Getting it done while being sexy in the process is only important if we’re still in the BCS era, or if you’re casting for the adult film industry. For the rest of us, simply getting it done is enough.
Arkansas saved its season on a play that may as well be called “The Bielema” for the rest of eternity, because it pretty much expresses everything “Bert in the world. In the process, the Hogs handed one to the CFB Playoff Committee (everyone high fives Jeff Long before chugging the remainder of the flask) and ended college football’s most sought-after doomsday scenario.
It was fourth and 25 in an improbable overtime in Oxford against Ole Miss, when Brandon Allen leaned back and heaved a prayer to the sideline. The rest is and will be remembered for the rest of history, because nothing says “college football” this year like a lateral heaved behind the head simply because a runner was going down… turned into a 30-yard run capped off by a fumble recovered by the offense to preserve the first down.
We’re still waiting for Bielema to do an interview where he says, “Yeah, we practiced that one all week. Worked just as we called it.”
For Ole Miss fans, the rest of it was basically the first half of all of the I Spit on Your Grave movies in the series where you basically want to get up and leave thinking, “Haven’t we had enough?”
Nope. It was then a touchdown for Arkansas and a 2-point conversion stopped dead other than for a face mask, which gave the Hogs one more shot they wouldn’t lay to waste. Hogs win, 53-52.
In the process, it ended a real possible Idiots Guide to Picking the CFB Playoff scenario, where Ole Miss, had it run the table, would have been a 2-loss champ with one of those losses coming to Memphis of the AAC.
Arkansas, on the other hand, was reeling in a world of unmet expectations, after spending three hours stepping on Legos in the form of losing to Toledo at home two months ago. The Hogs would find magical ways to lose to Texas A&M, lose their manhood against Texas Tech, and look outmatched against Alabama.
Bielema, though, gave a free round to the playoff committee, surely not wanting to weigh Ole Miss as an SEC champ. It was a realistic proposition, since the Rebels had already won in Tuscaloosa, face LSU at home later in the season, and looked positively dirty when they decided they needed to be.
Alas, you cannot just decide these things when you want, and thus is the end of the Ole Miss Chaos Scenario.
Arkansas, at 5-4, is certainly not where it expected to be going into this season. The funny thing though about slipping up on your goals at the beginning of the season is that if you’re mentally tough enough, you can create new ones to pursue.
Bret Bielema might be the other side of crazy, but sometimes, crazy is just sane enough.
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