The Cotton Bowl: Arkansas will end the season on a high note
by January 5, 2012 3:13 pm 80 views
It truly has been a bowl season like none other in late 2011 carrying over into the first days of 2012. The first three offerings of the Bowl Championship Series designated bowls have been dramatic TV with every contest coming down to the final possessions.
The final non-BCS game on Jan. 2 also provided plenty of drama as Michigan State scored in the final minute to force overtime before overcoming Georgia 33-30 in three extra frames. It was a great (and much-needed win) for the Big Ten – which has won just three postseason contests as a 12-team whole the past two seasons.
Friday, Arkansas will kick off at 7 p.m. against the Wildcats of Kansas State, and this game has the feel of a BCS game in itself.
Both teams were featured in the final top 10 of the BCS standings — something neither the Sugar Bowl nor the Orange Bowl can claim. As a matter of fact, Tuesday night’s Sugar Bowl was the first one without a top-10 participant since the inception of the coaches’ poll in 1991. I’ve already stated that a stupid rule limiting the amount of teams from a particular conference kept the Razorbacks from back-to-back bowls in the Big Easy, but I digress.
Jerry Jones’ palatial Cowboys Stadium will be filled with cries of Woo Pig Sooie and EMAW Friday evening as the Cotton Bowl will be contested for the third time in its new digs after 75 years at the Texas State Fairgrounds. The familiarity of playing there the last three years for the Southwest Classic is definitely a huge feather in the UA caps since this is KSU’s first game in the Arlington venue.
Kansas State was 4-0 against the Longhorn State this year, knocking off Baylor, A&M, Texas Tech and Texas. As you can imagine, that’s not a feat easy to come by for any school. However, I wouldn’t put this on par with Bobby Petrino and Co. obliterating everyone on the schedule except the two teams playing for the national championship Monday night.
The Wildcats’ defense is susceptible to an accurate passing game, which should allow for the Razorbacks’ senior wideouts and Tyler Wilson to end the season on a high note. I can see Wilson and Jarius Wright picking up where they left off in the second half of the win over Texas A&M on Oct. 1.
Bill Snyder’s game plan will most likely be to slow the game down and manage the clock with limited choices for quarterback Collin Klein. Klein has been an asset for the Wildcats this year, and it will be important for the Hogs’ defensive line to win the battles in the trenches and make Klein uncomfortable when he does take to the air.
Kansas State’s closest opponent to matching Arkansas’ speed and physicality was Oklahoma. The outcome: a Sooners 51-17 rout.
In the only matchup between the Big 12 and the Southeastern Conference this postseason, it’s hard to not picture this game being played in the Superdome off Rue Bourbon. At least those of us watching on television will get Gus Johnson’s exciting calls throughout Fox’s national broadcast.
Call it now: Arkansas 38, Kansas State 21