a stronger, more-efficient passer than he was a year ago. The understanding of our receivers, running backs, fullbacks and tight ends running routes is so much more advanced than it was a year ago, and the third thing is the belief in what we are doing. I don't know if last year we had that unyielding belief we would have success."
Defensively, even when the Hogs were winning at a 10-3 and 11-2 clip under the thoroughly offensive coach Bobby Petrino, there has been precious little Arkansas belief for a long time but it's finally taking hold.
Northern Illinois ranked seventh nationally in rushing offense but was held to 123 net on 32 carries.
"The defense is really beginning to grow up," Bielema said. "The offense has been there since the start of camp but I think defensively we are getting better all week and that's a big feather in their cap."
They will need every feather in every cap with thesixth-ranked Texas A&M Aggies awaiting in Saturday's 2:30 p.m. CBS-televised SEC West game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Sports on 09/23/2014