FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Bitter Arkansas fans desperately want something or someone to blame after Saturday’s 63-31 loss to Ole Miss. Despite what many people want to see, coaches don’t have that.

The Razorbacks have some really good players, but they just don’t have enough numbers. The Rebels had better players and didn’t assume anything like they did against Kentucky. It looks like the loss against LSU kept them focused.

The problem is none of these. Going into post-mortem after Saturday’s loss, Hogs fans stuck to their traditional mindset. This has been going on since they started playing football 100 years ago. Considering they finished with one unlikely win (Louisiana Tech) and two questionable games (Texas and Missouri), all fans can do is hope these two don’t play with the same focus and intensity that Ole Miss has.

First you blame the head coach, then the quarterback is responsible, and finally the athletic director is responsible. To this day, no one has ever explained to me how he was responsible for a football team’s defeat on Saturday, but it was under Frank Broyles and now it’s Hunter Yurachek’s turn.

Despite all this, this job falls on the players. It’s not for lack of effort. This wasn’t a game they could give up at any point; They just weren’t fast enough, not big enough, or strong enough in numbers to do anything against the Rebels.

It’s like Bear Bryant grabbing a backup lineman and telling him to block a player that the man on the field failed to do.

“I will do my best,” said the young man.

“Go back and sit down,” Bryant said. “Johnny (I have no idea if that’s the actor’s name) is doing the best he can.”

That’s probably how Sam Pittman and defensive coordinator Travis Williams felt as Ole Miss continued to throw pass after pass. They suspected their wide receivers were fast enough to outrun anything the Hogs could put on the field. This turned out to be completely true.

With all the talk about the Rebels finally starting to look like the preseason was exactly what everyone expected, Arkansas was now considered lucky to be in the bowl game. They will probably get six or seven wins. It will probably clear up after Thanksgiving against Missouri.

Razorback fans will still be trying to figure out who to blame for the lack of success they’ve come to expect after a down night win against a Tennessee team. LSU started it, then Ole Miss probably went into overdrive.

The win over Mississippi State probably showed more about the Bulldogs’ problems than what the Hogs accomplished. Nobody wanted to think about this possibility.

Saturday’s loss may have shown us more about the Razorbacks than Ole Miss. Some will try to point to the 31 points without realizing that Rebels coach Lane Kiffin was still throwing a fit at his press conference Monday about backup defensemen giving up most of it. from these points.

The only thing to take away from this is that Arkansas’ offense can score against Ole Miss’ second- and third-team defense. The Rebels’ No. 2 offense moved down the field with the same ease as the first team.

The only solution for the Razorbacks to get out of this mess is as Steve Spurrier told Bret Bielema when his South Carolina team crushed them in Fayetteville in 2013. He had to find a way out of this situation.

Bielema never made it, rasied after a .500 season and out of the running five years before being suspended by the replacement athletic director. Now Pittman just needs to find a way to recruit players. This opens up conversations that will take some time.

• Kiffin’s press conference emphasizes that standard Arkansas is lacking

• What should the Hogs expect from Calipari’s first season?

• Ole Miss had the ability to react to the Razorbacks’ defense

• Momentum neutralized, pigs stuck in mediocrity