When Marcus Freeman’s Notre Dame Fighting Irish invade Fayetteville in late September, it’s likely the atmosphere will be one of the best in the history of Razorback Stadium.
Not only because the Irish are the defending national runner-up, but because of their historic tradition as one of the blue bloods of college football.
The last time a team like this came through the Ozarks was USC in the 2006 season opener. Pete Carroll’s Trojans were coming off three consecutive years where they were either the national champion or played for a national title.
They had also beaten Arkansas by a 70-17 margin the year before in the Coliseum.
This will be the first time Notre Dame and Arkansas have met on the gridiron. It was supposed to already have taken place, but this game, initially planned for 2020, was postponed because of COVID-19. Arkansas will return the game in 2028 in South Bend.
Football will be on the minds of everyone that weekend, and basketball will be on the verge of starting and Sam Pittman’s Razorbacks could end up giving John Calipari a major assist in the recruiting department with a raucous environment, as long as they take care of business the first four weeks.
Getting Them on Campus
For many years now, Arkansas coaches and players have told the story of landing at XNA and thinking they were in Mayberry of Andy Griffith fame, only to be blown away at what Arkansas has to offer.
Calipari already has in-state phenom JJ Andrews’ commitment in the class of 2026 under his belt and he’s looking to add to his haul.
He and his staff have already been hard at work evaluating the top talent in that class, but official visits scheduled during the Notre Dame-Arkansas game, especially if the game is at night, could put Arkansas over the top for potential targets. The TV details for that game probably won’t be decided until a few weeks prior.
Some of those targets include 6’7″ forward Tyran Stokes, the No. 2 player in the country per Rivals, along with Jordan Smith, a 6’3″ guard who is Rivals’ No. 5 player overall.
Stokes ironically plays for Notre Dame High School in California, so it would be kind of neat for the Louisville, Ky. native from that aspect, unless you’re worried about it making him like the Irish in basketball. They don’t happen to be on his radar however, as 247Sports has Kansas, Louisville and Kentucky as his lead schools currently.
In order to pack Razorback Stadium, Arkansas will probably need to have won three out of four games prior to the Notre Dame clash. That way the worst record it would have would be 3-1, and the crowd would still theoretically be good even if the team is 2-2 with narrow losses to Ole Miss and Memphis.
Other 2026 Arkansas Basketball Recruits
Following Jonas Aidoo’s exit, Arkansas basketball went after two bigs in the portal for next year in Malique Ewin and Nick Pringle, but both will exhaust their collegiate eligibility after this upcoming season concludes.
On a recent Hogville.Net live, basketball reporter Kevin McPherson mentioned that assistant coach Chuck Martin and the staff as a whole are keeping tabs on Arafan Diane, a massive 7-footer who will be playing for Iowa United Prep this upcoming season. According to McPherson, he’s targeting a visit possibly on the Notre Dame weekend.
He originally hails from Guinea in West Africa, but Calipari has always had an affinity for those types of foreign post players (Skal Labissiere, Wenyen Gabriel, Ugonna Kingsley) when he was at Kentucky, plus landing a commitment from Somto Cyril before he took the Arkansas job. Cyril, of course, ended up at Georgia.
McPherson also mentions how last season was supposed to provide a big visit weekend for hoops in September, but the schedule only provided only home game in Fayetteville and it was Alabama-Birmingham, and so they diverted plans for Darius Acuff, Jr., Maleek Thomas and Koa Peat.
Acuff Jr. and Thomas both ended up changing their visit to the Tennessee game on Oct. 5, which of course saw the Razorbacks upset the fourth ranked Vols 19-14. Peat never made it to campus, and ultimately committed to Arizona.
That speaks to the importance of getting players on campus. Another thing McPherson was speaking to was the staff ended up getting a visit from 6’10 Miikka Muurinen during the weekend Arkansas happened to be in Arlington, Texas facing Texas A&M. There are still rumors that he could reclassify to 2025 and play this fall, but he will probably stay in for the 2026 class.
Christian Collins is another player McPherson pointed out may be a visitor for the Sept. 27 game, and he is the No. 7 player in the 2026 class and one of the top small forwards in America.
With the Notre Dame game falling on Sept. 27, three weeks before a stretch of SEC games in Fayetteville, it’s the perfect opportunity for hosting visitors for a marquee game that may end up commanding a national audience on ABC or ESPN, which is still stuff that matters to recruits too. That being said, it may not as much as it used to with the induction of NIL.
Just last year, eventual Arkansas basketball signee Meleek Thomas said attending the Razorbacks’ upset of No. 4 Tennessee was the “highlight” of his official visit. It wasn’t as high profile of an opponent, but Anthony Black was blown away by the fan support he witnessed during a win over Georgia Southern in 2021.
The Irish are certainly closer to Tennessee than Georgia Southern, and it helps that temperatures should have somewhat cooled off by then. If Arkansas vs Notre Dame turns out to be a night game, it will only add to the buzz that will be on campus that weekend. USC throttled Arkansas that night in 2006, but when Mitch Mustain came in and led a touchdown drive late in the game, the hype train was in full effect and a 10-game winning streak ensued.
Pittman’s crew could deliver a win for Calipari even in a gridiron loss.
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