For better or worse, all eyes will be on Razorback Stadium on Saturday night.
Arkansas football got the prime time slot of the weekend: 6:30 p.m. on ABC, with the broadcasting “A-team” of Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit on the call for the Hogs’ clash with No. 4 Tennessee. To put it bluntly, there will be a beaming spotlight shining on Fayetteville.
And it couldn’t have come at a more important time for Arkansas, as it currently sits at 3-2 heading into its final game before a bye week. There’s a not-too-distant alternate reality where the Hogs are 5-0 heading into this clash after heartbreaking one-possession losses to Oklahoma State and Texas A&M – but through a series of unfortunate events, that didn’t come true.
To match the occasion of hosting a top-five opponent, the program announced a stripe out to help amplify the nighttime atmosphere. Add that onto Arkansas’ newly heralded tailgating scene, which will be hopping for the first home SEC game of the year, and it’s sure to be quite the atmosphere.
That presents the bout between Arkansas and Tennessee as a chance for a “get-right” game on the national stage.
Hogs’ Heartbreaks Came at Expense of College Gameday
Some have gone so far as to say that the Razorbacks may be readying to host ESPN’s College Gameday if they had come away with a win in either Stillwater or Arlington. That would put Arkansas at 4-1, likely making it a Top-25 matchup with the Vols.
The rest of the Week 6 slate is rather underwhelming – Florida State vs. Clemson, Michigan vs. Washington and Auburn vs. Georgia fail to generate as much excitement due to those teams’ underperformances this year.
It would have been Arkansas’ first time hosting the landmark show since 2006, when it faced off against none other than Tennessee. The Hogs won 31-14, and Lee Corso’s headgear pick led to this iconic gif:
Instead, the Gameday crew is heading to Berkeley for unranked Cal’s matchup with No. 8 Miami. Clearly, a ranked Arkansas team would have gotten the nod over the Bears to host.
Even without Corso and Co. in town, the Hogs-Vols matchup is sure to generate big viewership numbers this weekend. With that in mind, it’s of utmost importance that Arkansas puts up a solid performance against Tennessee – or the consequences could be pretty catastrophic.
Arkansas Football Needs to Step Up After Previous Home Nightmares
A lot of attention has been paid to Arkansas’ inability to win close games under head coach Sam Pittman, as the Hogs are just 6-18 in such matchups. But there’s another category that has been just as problematic – the team’s inexplicable struggles at home.
Razorback Stadium is supposed to supply a raucous home-field advantage, but recent years have seen the team fail to answer fans’ Hog calls. Last year, in particular, Arkansas failed to show up for any of its big games in Fayetteville last year. BYU and Mississippi State were both games the Hogs were supposed to win, and the drubbings against Auburn and Missouri were so ugly that fans were pouring for the exit gates well before the final whistle.
You’d have to go way back to 2022 to find the last time the Hogs played a major conference opponent at home and put up a solid performance, that being a 42-27 victory over Ole Miss. But even that season included an upset loss to Hugh Freeze’s Liberty.
That rocky recent past, including a lackadaisical performance against UAB a few weeks ago, amplifies the need for Arkansas to step up against Tennessee.
Very few Razorback fans will be expecting a straight-up win against the 4th-ranked Vols, but they’ll want to see their team put up a fight and keep things close. Tennessee is a 13.5-point favorite right now, and that spread is a solid benchmark for this potential “moral victory.” If the Hogs can keep it closer than two touchdowns, that’s some solid damage control.
As much as the diehards hate to hear it, a “loss a loss” doesn’t really apply to this specific situation.
Tennessee has been an absolute juggernaut so far this year, dumping a combined 140 points on helpless Chattanooga and Kent State teams, bludgeoning No. 24 NC State 51-10, and then suffocating No. 15 Oklahoma on the road. Redshirt freshman quarterback Nico Iamaleava – whose name is as awesome as his hair – has lit defenses on fire to start the year.
Tennessee’s defense has been elite this season, too, allowing just seven points per game. Combined with the offense’s video-game numbers, and the Vols have had a historically dominant start to the season. It’s still early days, but this Tennessee team so far has shown the makings of being both an unstoppable force and an immovable object.
Past Moral Victories Have Propelled Arkansas to Better Days
If Arkansas were to come out of Saturday with a close loss to be proud of, it would send the team into the bye week on a slightly positive note. Looking at the program’s recent history, the Hogs have used the momentum from moral victories to drive successes later in the season.
Look no further than the 2020 season opener, Sam Pittman’s first game in charge. New coaches usually get a grace period with a few cupcake matchups, but the all-SEC slate in the COVID year meant the juggernaut Georgia Bulldogs – Pittman’s former employer – came to Fayetteville as his first opponent.
The Hogs put up a surprisingly good performance, even taking a 7-5 lead into the locker room at halftime. Arkansas eventually lost that battle 37-10, but hanging around for that long against a powerhouse instilled some confidence in the team. Sure enough, the Razorbacks knocked off a ranked Mississippi State team on the road the following week for their first SEC win since 2017. Later in the season, they also went on to beat none other than Tennessee in Razorback Stadium.
A similarly dreadful SEC drought was broken in 2014 thanks to the momentum gained from a pair of moral victories. The Hogs hung close with No. 7 Alabama and No. 10 Georgia in back-to-back weeks, losing by a point at home to the Tide in a 14-13 heartbreaker before keeping the Dawgs close in Little Rock in a 45-32 loss.
Again, losses on the books, but great momentum for a team that desperately needed it. Later that season, Arkansas shut out ranked LSU and Ole Miss teams in consecutive weeks to break a long winless streak in the SEC. It was one of the most iconic moments of the Bret Bielema era, and the team went on to reach bowl eligibility and blow out Texas to seal a winning record on the year.
For a third and final example, we can look back on current offensive coordinator and former head coach Bobby Petrino’s reign at Arkansas. In 2009, the Hogs lost a 52-41 shootout to, you guessed it, Georgia. But a young quarterback named Ryan Mallett threw for 400 yards and five touchdowns, announcing himself to the rest of the SEC. The Hogs went on to finish 8-5 in a season that would serve as the launchpad for the major successes of the Petrino era.
The hope for Saturday is that Arkansas can rally for a solid performance against superior opposition and put up a respectable performance – especially with the matchup being put on center stage of the college football world.
A win or close loss would give the Razorbacks some momentum heading into the second half of the season; another blowout at home would sink morale and drop the team to 3-3 heading into the bye on a sour note.
Let’s just hope Arkansas does a better job defending Iamaleava than Pittman did pronouncing his name.
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