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Lowly Arkansas visits No. 23 Auburn

Oct 11, 2008 - 10:15 AM Arkansas (2-3) at (23) Auburn (4-2), 5:00 pm EDT

AUBURN, Alabama (Ticker) -- Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino is having about as much success in the Southeastern Conference as he had in the NFL. Not much.

It won't get much easier as Petrino and the Razorbacks hope to avoid their fourth consecutive blowout loss when they face No. 23 Auburn in a Southeastern Conference clash Saturday.

After posting four straight nine-win seasons with Louisville - including a 12-1 campaign and Orange Bowl victory in 2006, Petrino left college football to coach the Atlanta Falcons. He didn't even make it through his first season, going 3-10 before his controversial departure last December.

Petrino's success was not expected to be immediate after resigning from the Falcons' position, but it was not expected to be this bad, either.

After squeaking past Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe in its first two games, Arkansas was clobbered by Alabama, Texas and Florida in consecutive weeks.

The Razorbacks (2-3, 0-2 SEC West) were beaten by a combined score of 139-31 over that stretch.

The Tigers (4-2, 2-2 West) could use as easy win after having four straight games decided by five points or less.

Ben Tate rushed for 107 yards and Chris Todd tossed a pair of scores last Saturday as Auburn squandered an early 13-point lead en route to a 14-13 loss to Vanderbilt.

Wes Byrum's missed extra point in the first quarter eventually cost the Tigers, who failed to get their passing attack going. Todd completed 8-of-16 attempts for 70 yards with an interception.

Auburn opened the scoring with 4:09 left in the first when Todd found Rodgeriqus Smith for a 7-yard TD strike. Exactly one minute later, Todd threw a 28-yard TD pass to Mario Fannin, but Byrum's PAT hit the goalpost.

"They put eight or nine people up there and forced us to throw it, and we came out and threw it and scored the touchdown on the second drive," Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said. "We didn't have any rhythm from then on. We couldn't run it."