If you believe in karma in college sports, Arkansas has paid any dues it previously owed and has now built some up for the future. At this point, I’m not even sure that John Calipari cutting down the nets after a national title in April and then Dave Van Horn being carried off the field after a national title next summer would spend all the karma the Razorbacks have built up in football since April 2012.

Saturday was a good example of something that would never happen to Alabama or Georgia. It doesn’t matter how much their coach jawed at the officials, the stripes would never blatantly turn against them like that. Arkansas was whistled for a school-record 18 penalties for 193 yards in this game.

That’s the story. You can talk all you want about the plays on the field, but a bad Arkansas team was two touchdowns better than a bad Mississippi State team on Saturday, and the officiating crew delivered the game to Mississippi State. Call it bad sportsmanship, call it sour grapes, call it whatever, but don’t lie to my face and say the referees didn’t cost Arkansas the game, because they clearly did.

The Hogs, who came in ranked in the top-5 in the SEC in fewest penalty yards per game, did commit several penalties: a pass interference, a couple holds, and running into the kicker were all fine calls. The stadium replay did not show a good angle of the targeting, but that may have been a correct call.

But several calls are inexcusable. The most blatant before the final play was an unnecessary roughness at the end of the a TFL on Quincy Rhodes, who was just playing through the whistle. Rhodes had clearly already begun to try and throw the running back down when the whistle started to blow. It was not a particularly violent tackle, nor was it late. That’s a ridiculous call that can only be made by a crew looking to call fouls.

And both roughing the passer calls looked really bad. Like the one on Rhodes, neither was late, just rough. But Taylen Green also suffered rough hits that were uncalled: up 35-31 with three minutes left, Green was drilled by a State defender while sliding. The defender attempted to pull up, so I get the hesitancy to throw the flag, but if you’ve already called those two roughing penalties on Arkansas, you have to call that. Instead, holding was called on Arkansas, which killed that drive and set up State’s game-winning drive.

The final play for Arkansas is where the officials made what they were doing pretty obvious, in case you weren’t sure. The defender tackles Green by his neck and shoulder, injuring him, in a play that would get you a fine and suspension in the NFL, in the same spirit of the rules that caused Arkansas’ two roughing penalties. But no flag was thrown for that. Instead, a referee calmly takes out a flag, walks up to left guard Fernando Carmona, who is protesting, and drops a flag at his feet. The call was intentional grounding, which is an absolutely insane call given that Green’s throw was clearly altered by the defender tackling him.

Watch for yourself. I saw it live in the stadium and I still can’t get over the replay. A case can be made that this isn’t roughing the passer. I’m sympathetic to that: so let’s pick up the two roughing calls on Arkansas and I agree. But tacking on intentional grounding on fourth down when the throw was clearly affected by the defender is what an official does when he knows what he’s doing.

But why?

“Do you really think the SEC is trying to rig games to help Mississippi State win?“

Obviously not. Mississippi State is hardly the conference’s favorite program, any more than Arkansas is. If you watch the game, it’s pretty obvious what happened. Arkansas’ players were chippy all game and Bobby Petrino was jawing at the officials. The officiating was already not good, but after Arkansas was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after a two-point try to go up 28-14 in the third, the officials simply got too involved.

Head referee Jeff Heaser is already under a lot of fire because his crew did the Auburn-Oklahoma game that infamously featured several bad calls, including a missed penalty on a long touchdown pass to Isaiah Sategna. He is not a good official, and he and his crew allowed the game to impact their decision-making, which cannot happen. Until the final play, you might could argue that the crew was simply subconsciously looking for things to call against Arkansas because of how the game had played out. That’s unacceptable, but at least there’s no bigger conspiracy.

But yeah, after the last play, I think those officials are pretty happy with the final result.

“Can’t blame the officials! You gotta go win the game anyway!“

Sure, yeah. Go sit down at a poker table next to Chauncey Billups and go try and win the pot. Nevermind that the table is using marked cards provided by the mafia that only Billups can see. No excuses! Just go win!

You see how dumb that sounds?

Once you’re there, of course you keep trying, but crying foul after it’s over is acceptable too.

A good coaching candidate

With Auburn firing Hugh Freeze today, yet another job has opened. Arkansas is going to have plenty of competition for whoever they want to hire.

I’m really liking Eric Morris out of North Texas. The Mean Green knocked off 7-0 Navy to move to 8-1 for the year.

Morris’s resume is incredible. He played and briefly coached under Mike Leach, and is one of the last remaining true Air Raid gurus out there. His quarterback development record is crazy: he was Patrick Mahomes’ position coach at Texas Tech, then recruited Cam Ward as a zero-star recruit to Incarnate Word, coaching him there and at Washington State. Ward then went to Miami and was drafted first overall earlier this year. Since becoming head coach at North Texas, Morris took Drew Mestemaker, a zero-star recruit who didn’t even start for his high school team, and turned into the FBS’s second-leading passer.

Unlike Leach, who was pretty rigid in his system, Morris is a little more flexible, and the Mean Green run the ball a lot more than Leach’s teams ever did. Their starting running back has 744 rushing yards and 11 touchdowns at 6.1 yards per rush.

Defense is a concern with Air Raid coaches, but Morris swapped defensive coordinators and that side of the ball has improved this season. Given the realistic options, I’d put him near or at the top of the list.