It was nearly midnight as I left the press box after completing my column on the Arkansas victory over Texas.
The thought as I emerged from the elevator and hit the sidewalk for the walk to my truck: there will be no traffic and it will be a quiet walk to the parking lot.
Nope. The stadium might have been empty, but the streets of Fayetteville were still abuzz.
A car passed with the sunroof open with two co-eds — and let’s hope they were at least college age — with at least half their bodies above roof level.
I’m pretty sure both were intoxicated as they screamed at me with double downward Horn hand gestures.
“F—- Texas!!!!!”
I did nothing to encourage them as they continued to scream and holler going north on Razorback Road, but I did smile.
It was just more proof that someone under 30 can hate Texas as much as those of my generation. Anyone who said the under-30 crowd doesn’t get it, doesn’t get it.
Hatred of Texas has not gone away. It’s alive and well.
There may be some young people who don’t get it, but don’t worry about the thousands of students who packed The Trough on Saturday night at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Those in the student section screamed as they sprinted into the stadium when the gates opened 90 minutes before the kickoff. And they screamed and chanted to the top of their lungs while the Razorbacks hammered Texas 41-20.
They were as awesome as Arkansas linebacker Hayden Henry, honored this week as the Walter Camp Foundation defensive player of the week.
Those students did their job as well as nose tackle John Ridgeway or those amazing running backs that danced through the Longhorn defense for four quarters.
They roared as Zach Williams stripped Texas quarterback Hudson Card from behind. That play was right in front of them and they didn’t need to see a replay to know that the ball belonged to the Razorbacks.
They went crazy.
They celebrated goal-line stops with unbridled screams. They celebrated every play, every move by their Razorbacks that further tormented the Longhorns.
They wanted Texas blood all the way to the finish; some upset that coach Sam Pittman elected to take a knee for the final two plays. They knew Texas was incapable of stopping any running play at that point. A simple off-tackle call would have delivered another touchdown in a rout for the ages.
These UA students get what beating Texas means, and why wouldn’t they? So many are Texans by birth, now Razorbacks for life.
I’m guessing that more than half of the students in the stands were from Texas high schools where football is a religion.
They come to Arkansas because they can’t go to UT, a school with entrance requirements that can block a straight-A student who is not one of their high school’s top graduates.
It was an incredible show by the students. I do not believe they ever sat down during the game. They called the Hogs with unbelievable vigor. They displayed their downward Horn signals as they left the building, but not before they danced and celebrated with the football team on the field.
I’ve been told by some of my colleagues in the media that the young people don’t know the meaning of the Texas series. I never bought into it. The hatred had been unneeded for the last 30 years while the Hogs toiled in the SEC, but it was always there.
It’s never going away, either. It just needs games between the two schools to boil forth.
It helps when the Razorbacks have some fire to get a good boil going. The Hogs have that under Pittman, the second-year coach who has lifted them back to national relevance.
The Hogs are now No. 20 in the Associated Press poll and their game with Texas A&M in two weeks has been picked up by CBS. It’s set for national TV at 2:30 p.m.
It’s the kind of stuff that makes Jerry Jones happy that he fought to keep the Arkansas-Texas A&M game in AT&T Stadium.
I’m guessing the atmosphere will be terrific as the Hogs and Aggies make a statement that might be important when bowl bids are handed out in December.
It’s a good time to be a Razorback fan. So much is rolling right in the athletic department.
But it’s going right at the university, too. Enrollment has finally topped 30,000 for the first time. The steady number of Texans headed north has been a big part of that.
I recall the first time I heard that the school president was in favor of the series with Texas A&M in AT&T Stadium. He wanted a UA presence in the Dallas Metroplex for student recruitment as much as any football coach wanted blue-chip players.
All of that was in evidence on Saturday night. By the way, the license plates on the car with the happy co-eds? You guessed it: Texas.
Arkansas football players once sang a brief song after every SWC victory. The key line, “We don’t give a damn about the whole state of Texas, because we’re from Arkansas.”
Texans sang it with delight. I know they did care about loved ones in Texas, but they loved beating Longhorns, Aggies, Cougars, Bears, Mustangs, Owls, Frogs and Red Raiders.
Loyd Phillips, from Longview, was proud of his Texas roots, but delighted in beating the SWC teams that did not recruit him.
It’s hard to imagine the Longhorns didn’t want Phillips. He turned out to be the best lineman in the nation, the Razorbacks’ first two-time All-America selection and the Outland Trophy winner.
I got to know Phillips as the vice principal at Rogers High School. We had talks about his games against Texas. His teams went 3-0 against the Longhorns. He played in a rage in those games.
My daughter Sarah, a star soccer player at Rogers, had an interesting discussion with Phillips. He called her to his office about a form for a college visit.
She was going to attend a recruiting showcase event that was co-hosted by two Austin soccer clubs with games played on both the fields at St. Edwards University and the UT, although neither school was officially involved.
The way the form was filled out was vague. My daughter just wrote that she was going to play in front of college coaches (true) on the UT campus. The idea was to get an excused absence.
Phillips didn’t understand. He knew Sarah’s grandfather had a dislike for UT, just as he did. He couldn’t fathom Orville Henry’s granddaughter playing soccer for the Longhorns.
“Does Mr. Henry know about this?” Phillips quizzed Sarah. “I don’t like this one bit.”
Quickly, Sarah came clean. UT had no interest in her, nor did she in becoming a Longhorn. Phillips smiled, signed the form and slid it back to her.
This was almost a decade after the Hogs had exited for the SEC, but Sarah knew not to wear anything close to burnt orange. She knew how to make a downward Horn sign and when to use it.
Now, do they know what playing Arkansas means in Austin? Do they understand what the SEC is all about?
Probably not, but they may have a better idea after the way the students represented Saturday night.
Joe Kines, as Arkansas’ defensive coordinator in 1990, told a Saline County Razorback Club what going to the SEC means.
“Wear a raincoat if you sit in one of the first few rows at an SEC game,” Kines said. “They slit your throat and drink your blood.”
Yes, they do. Those students in the first few rows skipped the raincoats Saturday night. But they did celebratory dances in Texas blood.
That brings us to this week’s game and our top 10 keys to victory.
Forget Texas
The plan this week is to forget the Longhorns and get back to work. It’s the Pittman way.
Oh, that’s easy to type, but hard to do. It was part of the discussion Wednesday when Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek addressed the third weekly meeting of the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club.
Is there a way to recreate the atmosphere of the Texas game when the Hogs play host to Georgia Southern at 3 p.m. Saturday?
“It’s natural to have a letdown,” Yurachek said. “No, we are not playing Texas, but we are the No. 20 team in the AP. As Razorbacks, it should be the mission to recreate the same energy for this game. Students and our fans should try to bring the same energy to the stadium.”
Pittman believes the former can be done. He did not speak for fans, but said he thought the work ethic of the program helps avoid a letdown. The Hogs played hard after victories last year, some that were highly celebrated like Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee.
You do that with daily work ethic in practice, something Pittman thinks is the foundation of the program. The most common descriptive phrase used by players to describe this team is blue collar.
That will serve the Hogs well against Georgia Southern. They are a 23 ½-point favorite, but their mission is to work harder in practice even as they prepare for a big underdog.
“We showed the team on Tuesday three different recent games where teams had such a great win, and then the next week they got beat by an unranked opponent,” Pittman said. “They got my subliminal pretty good about what can happen if you get lazy. You’ve got to do what got you there.”
Running Back Depth
The old adage of never having enough running backs is true. As an old football man once told me, running backs get hurt. The other team tackles them on every play.
So, it may not be long before the running back room seems empty, but it’s full now.
In looking for an Arkansas running back group that compares to this year’s team, I went all the way to 1975 when the Hogs won the SWC. The group of Ike Forte, Jerry Eckwood, Michael Forrest, Ben Cowins and Roland Fuchs was deep and talented.
The current group of Trelon Smith, Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, Dominique Johnson, Josh Oglesby and AJ Green has similar talent, although that 1975 group had more experience.
It’s also interesting to compare the quarterbacks. Like 1975 quarterback Scott Bull, KJ Jefferson can beat you with his legs. Bull had developed into a solid passer by 1975, something Jefferson still hasn’t done on a consistent basis.
It was just a few weeks ago when Pittman said one of the big goals of August camp was to find a No. 2 running back. When the season is over, how that backup developed might be the story of the year.
Little did he know – and if did, he wasn’t sharing it – the Hogs have plenty capable of playing that backup role. Johnson dazzled with some big plays, including a block on a big pass play on perhaps the biggest drive of the night, the one following a Jefferson interception.
With all of the excitement over the young backs and the development of a No. 2 man, Smith is still the man. He’s not only the best of the backs, he’s also the clear leader in the room. He plays unbelievably hard.
Don’t be fooled by an average that’s below that of his younger teammates. He has not benefitted as much from playing when the defense has been softened. He leads the team with 177 yards on a team-high 34 carries. That’s a 5.2-yard average.
Jefferson, the quarterback, is next with 162, but a higher 8.5 average.
The Game Plan
No doubt, it’s different this week. Georgia Southern offers a rare blend of option running and ball control offense rarely seen these days in the SEC. It’s what the Hogs have known all summer.
Pittman spent part of August camp working against a scout team running Georgia Southern’s option game. He said you couldn’t get ready for that style in two or three days of practice game week. He wanted more.
It’s the kind of stuff that has impressed Yurachek, who has a son, Jake, on the team and another, Ryan, working for Pittman as a grad assistant.
“What I’ve seen that’s important is that the players believe in Sam as a coach and the coaches believe in the players,” Yurachek said. “The players know that they are going to have a good game plan every week.
“The players know that if they execute the game plan, they are going to win a lot more than they lose. I thought they had great game plans last year.”
The defensive game plan against Texas mirrored the one defensive coordinator Barry Odom used against Alabama in a 52-3 loss last year. Odom thought it would slow down Steve Sarkisian’s UT offense because it did at some points in the Alabama game when Sarkisian was the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator.
“We played Alabama last year and our defense played fairly well,” Pittman said. “I know it’s hard to think when they scored so many points on us, but (we) had some success. Barry felt like that was the way he wanted to go, with a three-man front, and we put a couple of wrinkles on it, too.
“The kids believed in him, they believed in us, and whatever we design up there, they’re going to go execute.”
The Air Game
Everyone is talking about the Arkansas running game after the Hogs averaged 7.1 yards on the ground against Texas. The Hogs attempted only 19 passes.
But it might not be as easy as just handing off against the Eagles. They actually do better against the run than the pass. They rank third best in the Sun Belt, giving up just 132.5 rushing yards per game.
Look for a change in what Texas tried, a 3-3 front, that sometimes was close to a 2-4. Texas dared the Hogs to run, perhaps thinking they had better strength with their defensive tackles. That was terrible thinking.
It’s probably a good bet that Georgia Southern will bring a safety in the box for extra run support. Texas never did. They played both safeties 15 yards deep and kept a nickel back in pass coverage, too.
The Eagles will probably make Jefferson beat them with the air game. He probably can after completing 14 of 19 against Texas.
The Georgia Southern game plan will likely be to stuff the box with eight. It may lead to a big day for Jefferson. The Eagles allow 348.5 yards per game in the air, 125th best nationally.
Linebacker Depth
Grant Morgan sustained a knee injury (released as a lower leg issue) early in the fourth quarter against Texas. He was a guest on a Little Rock radio show Monday with promises that it was just a “tweak,” much like the injury suffered to the other knee last year against Missouri.
But, that doesn’t mean Morgan, the sixth-year senior and All-American, should play against the Eagles.
This could be a good week to rest him with the trip to play Texas A&M next week, followed by road games to Georgia and Ole Miss.
The Hogs appear to have good linebacker depth for the first time in perhaps one decade. Hayden Henry and Bumper Pool, both seniors, are solid.
Behind them, Andrew Parker and Jackson Woodard are solid players, too.
Linebacker depth against the option is important, so the Hogs are in good shape this week.
The Triple Option
Yes, the Eagles are a triple-option team. It’s an offense similar to what Army runs, a system that gave Oklahoma trouble in recent seasons.
The key component in stopping the triple option is eye discipline. Generally, blitzes and stunts are not a good plan. The goal is to make the quarterback pitch and cover the outside with good pursuit.
Pittman said, “You have to be sound….It’s going to be a challenge for us.”
The good news is that the Hogs have been great at pursuit so far this season. They chase the ball in Odom’s scheme as well as any Arkansas defense in recent memory.
Physicality
The Hogs had it in big doses against Texas. If ever there was a time that linemen were the stars in a big game, it was in the 40-21 thumping of Texas. Everyone noticed that the home team was more physical.
Can the Hogs bring that same physical intensity against a lesser foe? You’d think that would be easy, but sometimes when intensity wanes, so does the hitting.
Pittman praised center Ricky Stromberg for his work against a good Texas nose tackle, along with both tackles, Dalton Wagner and Myron Cunningham. I was so impressed with Wagner that I jumped at the chance to put him on the last cover of Hawgs Illustrated. Seldom has our magazine featured offensive linemen on the cover.
Pittman also raved about the play of backup right guard Beaux Limmer. He played almost two quarters in relief of starter Ty Clary. Pittman said Limmer “is a guy who wants to dominate a defensive lineman. We need more of that. We need guys who want to finish.”
The Hogs didn’t dominate on every play, but they did provide some cutback lanes for both the running backs and Jefferson.
Pittman praised backs after the game for looking for their first key, then moving to the second or even the third if holes were not open. That’s an exciting development because it means they can take advantage of cutback schemes when teams over play Jefferson on the run-pass option game.
Clean and Mean
The Hogs were flagged only four times last week, but was that because the Big 12 crew assigned to the game just doesn’t throw many flags?
There is a suspicion that’s true. There were some possible targeting calls that were not made, including a key play on a fourth-and-1 stop by Henry.
That raises eyebrows among fans alarmed that the Hogs have lost several players because of targeting calls the last two seasons. Can they avoid targeting penalties? They want to have everyone available next week for the SEC opener against Texas A&M.
I do think it’s almost impossible to avoid all targeting calls. It’s built into a football player’s soul to lower the crown of the helmet in an attempt to cause a fumble. A tendency and desire to hit them hard and low is just going to be hard to get out of the game.
The main problem is that defensive players are trying to hit a moving target. A ball carrier doesn’t always twist or dive in the way a tackler expects.
The Hogs want to retain an aggressive hitting style, but they also need to avoid penalties.
The Quarterbacks
Is this a week when the Hogs unleash a two-headed monster at quarterback? Jefferson could get some help from backup signal caller Malik Hornsby, possibly the fastest man on the team. Cunningham called it “a show” when Hornsby ran the ball in an August scrimmage.
On the other side, it’s not clear what Georgia Southern will do at quarterback. They may play two. Justin Tomlin, the Eagles’ top quarterback, sat out the first two games because of an academic suspension. He’s cleared to play this week.
Cam Ransom was the GSU quarterback in the first two games. He ran 12 times for 50 yards and was 20 of 34 passing for 188 yards.
It could be that both teams play both quarterbacks. That’s what happened last week when Texas benched Card in the second half. Hornsby played in the game’s final series as the Hogs ran out the clock.
Pittman used the second offense with Hornsby in practice this week to give the defense a good look at quarterback speed. He thought the defense reacted well to the speed of Hornsby.
“I know Tomlin is good, but he can’t be faster than Malik Hornsby,” Pittman said, referencing the Georgia Southern QB. “We’ll see, I guess. They really did a good job of fitting that up today.”
Start Fast
It probably goes without saying that the goal when you play a team like Georgia Southern is to play younger players – if you can get a lead.
So the key is to start fast. They did last week against Texas, but did not against Rice. The Hogs were lethargic and out of rhythm in the opener.
It would be nice to see more of freshman backs Sanders and Green. Pittman has promised Green is going to play more. When he does, the coach wants more big plays. He teased Green about that after the Texas game.
“I saw him Monday and asked him, ‘How many carries did you have?’” Pittman said. “He said six. I said, ‘How many touchdowns did you have?’ He said one. I said, ‘Well what the hell happened on the other five?’
“He’s really fast.”
So if the Hogs can start fast, maybe they can play their two fastest players more. That would be Hornsby and Green.