The SEC Forum at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

Honestly, if you're a school like Arkansas, how do you break out of this cycle?  

[th]1[/th] 2025 SEC 2 2 0 .500 0 1 0 .000 13.25 4.75 Sam Pittman (2-2) [th]2[/th] 2024 SEC 7 6 0 .538 3 5 0 .375 5.24 3.01 Sam Pittman (7-6) Liberty Bowl (W) [th]3[/th] 2023 SEC 4 8 0 .333 1 7 0 .125 0.20 1.70 Sam Pittman (4-8) [th]4[/th] 2022 SEC 7 6 0 .538 3 5 0 .375 5.95 5.10 19 10 Sam Pittman (7-6) Liberty Bowl (W) [th]5[/th] 2021 SEC 9 4 0 .692 4 4 0 .500 11.54 4.62 8 21 21 21 Sam Pittman (9-4) Outback Bowl (W) [th]6[/th] 2020 SEC 3 7 0 .300 3 7 0 .300 3.99 11.39 Sam Pittman (3-7) [th]7[/th] 2019 SEC 2 10 0 .167 0 8 0 .000 -6.58 4.84 Chad Morris (2-8), Barry Lunney (0-2) [th]8[/th] 2018 SEC 2 10 0 .167 0 8 0 .000 -4.63 4.96 Chad Morris (2-10) [th]9[/th] 2017 SEC 4 8 0 .333 1 7 0 .125 -2.45 4.30 Bret Bielema (4-8) [th]10[/th] 2016 SEC 7 6 0 .538 3 5 0 .375 4.35 4.35 16 25 Bret Bielema (7-6) Belk Bowl (L) [th]11[/th] 2015 SEC 8 5 0 .615 5 3 0 .625 12.79 6.02 18 18 Bret Bielema (8-5) Liberty Bowl (W) [th]12[/th] 2014 SEC 7 6 0 .538 2 6 0 .250 14.91 7.76 Bret Bielema (7-6) Texas Bowl (W) [th]13[/th] 2013 SEC 3 9 0 .250 0 8 0 .000 -1.32 5.18 Bret Bielema (3-9) [th]14[/th] 2012 SEC 4 8 0 .333 2 6 0 .250 2.40 6.40 10 8 I mean, Bobby Petrino is still on staff there.  I guess if you can hire him to be OC, you can make him HC again.  What a strange cycle.

Notre Dame is waxing Arkansas 56-13 in the 4th quarter Fayetteville.

It is frustrating to watch a team with some talent playing together so poorly.

Well, there ya go. Pittman is out, Petrino is named the interm. Hopefully Hunter has someone lined up....

Good luck with the coaching search.

I assume that there won't be much improvement, if any, under the acting HFC. Keeping the good players in the fold is probably Job One.

this was the inevitable end the moment pittman was hoodwinked &/or strong armed into hiring bp. i would imagine he's been back channeling for weeks after lying in wait since the day he was hired. sam is a fine position coach.

Can/will his replacement do much better?  He'll get 3-4 years of course, I doubt it's Petrino but maybe.  It seems to me like a 7-5 kind of program, with the 9 game conference slate maybe even that is optimistic.

No doubt everybody in the SEC is looking at 7-5 to 8-4 seasons except a couple of programs at the top, which has been Alabama and Georgia for a good while now.  Texas is creeping up there, looking to supplant Bama.  

This is, IMO, the subjective pecking order of the SEC (over the last 20 or so years):
Alabama-10-12 wins a season 90% of the time.  
Georgia-10-12 wins a season 89% of the time.
LSU-9-11 wins a season 90% of the time
Those 3 teams, IMO, are unquestionably at the top of the SEC.  

That leaves you with a mix of the middle
Florida-8-10 wins 80% of the time, but any given year they can win the SEC and the MNC
Auburn-8-10 wins a year 77% of the time, but any given year they can win the SEC and play for the MNC
Texas-8-10 wins a year 70% of the time and 20% of the time they can win the SEC and play for the MNC
OU-Same as Texas
Tennessee- 7-10 wins 80% of the time, in will compete for SEC title once every 20 years. 
This next tier is where most programs in the SEC reside.  
Texas A&M 7-9 wins a year 80% of the time, can only compete for the SEC championship once every 20 years. 
Mizzou-6-8 wins a year 75% of the time, will compete for the SEC championship once every 25 years (chances were greater with East Division)
Arkansas-about the same as Mizzou
South Carolina-see Ark and Mizzou
Ole Miss...I'd put the spread on them a little differently.  5-9 wins per year 80% of the time.  They're just as likely to win 9 games a year as they are to win 5.  I don't think they've really ever been in contention for the SEC title for decades, but sometimes they're really good.  

Last Tier
Vanderbilt-3-5 wins most years, never in contention for SEC title.
Kentucky...4-7 wins a year most year, never in contention for SEC title.
Mississippi St...-6-7 wins a year most years, never in contention

Obviously I didn't go back and get the exact percentages or anything special, I'm just thinking about them in terms of what I see.