2008 Arkansas Razorbacks College Football Predictions Courtesy of Alex Smart, An Expert College Football Handicapper featured on Touthouse.com. If you are betting college football this year, be sure to buy Alex’s college football picks each week and guarantee a winning season!!

Arkansas Razorbacks (8-5, 4-4 in 2007, 3rd place in SEC West)
Plenty of change is coming in Little Rock in 2008. HC Houston Nutt has moved on to Ole Miss, setting the stage for Bobby Petrino to make his triumphant return to college football after a disastrous thirteen games with the Atlanta Falcons. RBs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones were the pride and joy of Razorbacks football, but have both since departed for the NFL. In fact, only 11 starters return from last year’s team that pulled off the king of upsets in ’07, knocking off the LSU Tigers in Baton Rouge in the final game of the regular season.

Offensive Outlook: Poor Casey Dick has to be looking around and wondering what he did to deserve what’s coming to him in 2008. His best options last year were turning around and handing the ball to either McFadden or Jones. Both are gone. When he did throw the ball, he had four major targets outside of his two running backs. They’re all gone. His old head coach used to ask him to manage football games. His new head coach needs him to win them. Dick and freshman wide receivers Joe Adams and Carlton Salters will have to become good friends in a hurry. It should be running back by a large committee for the Razorbacks in ’08. Three starters return on the offensive line, which might be the only reason that Arkansas ever finds the end zone this season. If Arkansas averages half of the 37.3 PPG they averaged a year ago, it might be a good season.

Defensive Outlook: Only five starters return from a defense which allowed opponents to score 26.5 PPG a year ago. All of them comprise the front seven, which was a big disappointment last season. LB Freddie Fairchild was a highly touted recruit coming into Arkansas, but he hasn’t panned out as of yet. The secondary has absolutely no returning talent, but there are veteran juniors and seniors back there to help ease the transition to a defense which is only going to get younger in the years to come. There will be a ton of pressure on safeties Rashaad Johnson and Walter Leandre to perform.

2008 Preview: The good news is that the Razorbacks should start 2-0 with games against Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe. The bad news is that there may not be too many more wins on the schedule. Games against Texas, Alabama, Florida, Auburn, South Carolina, and LSU are all well out of Arkansas’ league, and expecting more than one win from that bunch of games is absurd. Don’t be certain that games against Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Tulsa are “gimmes” either.

2008 will be a success if… Dick proves he’s a legitimate quarterback. Petrino’s past offenses at Louisville put pressure on the QB to take risks that turned into rewards. Dick has never had to do much in the Arkansas offense, which could make it a very long year for everyone in Little Rock.

Arkansas fans shouldn’t expect much from their Razorbacks in 2008. There’s just too much change for Petrino to overcome to take this team bowling once again.

Prediction: 4-8, 6th place in SEC West