FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas – Bitter Arkansas fans desperately want something or someone to blame after a 63-31 loss to Ole Miss on Saturday. This one is not on the wagons, despite what many want to see.

While the Razorbacks have some really good players, they just don’t have enough. The Rebels had more things that were better and they weren’t taking on anything like they did against Kentucky. Apparently their loss to LSU made them focus.

None of that is the problem. Going through the autopsy after that blowout Saturday, Hogs fans stuck to their traditional mentality. It’s been happening since they started playing football over 100 years ago. Considering they end up with one likely win (Louisiana Tech) and two iffy games (Texas and Missouri), all fans can do is hope those two aren’t playing with the focus and intensity that Ole Miss had.

First, the head coach is blamed, then the quarterback is responsible, and finally, the athletic director is responsible. To this day, no one has explained to me how he is responsible for a football team’s loss on Saturday, but that was there under Frank Broyles and now it’s Hunter Yurachek’s turn.

Despite all that, this falls on the players. Not for lack of effort. This wasn’t a game where they were giving up at any point, they just weren’t fast enough, big enough, or strong enough in numbers to do anything with the rebels.

It’s like when Bear Bryant grabbed a backup lineman and told him to block a player that the guy on the field couldn’t do at all.

“I will do my best,” said the young man.

“Go back and sit down,” Bryant said. “Johnny (I have no idea if that was the player’s name) is doing the best he can.”

That’s probably how Sam Pittman and defensive coordinator Travis Williams felt as Ole Miss continued to throw pass after pass. They suspected their wide receivers were fast enough to run past anything the Hogs could put on the field. That turned out to be completely accurate.

Lost in all the talk about the Rebels finally starting to look exactly like everyone expected before the season, Arkansas is now being mentioned as lucky to be in a bowl game. In all likelihood they will have six or seven victories. It will probably be resolved after Thanksgiving against Missouri.

Razorback fans will still be trying to figure out who to blame for the lack of success they began to expect after a win over a Tennessee team that had an off night. LSU got it going, and then Ole Miss probably went into overdrive.

The win over Mississippi State probably showed more of the Bulldogs’ problems than what the Hogs had accomplished. Nobody wanted to think about that possibility.

It’s the same way Saturday’s loss may have shown us more about the Razorbacks than Ole Miss. Some will try to point out the 31 points without realizing that Rebels coach Lane Kiffin was still angry in his press conference Monday that the backup defensemen gave up more. of those points.

The only thing to take away from that is that Arkansas’ offense could score against Ole Miss’s second- and third-team defenses. The Rebels’ second offense moved down the field as easily as the first team did.

The only solution for the Razorbacks to get out of this mess is what Steve Spurrier told Bret Bielema in 2013, when his South Carolina team ran over them in Fayetteville. He had to recruit to get out of there.

Bielema never could, receiving a raise after a .500 season and lasting five years before being fired by the deputy athletic director. Now Pittman has to find a way to get the players. That opens up conversations that will take a while.

• Kiffin’s press conference highlights the standard Arkansas lacks

• What should Hogs expectations be for Calipari’s first season?

• Ole Miss simply had a talent for reacting to the Razorbacks’ defense.

• Pigs stuck in mediocrity with momentum neutralized