FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Colorado State is no Michigan.
But for an Arkansas Razorbacks team in the infant stages of rebuilding under first-year Coach Chad Morris, the substitute game on the schedule today -- after the Wolverines pulled the plug on a home-and-home series that would have begun in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Sept. 1 -- is challenge enough.
The Razorbacks (1-0) will play 5,003 feet in their first road game under Morris against an opponent that will feel backed into a corner after an 0-2 start.
"Traveling on the road against a tough opponent, their backs against the wall and they're well-coached, they're gonna be ready to go," Morris said. "The crowd will be into it. We've just got to take care of the Arkansas Razorbacks."
The game, set for a 6:30 p.m. Central kickoff, is monumental for Colorado State, which has not hosted an SEC team since Mississippi State in 1981. The Rams scored the game against Arkansas in the second year of the on-campus Canvas Stadium.
"It's huge," Colorado State Coach Mike Bobo said. "What a great opportunity for our players to play a team like the University of Arkansas that's in arguably the best conference in America, and then to have them come to Fort Collins in this new stadium that we built last year. It's huge for our fan base."
Colorado State lost 45-13 to Colorado last week and has a road game at Florida next week, but adding a game between them against the Hogs proved irresistible.
"When our athletic director [Joe Parker] came to me about putting Arkansas on the schedule and bringing them here -- we already were playing Colorado and Florida, and usually you don't like to play three Power 5 teams in a row -- but to get Arkansas here, just for our program and our community and where we're trying to go, I thought it was something we couldn't pass up," Bobo said.
Former Arkansas safety Steve Atwater, an eight-time Pro Bowler with the Denver Broncos, now works on the Orange & Blue 760 radio network, an all-Broncos station in Denver. He thinks the Razorbacks, a 13-point favorite, will have to be sharp to beat the Rams.
"A lot of the [CSU] fans are a little disappointed," Atwater said. "They had decent hopes this year that things would be different. I think if the Razorbacks come to town ready to take care of business, I think CSU is certainly a beatable team.
"But you know how it is, if you come in there cocky and thinking that you've got this game in the bag, you know on any given Saturday anything can happen. The guys have to make sure they're dialed in, like we're playing against an Alabama or something, have the same mentality. I think they can come in here and dominate."
Atwater said he recently reconnected with former Arkansas All-America hurdler John Register, and the two will attend the game together along with his co-host Ryan Edwards, a Colorado State alumnus.
"I think CSU is looking like this is an opportunity to play against a big school that has a name and a reputation and if they pull off the upset, it'll make up for the first two games of the season," Atwater said.
Arkansas needed a waiver from the SEC, which had mandated at least one Power 5 nonconference game for member schools, to schedule the Rams in March 2017 as then-athletic director Jeff Long scrambled to replace the Michigan series. Colorado State already was scheduled to play the Hogs in Fayetteville in 2019, and that game also will serve as Arkansas' top-billed nonconference contest.
The Razorbacks will travel to Notre Dame in 2020 to open a home-and-home series, but until then the Rams are the cream of the Hogs' nonconference crop.
The Razorbacks rarely have flashed in marquee out-of-conference games the past six years, with a couple of exceptions.
The best nonconference victory for Bret Bielema was a 41-38 double overtime upset of No. 15 TCU in 2016. His Razorbacks also had a coming-out party in 2014 with seven rushing touchdowns in a 49-28 rout at defenseless Texas Tech in 2014.
However, the Red Raiders and Horned Frogs turned around and beat Arkansas at Razorback Stadium the next years. And of course Rutgers, in a brief upswing for the Scarlet Knights, swept the Hogs in 2012 and 2013 in a couple of lean years for Arkansas.
Not since Bobby Petrino growled and glared on the Arkansas sideline have the Razorbacks been a nonconference force. Petrino's Razorbacks won three in a row over Texas A&M from 2009 through 2011 back when Arkansas was unbeaten at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
So the game holds importance to Arkansas as well.
"I actually love playing on the road," Arkansas offensive coordinator Joe Craddock said. "It's a part of football that I really like. Me and Coach [Jeff] Traylor talk about this all the time, when you go on the road, it's everybody in that stadium versus you. Kind of a backs against the wall mentality. I love going on the road and going into battle with our team, and have to basically fight our way out of it. I love that."
An additional issue the Razorbacks will face today is the difference in altitude, which means less oxygen in the air. Canvas Stadium is about an hour north of the "mile-high city" of Denver, and about 280 feet lower at 5,003 feet, about 3,600 feet higher than Fayetteville.
The previous highest elevation for a Razorbacks' team was Jones Stadium in Lubbock, Texas, against Texas Tech.
Morris said he's talked to numerous coaches and former SMU receiver Courtland Sutton, now a Bronco, about playing at altitude.
"The biggest thing is hydrate your guys," Morris said. "Make sure everybody is hydrated. You have a tendency to dehydrate in the higher altitude. But it's not that much higher, so we're really not going to make a big deal out of it."
Ken Hatfield, the former Razorbacks player and coach, worked at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., as an assistant coach and head coach between 1979-1983 before returning to Arkansas. He said the so-called "front-range" schools Air Force, Colorado and Colorado State want opponents to think about the altitude.
"The teams out there ... always have constant reminders: 'We're just trying to be helpful, so be sure to bring your oxygen with you.' They put it psychologically in your mind.
"What people do if they're smart is they just keep a little oxygen there, because you might have one player that might have to play a lot of plays in a game ... but for the most part the teams are well-conditioned and for one game there it isn't a problem."
Bobo has a stronger opinion about the altitude.
"We recruit guys from all over the country and recruit guys from the South, and it usually takes them about 10 days to two weeks to get acclimated to the altitude," Bobo said. "When I first moved out here, if I walked up a flight of stairs, I felt like I was out of breath. So it's definitely something that affects you."
Atwater, a member of the NFL's All-Decade team of the 1990s, agreed with Haltfield's point about well-conditioned athletes, but he said players who extend themselves in warmups will note the difference in oxygen.
"A lot of teams when they come to town to play they do have some problems with it," Atwater said. "But after the game gets going, I think the effects can be minimized a little bit. Good football players, I don't think will really be affected by it."
The Razorbacks said they've been hydrating all week.
"It's been brought up a lot, as a matter of fact," defensive lineman Armon Watts said. "We've had a few guys that's been over there and said you dehydrate faster, so I think that's going to be a big part of Saturday."
Receiver Jared Cornelius said he isn't worried about Michigan being off the schedule, Colorado State being on it, the altitude, the venue or the weather.
"I don't think it matters whether we play in Louisiana, Colorado, New York," Cornelius said. "Coach Morris says all the time, 'Just tell us what parking lot to meet you in and we'll play football.' "
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette staff writer Bob Holt contributed to this report.
Today’s game
ARKANSAS AT COLORADO STATE
WHEN 6:30 p.m Central
WHERE Canvas Stadium, Fort Collins, Colo.
RECORDS Arkansas 1-0; Colorado State 0-2
LINE Arkansas by 14
COACHES Chad Morris (1-0 in first season at Arkansas, 15-22 in fourth season overall); Mike Bobo (21-20 in fourth season at CSU and overall)
SERIES Arkansas leads 3-0
TV CBS Sports Network
RADIO Razorback Sports Network, including KABZ-FM, 103.7, in Little Rock; KQSM-FM, 92.1, KIGL-FM, 93.3, KAKSFM, 99.5, and KUOA-AM, 1290, in Fayetteville; KERX-FM, 95.3, in Fort Smith, Sirius 125, XM 386
Sports on 09/08/2018