Arkansas vs Kansas: 2022 Liberty Bowl preview, TV schedule

Two teams with dynamic offenses face off in the 2022 Liberty Bowl as Arkansas takes on Kansas. Which team will at least be able to say they won a bowl game in a season where both teams struggled for different reasons? Can Arkansas light it up against a very poor Kansas D?

Location: Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium, Memphis, TN

TV schedule: December 28th, 2022 at 5:30 P.M on ESPN

Kansas lost their Heisman candidate Jalon Daniels in week five for a month, which mainly destroyed their 5-0 record, only winning one more game the rest of the season. The defense for the Jayhawks is horrible. The offense has been very explosive this season, but they struggled down the stretch without Daniels.

They finished the season with two blowout losses against a solid Texas team and Big 12 champ Kansas State team. I went a lot more into Arkansas’ season here, but basically, turnovers and inconsistent offensive play are the reason the Razorbacks’ only won 6 games.

This team was ranked 10th (in the AP Poll) going into the Missouri State game/week 3 (which they ended up winning, but on the talent difference alone, that game was way too close), but is ending the season with only 6 wins. Clearly, the Razorbacks couldn’t overcome their issues this season.

This team dropped winnable games against Missouri and Texas A&M (in retrospect the loss against the Aggies looks even worse than how it looked at the time: see missed field goal attempt and a fumble returned for an Aggies touchdown).

This season against Kansas if your offense is worth anything, it will score at least 24+ points. Against power five opponents, the lowest number of points they have allowed is 27. In the month of November, they allowed all of their opponents to score at least 35 points in their games.

This Arkansas offense does turn the ball over, but lucky for them, they will have a lot of opportunities to put points on the board. Kansas allows 36 points per game, which is one of the worst in the country when it comes to that stat.

I am going to pick the Razorbacks to win this game, but one thing you have to consider is that the Razorbacks will be missing a lot of players. While Arkansas is missing playmakers in this one, the biggest drop in talent will be on the defense side of the ball.

Drew Sanders, Isaiah Nichols, and Bumper Pool were all solid starters for this Arkansas team this season (LB, DT, LB respectfully) and will be not playing in this bowl game for various reasons (portal/opt-out, etc). On the offense, the playmakers for Jefferson are going to be a little thin with Jadon Haselwood opting out of this game, among other players.

Raheim Sanders and Jefferson will need to carry more of the load with the passing game being weak, but I still expect this offense to put up numbers against a horrible Kansas defense.

Prediction: Arkansas: 35 Kansas: 28

Arkansas has really struggled in recent weeks but this Kansas defense is really bad. Addtionally, the Jayhawks have really fallen off in recent weeks. Yes, Arkansas has a lot of players in the portal or declaring for the draft, but I don’t trust the Jayhawks’ defense at this point.

Jalon Daniels will need to put on a show, and will, against this poor Arkansas defense but KJ Jefferson will have ample opportunity to win this game. Arkansas is missing a lot of players in this one, but I just can’t pick Kansas to win this game because of their horrible defense.

Even though this is an SEC blog and I am supposed to root for SEC dominance (or at least appear to), I really want Kansas to win this game. Daniels’s year was cut short due to injury, and the win would probably mean a lot more to the Jayhawks program; I think the Razorbacks will end up with the victory.