College Students, get a year of HawgBeat coverage for just $11.95. Request details via email from your school account (.edu) to nchavanelle@yahoo.com.
FAYETTEVILLE -- Coming off consecutive 2-10 seasons, most Arkansas fans are likely just hoping to see improvement this year.
Measuring a team's development from one year to the next, though, is an inexact science because of varying schedules. That has never been more apparent than in 2020 with the brutal 10-game, SEC-only slate for the Razorbacks.
In an effort to better illustrate how much Arkansas has or hasn't improved since last season, HawgBeat will again track its progress in several key statistics in the charts below.
Instead of true game-by-game comparison, last year's numbers have been manipulated to account for the varying schedules.
For example, Arkansas' third opponent last season was Colorado State, but it will play Auburn in Week 3 this year - which is quite the contrast. Instead of comparing the stats in those two games, we will compare the stats in this year's Auburn game to those from last year's matchup with the Tigers.
Last season, this project painted a pretty clear picture of the Razorbacks' regression from 2018 to 2019, which ultimately resulted in the firing of Chad Morris.
Normally, that is all the manipulation needed, as Arkansas always plays four non-conference opponents, all six SEC West foes, Missouri and a rotating SEC East team. That format went out the window this year.
The Razorbacks added Georgia and Florida to their schedule. Those teams aren't really comparable to any of their non-conference opponents, so we are comparing those games to LSU and Alabama again. That makes the most sense because LSU and Alabama finished first and second in the West last year and Florida and Georgia are picked first and second in the East this year.
For further comparison, we averaged Arkansas' statistics from the eight SEC games and used that to create the gray trend line, but that doesn't necessarily account for the fact that Georgia and Florida are the two toughest teams that possibly could have been added.
With only one game played so far, the 2020 stats appear on the charts below as a red dot. It will turn into a solid red line after this week's game. The dotted red line is the Razorbacks' average so far this season to give an idea of where they are trending.
Not a subscriber? Subscribe for free for 30 days w/code HAWGS30
NEW USERS | RETURNING USERS
