Razorback fans will be fascinated with Texas game, but shouldn’t be

Arkansas fans today are going to be far more obsessed with a non-conference game on Sept. 11 than the important games against SEC teams.

The Razorbacks have been far more intrigued in re-kindling their hatred of the Longhorns than anything else.

It’s almost like you wonder if during the 2-10 years if Chad Morris would still be the coach if one of those wins had been against Texas.

Yes, it’s like that.

Texas is, well, Texas. I grew up in Arkansas, attending games and all the hoopla. Over half of my adult life was spent in Texas and I learned that a huge percentage of people moved there from Arkansas and most Longhorn fans consider the Hogs just another game on the schedule … when they do meet.

They are more concerned with Oklahoma and Texas A&M than the Hogs. They haven’t played the Aggies since 2011 but there is still real dislike at both places for each other.

Yet Arkansas fans are going to be more obsessed with the Texas game Sept. 11 than any other game on the schedule.

And the schedule, released Wednesday by the SEC office, has more important issues that should be the focus ahead of the Longhorns.

Mainly the back-to-back road games in October and November, particularly the possbility of playing LSU and Alabama two straight weeks just before ending the season.

The Hogs have an unbalanced schedule (seven games in the state), but it’s way too early to start making predictions. There are too many wildcards hanging out there, including the covid situation that may or may not be calmed down by September.

Hogs athletics director Hunter Yurachek said last week he expects to have a complete schedule with no attendance restrictions.

This is the year Arkansas is scheduled to host Missouri in the out-dated War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

Fans are used to playing the Tigers on the day after Thanksgiving and that may happen again this year, but that’s always announced sometime later, depending on television’s desires.

Schedule notes

• Arkansas will start the season with former Southwest Conference members Rice and the Longhorns.

• For the second year in a row, the Hogs will have to play Georgia, but this time it will be on the road.

• If there are two key stretches it is a pair of back-to-back road games. In October, the Hogs go to Georgia, then Ole Miss the next week. That’s not as bad as the middle of November when they go to LSU and Alabama.

• The schedule will not have the degree of difficulty as 2020’s schedule but at least half of the opponents will be ranked in the Top 25 and, of course, the Crimson Tide in the next-to-last game of the year.

Here is the schedule:

• Sept. 4 … Rice
• Sept. 11 … Texas
• Sept. 18 … Georgia Southern
• Sept. 25 … Texas A&M (Arlington)
• Oct. 2 … @ Georgia
• Oct. 9 … @ Ole Miss
• Oct. 16 … Auburn
• Oct. 23 … Arkansas-Pine Bluff
• Nov. 6 … Mississippi State
• Nov. 13 … @ LSU
• Nov. 20 … @ Alabama
• Nov. 27 … Missouri (Little Rock)