In just his second season in Fayetteville, Bobby Petrino has turned Arkansas into a winner. Last year's team went just 5-7 straight up, but considering the Razorbacks faced the fifth toughest schedule in the nation and used 16 true freshman, it could have been much worse. In four seperate games a Hogs QB posted a top 10 passing day in the history of the program as Petrino began to integrate his high-scoring offensive ways. That manifested itself this year as the team went 4-1 SU/ATS down the stretch, averaging 44.8 PPG, with the only loss coming against LSU. They also scored 41+ in four of their first five games with the outlier coming in their only bad loss of the season, which came at #1 Alabama. In the two games in between, they lost to Florida and Ole Miss, which is no shame, especially when you consider they were leading in the 4th quarter vs. the Gators, something that was also the case vs. LSU. There is plenty of enthusiasm surrounding the program right now, with the full allottment of 21,000 tickets being sold for this game, which is being played relatively close to home. This was a great spread team, covering seven of its final nine. East Carolina is making its second consecutive Liberty Bowl appearance, having lost outright to Kentucky last year. That opponent is nowhere near the class of what the Pirates will face this year. ECU seemed to "go backwards" all season long, losing all three road games vs. bowl opponents by double-digits and not covering a single one of them. Yes, they won another Conference USA title beating what was perceived to be a pretty good Houston team. But that win doesn't look nearly as good as it did two weeks ago with the Cougars getting drubbed by Air Force on New Year's Eve + it was a home game. ECU was pretty fortunate to even get to that spot as they were 5-0 SU in games decided by six points or less. We'll see their true colors here. Arkansas is our CFB "VEGAS ICON."
Lenny Del Genio 1/2
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