In 2021, Arkansas fans hopped guard rails to rush the field as Texas fell 40-21 to the Razorbacks in Fayetteville.
“This was not a performance I was anticipating,” head coach Steve Sarkisian said after his first loss as a Texas head coach. “But we’ve got work to do, that’s for sure.”
And they have put in the work.
That 5–7 2021 team has transformed under Sarkisian into the No. 3 ranked team in the country. It is now preparing to head back to Fayetteville with a vengeance to reignite a conference rivalry that hasn’t been seen since 1991.
The memories of the brutal 2021 matchup are still in the minds of some Texas players. Eleven players who took part in the loss are a part of the 2024 Texas squad, nine of which are starters.
“They wanted to whoop our asses, and they did,” senior defensive lineman Alfred Collins said, recalling the game. “That was my introduction for sure.”
While the teams haven’t been in the same conference for over 30 years, they have a rich history, with Texas leading the all-time series 56–23. With the drastic success of the Longhorns in the series, there seems to be much more hatred coming from the Razorbacks in contrast to the Longhorns.
This could stem all the way back to the 1969 National Championship matchup, or “The Game of the Century,” where No. 1 Texas came back with two touchdowns and a successful two-point conversion attempt in the fourth quarter to take the win over No. 2 Arkansas, 15-14.
Sarkisian, however, doesn’t have a clear answer to where the hatred comes from.
“I don’t know what Darrel Royal did to Arkansas back in the day, but they absolutely hate our guts,” Sarkisian said. “I think we learned that the first time around when we went there.”
Despite the long history of the schools, Texas players, specifically veterans who had the displeasure of being in the Razorback Stadium over three years ago, are choosing to focus on the intense hatred that the Razorbacks showed the team
in 2021. The team is using the venomous atmosphere they were given by the Razorback fandom, which some players said was the most difficult environment to play in, as fuel for Saturday.
“We can look at the history if we want, but we know how we were treated in the last game,” fifth-year center Jake Majors said. “I think that’s enough to get everybody going.”
With the matchup on Saturday once again in Fayetteville, these two teams will look completely different than the last time they faced off. Sarkisian described the Razorback squad as a big and physical roster that is explosive in both the pass and run game. The coach is hoping to get off to a better start than they did in 2021, and like he said after the 2021 loss, he still believes the team needs to put in effort.
“Hopefully we can put a better foot forward against them in this ball game (since) they’ve got a good football team,” Sarkisian said. “I like the mentality of the team already here Monday morning with them understanding, ‘That was a good game for us Saturday, but there’s more work to be done.’’
