Tuscaloosa, Ala. – Brodie Croyle figures Arkansas could visit No. 20 Alabama with shattered confidence after getting embarrassed on national television.
Or they could have this decidedly different mentality: “‘We got beat pretty bad on TV and everybody across the country saw it,”‘ the Crimson Tide quarterback said. “‘We want to go in there and show everybody that we’re a good football team.’
“That’s what we’re expecting them to do.”
The Razorbacks (1-2, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) are unaccustomed to having to rebound from games like a 70-17 loss to No. 1 Southern California.
It came on the heels of a loss to Vanderbilt, which would be almost as tough to swallow if the Commodores weren’t off to a 3-0 start.
The USC numbers read, as Alabama safety Charlie Peprah said, “like a PlayStation game.”
The Razorbacks allowed 736 yards, the most they’ve ever given up.
No team had scored 70 points against Arkansas since a 103-0 loss to Oklahoma in 1918.
“Anytime that you lose and you lose the way we did, there is going to be a confidence factor problem,” Razorbacks coach Houston Nutt said.
“The only way to cure that is to get back on the field and get better and move on.”
Alabama (3-0, 1-0) could be affected by a different kind of confidence factor problem after one of the bigger wins of Mike Shula’s coaching tenure, 37-14 at South Carolina.
The offense looked potent, the defense stymied coach Steve Spurrier’s Gamecocks, and Alabama was impressive enough to end a two-year absence from the national rankings.
So what’s to worry about with a team that just got torched 70-17? Tide players and coaches talked about that outcome more as a tribute to USC than an indictment of Arkansas.
“We don’t let that number (fool us),” defensive tackle Rudy Griffin said. “We’re not USC. We didn’t play this game last week. We play them this week.
“I expect them to have a chip on their shoulder, because this is a must-win situation for them.”
Besides, Alabama doesn’t want this good mood to end. The Tide is seeking its first 4-0 start since 1996 and Shula reminds his players the questions were more along the lines of “why weren’t we doing better” just a week ago.
“Now, all of a sudden in one week you’re answering different questions,” Shula said. “It’s week-to-week. After the game is over, it’s over. We have to move on.”
Plus, the Tide has lost the past two meetings with Arkansas, including a double-overtime defeat two years ago in Tuscaloosa after blowing a three-touchdown lead.
“We don’t take this team lightly, because they beat us the last couple of years,” defensive tackle Jeremy Clark said. “That’s in the back of my mind.
“We beat South Carolina, but that game doesn’t really mean anything this week.”
Arkansas linebacker Pierre Brown doesn’t think what happened to his team last week means all that much for this game either.
“We have no reason to hang our heads,” said Brown, a native of nearby Birmingham. “We played against a great team and they showed why they’re national champions.
“You can’t harp too much on an out-of-conference game, given that we do play in the SEC.”
The Tide players at least sounded like they weren’t giving in to the second danger besides overconfidence: looking ahead a week to No. 5 Florida’s visit.
“We realize that we have a chance to do something special here and that in order to do that we have to do that game by game,” Peprah said. “We’re not playing Florida this week, we’re playing Arkansas. We’re not playing Tennessee, Ole Miss or Auburn.
“That’s all we’re thinking about, is Arkansas.”
