Find out what the Saturday Down South columnist thinks about Arkansas’ hot start on Halftime with Phil, Drew and MattyT.
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Democrat-Gazette’s Tom Murphy recapping Hogs’ downing Texas A&M
Arkansas got a lot of breaks they haven’t gotten for nine years in 20-10 win over Aggies on Saturday.
Huddle Up Episode 5: We OWN texas
Tye & JD on the win over A&M, looking ahead to Georgia his big finance test and more!
The Morning Rush is LIVE!!
The Morning Rush is live on a Hot Take Monday after the A&M win in Dallas!!
How high did Hogs leap in media, coaches polls Sunday?
All of these power polls and rankings really don’t mean a lot for another couple of months but Arkansas is getting back in the mix.
They are higher than at any point since 2012. Of course that was a rather forgettable year when they started high and finished nowhere.
The 20-10 win over Texas A&M added some legitimacy to a 4-0 start. Taking ownership over the biggest teams in Texas doing it is just a bonus.
Finally back where it belongs! A huge thank you from our staff and players for the fans support yesterday! #turnthatdamnjukeboxon #gohogs pic.twitter.com/LSEeHnu6pc
— Coach Sam Pittman (@CoachSamPittman) September 26, 2021
Right or wrong a large number of folks in Arkansas would rather beat the Longhorns and Aggies than the Crimson Tide or Tigers.
Sunday, the Hogs moved seven spots in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll to No. 11, which has kept them a couple of spots behind the media poll.
They leaped all the way to No. 8 in the Associated Press poll.
In the win over the Aggies, Sam Pittman got Hogs coaches Eric Musselman (men’s basketball) and Dave Van Horn (baseball) to be on the sidelines. Those are the two most visible coaches right now.
Turn that damn jukebox on @CoachSamPittman!! @RazorbackFB pic.twitter.com/VqeihLrEWB
— Eric Musselman (@EricPMusselman) September 25, 2021
That’s not a knock on other coaches but there are some limits on the number of folks just standing and watching from the sidelines during games.
He called both early last week.
“I just told ’em I think we’ll be more powerful if you guys come on the sidelines and stand there,” Pittman said Saturday after the win. “It was a special moment for me. I mean, it was Dave Van Horn and Eric Musselman. I mean my god.”
He almost sounded in awe of Van Horn’s regular trips to Omaha and what Musselman has accomplished in a short time at Fayetteville.
Pittman is getting the enthusiasm. The Hogs are getting respect.
The stage gets bigger this week and the spotlight brighter. No. 2 Georgia is next, the game is on the road, ESPN GameDay is going to be in Athens.
Now they have to keep winning.
? A T H E N S
We’re headed to the Classic City for @RazorbackFB vs. @GeorgiaFootball ? pic.twitter.com/aXlh6GamBy
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) September 26, 2021
‘We own Texas now:’ Grant Morgan, Hogs’ defense owns Lone Star state
Another one of those “super seniors” took the blame for giving Texas A&M some hope in the second half Saturday.
“That was completely my fault,” sixth-year linebacker Grant Morgan said later. “The way we handled it was I came over to the sidelines and said, ‘that was on me … everyone’s doing their job, that’s one play out of 60 that they’ve got so far … we are beating their butts every single time.'”
Morgan is one of a trio of experienced linebackers along with Bumper Pool and Hayden Henry that have taken over the defense along with safety Jalen Catalon.
“We knew we had to take a step forward and say this our game now,” Morgan said. “We had to be able to look at the leaders of this group and say this our game now, we have to win it.”
The Hogs’ defense, behind another masterful game play by Barry Odom, really shut down the Aggies. The numbers didn’t tell a completely accurate story.
A&M finished with 121 yards. Do the math. Take away Spiller’s 67-yard run and it’s just 54 yards Arkansas allowed the No. 7 team in the country.
“They ran just a simple zone read,” Morgan said. “If I see the end crash down through a crease, I have to read out of a gap. They blocked it really well. Me and Eric (Gregory) ended up being in the same gap. I was unblocked and didn’t make the play.”
It didn’t help the Hogs showed A&M quarterback Zach Calzada he wasn’t really ready for prime time yet. Odom was “very familiar” with Calazada because he had tried to recruit him when he was coaching at Missouri.
And the Hogs’ defense didn’t change a whole lot.
“The key was just being us,” Morgan said. “We have a one-play mentality where we’re only going to worry about one play at a time. So we did.”
That means the Hogs weren’t going to dwell on Spiller’s big run that could have changed the entire momentum of the game. It cut the Hogs’ lead to 17-10 with 3:53 left in the third quarter.
In recent past that would be the defining moment when things would start heading downhill for Arkansas in these Southwest Classic matchups in AT&T Stadium.
“They had one good play against us on that long run,” Morgan said. “After that we had to know we have that one-play mentality to be able to clap that off and go to the next one.
“So we did. We went back to our basics. We knew what they were going to do. Our coaches did a really good job of preparing us and they did exactly what we thought.”
It is Arkansas’ first 4-0 start since 2003.
“I don’t know what it means to the program,” Sam Pittman said later.
“Wins like this are why you come back,” Morgan said. He took advantage of the bonus year because of the COVID pandemic and he’s making the most of it. “We saw what this could be.
“There’s not a single ‘super senior’ in that room right now that says ‘I should have left.’ I’m excited to be part of this group that’s changing the momentum of Arkansas football and we’re starting a new path.”
And it also means a little more with two of those four wins over the biggest schools in the Lone Star state.
“We own Texas now, I guess,” Morgan said. “It’s exciting. We went 2-0 on the Texas teams.”
Now they have to do it again with a road trip to Georgia next week.
“Our job is not done,” Morgan said.
Hogs wide receiver Treylon Burks recapping another big play touchdown
For second straight week, Treylon Burks has scored on a long touchdown pass, this one an 80-yarder against A&M.
KJ Jefferson just missed few plays ‘waiting on medicine to kick in’
Arkansas Razorback fans held their breath when quarterback KJ Jefferson was banged up, but he wasn’t concerned later.
Hogs linebacker Grant Morgan glad to finally get win in Southwest Classic
Another “super senior” had to wait several years but finally got to celebrate a win over the Aggies in Arlington.
Sam Pittman after Razorbacks knock off Aggies for first time in nine years
Arkansas’ 20-10 win over Texas A&M ended a long dry spell in Southwest Classic, but he knows Georgia next.










