FAYETTEVILLE — Growing up in the final few years of the Houston Nutt era, there were at least three teams Arkansas fans could depend on their team beating.
Ole Miss.
Mississippi State.
Vanderbilt.
Sadly, two of those three teams aren't on the schedule anymore and have turned things around since those days. Just one year removed from the school's first 10-win season, the Commodores are struggling after the departures of Diego Pavia, Eli Stowers and several other key stars from 2025.
Vanderbilt has lost four in a row since beginning the season with a 3-0 record and a victory over North Carolina State with zeros on the clock. Fast-forward a month and the 'Dores are free falling just as the Razorbacks seem to be hitting their stride under first-year coach Ryan Silverfield.
It hasn't been an easy road for Arkansas fans in recent years, but it's important to celebrate the small wins even if a majority of fans are looking for something more. Falling short against No. 14 Tennessee just eight days ago was about as somber of a loss as any this program has endured during the latest 14-game losing streak to SEC opponents.
The team could feel it.
The fans at home could taste it.
There were people around Arkansas who cracked open the champagne tied at 17-all with the Volunteers backed up near the goalline. But, oh, as fate would have it.
I was wrong last week saying it was going to be a tall task for Ryan Silverfield to keep his team focused on the process after punting down seven with less than two minutes in the fourth quarter. There's been enough crow smoked in my Pitboss over the years to the point I know exactly how to make it taste good.
Razorbacks Bought In
The Razorbacks' run game took advantage of a struggling Vanderbilt defense that had allowed nearly 140 yards per game on the ground. Saturday night, Arkansas running backs delivered their best performance of the season with a season-high 187 yards and three touchdowns.
"I thought everybody did their part in the run game," Silverfield said. "We're going to go back and say, man, it was almost it was 187 yards and it probably could have been 250. And so we're going to continue to find ways to improve it, but it was nice to have that going. I think that allowed the offense to get in a little bit of rhythm as the game went on."
As good as it is to see the improvement offensively, defensive coordinator Ron Roberts has his unit playing extremely well, and providing scoring opportunities for each side of the football. There was some success at stopping the run and has found success in the turnover department by forcing two against the Commodores.
"Besides, you know the one "ALL IN" thing in the team room other than that the banners you see most throughout our building are the letters OTB and TTB," Silverfield said. "'Own The Ball and and 'Take The Ball' and I think that's got to become our identity.
"You saw the takeaways we got last week with three we get two this week and taking care of the football's got to be huge and it's got to be something but that that plus 10 (points) that we got from that, man that's something if you can do that in SEC football you give yourself a chance every week and you're probably going to win a lot more games. So we're going to continue to harp on it, preach on it. Shoot, we may even tattoo it on our bodies. It's how much we believe in it."
Things looked bleak following a blowout road loss at Utah, another one at home to Georgia, and were beaten like a drum in the second half to a down Texas A&M team. But over the past two weeks it seems this Arkansas football team is coming together, and has a strong core of leadership rising from guys most expected to see and others who fans probably had never heard of before the year.
There was AJ Jordan and Jamari Hawkins not backing down in the second half.
Miguel Mitchell, Christian Harrison and Joker Johnson providing help in the back end of the defense.
There's Quincy Rhodes, Ben Bogle, Ja'Quavion Smith, David Oke, and Carlon Jones who are all making a difference in the trenches.
Emergence of ASB
Antonio Sandel-Bascomb has been a pleasant surprise in recent weeks as a defensive lineman who can simply line up anywhere along the line of scrimmage and make plays. Most of all, he's finding the right holes to clog and came away with the highest defensive grade of any Razorback defender on Saturday, according to Pro Football Focus.
The junior college transfer graded out at 85.3 at Vanderbilt on Saturday night with two tackles and a quarterback hit on 18 snaps. A late addition to the 2026 recruiting class, the 6-foot-3, 305 pound mauler is very twitchy and understands how to use leverage to his advantage in the trenches.
This may not be the most talented team Arkansas has assembled, but there's plenty to be said about the drive that this team has to remain focused on the improving each week. That's not shown up in the win column consistently, but it appears from the outside that Silverfield is molding this whole thing together week-by-week.
With a week to get healthy and another to prepare for a rivalry game against Missouri at home on Halloween, it'll provide the Razorbacks another test of how far this program has come along in the month of October.
After 721 days of of waiting, one victory over an SEC opponent is worth celebrating this weekend.
Then, it's back to business as usual come Monday morning.
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