Has anyone else noticed the coming and going of marquee teams on the Arkansas football schedule in 2024?
The Razorbacks add their oldest rival in the sport, Texas, and drop the program's greatest tormentor, Alabama.
Texas, which visits Fayetteville for the second time in four years, first played Arkansas in 1894. A columnist, if any attended the game, might have scribbled a few lines that Fort Smith High School, which those Hogs played twice before going to Austin, did not adequately prepare the Razorbacks for the program's first away game. Coached initially by UA Latin professor J.C. Futrall, Arkansas played six games with Texas before scoring and lost the first 14 such meetings.
Arkansas has made some inroads in the series, even if it stands 56-23 in Texas' favor, winning the last two meetings. Then-Hog coach Bret Bielema left points on the table late in the 2014 Texas Bowl rather than run up a 31-7 score against the Longhorns' Arkansas-born first-year head coach, Charlie Strong. Sam Pittman may have wrestled with his conscience late in the 40-21 game of 2021 on the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 tragedy.
Extending the olive branch has often been the prerogative of the winning coach in 16 straight Alabama decisions over Arkansas. No opponent has beaten UA with such regularity, dating to a 1996 game in Fayetteville that Houston Nutt's Razorbacks beat the last Crimson Tide team coached by Mike Shula.
Alabama got Nick Saban to change his mind about leaving the Miami Dolphins the following year, and six national titles later the Southeastern Conference is still playing catch-up. Arkansas' closest call in the series since then came in 1994 at Fayetteville, 14-13 by Bielema's second Razorback squad.
A Gene Stallings-coached team that brought 'Bama its first national title since the passing of Bear Bryant beat the 1992 Hogs 38-11 in Little Rock, Arkansas' first SEC home game. Bryant, whom some Arkansas people never forgave for leaving the state to play at Alabama, claimed a national title after two Sugar Bowl wins over Arkansas, 10-3 in 1962 when Frank Broyles coached the other side and 24-9 in 1980 against Lou Holtz, of whose wizardry Bryant was mindful and took steps to combat.
Holtz, faced with replacing defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin (Lane's dad) off his only Southwest Conference championship team at UA, said that day "we've got to get bigger and stronger like Alabama is." After a string of coaches not cut from the Bryant mold, Alabama reached surpassing heights under Saban while Arkansas went into diminuendo under such lesser lights as John L. Smith and Chad Morris.
Alabama has forfeited two wins over Arkansas, new Razorback coach Danny Ford (a former Tide player under Bryant when, he says, "we didn't win nothing") saying that Stallings' 1993 team "could have scored 100" in the 43-3 game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa. Arkansas returns to T-town in October, winning there in 1995 (20-19, Barry Lunney Jr. with the game-winning pass to wee J.J. Meadors), 17-16 in 1997 (the first Tide season without Stallings) and 34-31 in 2003 (double overtime). Arkansas seldom looked more overmatched against any opponent than in home-and-away games against 'Bama in 2012 and '13.
The SEC, rather than add a ninth league opponent to members' schedules next year, lopped off some league matchups instead. Scratching Arkansas vs. Alabama from the 2024 schedule made nary a squabble in an offseason dominated by the union (shotgun marriage?) of Jimbo Fisher and Bobby Petrino at Texas A&M.
Consider that Alabama is matched against Georgia for only the fifth time in the past 20 years in the regular season. Ex-Saban assistant Kirby Smart has the Bulldogs' trending toward a third straight national championship. Saban's age, 71, may prove the irritant to this Alabama coach that it did for Bryant.
Other 2024 SEC games of note include Tennessee at Oklahoma (Vols coach Josh Heupel returns to his alma mater, where he was a Heisman Trophy finalist) and the first Texas-Texas A&M matchup since 2011. Oklahoma at Missouri is a golden oldie from Big Eight and Big 12 times.
With dates to be announced, Arkansas plays LSU, Ole Miss, Tennessee and Texas at homa and Auburn, Mississippi State, Missouri and Texas A&M (Arlington, Texas) on the road next season. Guessing that you won't shed one tear over Arkansas not playing Alabama.