The Longhorns have more talent, better depth, and an improved team culture since the embarrassing blowout in Fayetteville.
“I don’t know what what Darrell Royal did to Arkansas back in the day, but they absolutely hate our guts.”
The observation from Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian on Monday came as he prepares the No. 3-ranked Longhorns to face the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville on Saturday, not only reprising the old Southwest Conference rivalry that peaked in the 1960s, but also returning to the site of the most embarrassing defeat of his four-year tenure on the Forty Acres — a 40-21 loss in 2021 in Sarkisian’s second game as a head coach at Texas.
“I think we learned that the first time around when we went there, you watch some of the clips at the end of that game, and Joe Tessitore is talking about that Arkansas hates Texas more than they like themselves. And he might be right,” Sarkisian said.
The hatred that poured out of the stands at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium onto the Longhorns turned jubilant as the Razorbacks buried Texas in the third quarter. After trailing 16-0 at halftime, the Horns scored an early touchdown after halftime to cut into the deficit, but the Hogs responded with a six-play, 81-yard drive, stopped Texas on a 4th and 1 in Longhorns territory, and then kicked a field goal to effectively end the game.
“Going back, I always try to revisit some of those games, even from years past, just to get a sense and a feel. The frustrating part with that game, more than anything, is we didn’t play great, but then you look up and you watch the game, we forget it’s the middle of third quarter, 16 to seven, you know, and we were playing hard, we just weren’t playing great,” Sarkisian said.
“So I think on two fold is, yeah, obviously we wanted to upgrade as best we could the roster, especially from a depth perspective and then as the game wore on, a couple explosive plays kind of kicked into play. Unfortunately, we didn’t make some of our own. But the competitiveness of our team, I thought we fought in the game, but naturally, okay, what do we need to do?”
Starting quarterback Hudson Card was overwhelmed in the game, going 8-of-15 passing for 61 yards, giving way to Casey Thompson late in the contest, a benching that lasted until Thompson struggled with a thumb injury later in the season. Card didn’t appear in another game for the Longhorns unless he was serving as an injury replacement.
Arkansas bludgeoned Texas on the ground as burly quarterback KJ Jefferson ran for 73 yards and the Razorbacks totaled 333 yards and four rushing touchdowns on 7.1 yards per carry.
On Wednesday, Sarkisian was asked about being “on the short end of the stick” in that game, offering a clear response, “Yeah, I’m not sure if there was even a stick for us to get a short end of that night. We got our ass whooped.”
Texas ultimately finished 5-7 in 2021 after a six-game losing streak late in the season, prompting a major roster turnover for Sarkisian.
All three quarterbacks on that team — Card, Thompson, and Charles Wright — ultimately transferred as the Texas staff brought in Ohio State transfer Quinn Ewers and 2022 signee Maalik Murphy before inking Arch Manning the following year.
Consider as well the bloated wide receiver corps from Sarkisian’s first spring with the Longhorns. Not only did the group include 14 scholarship players, most of them weren’t any good.
Keithron Lee never played at Texas after he was accused of domestic abuse and 10 of those players ultimately transferred with Xavier Worthy and Jordan Whittington the only two who emerged as major contributors. Joshua Moore committed to Syracuse and Texas Tech, but never played college football after leaving the Forty Acres, Dajon Harrison is now at Utah Tech after failing to contribute at UConn, and Casey Cain only has six catches this year after transferring to UNLV.
Offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Kyle Flood quickly rebuilt his position room by signing seven linemen in the 2022 recruiting class. Three of those players are currently starting for the Longhorns.
By signing the No. 5 recruiting class that year, the No. 3 class in 2023, and the No. 5 class in 2024, Sarkisian has added high-level talent and depth to his roster, supplementing it with more effective additions from the NCAA transfer portal than he and his staff managed in 2021.
Pittman certainly sees a different team on film than he coached against three years ago.
“What they’ve done is they’ve recruited extremely well. They’ve gotten so much more physical and bigger on the offensive line and defensive line. Got linebackers that can run. They’re a big football team. Certainly not big and slow, they’re big and fast. They went out and got a kick returner and a punt returner. Of course, they have two of the better quarterbacks on one team I’ve ever seen,” Pittman said.
“What he’s done, he’s went in there and recruited extremely well, hired a staff of great coaches that are coaching extremely well and the kids play hard and they’ve got good players. I’m not for sure that they necessarily had that when he took the job. I’m not trying to demean anybody, but they’re much more talented than what they were when he took the job. That’s certainly a credit to him and his recruiting staff and his coaches.”
“I think it was good, not only for myself, but for the staff and for our players to say, like, okay, that’s an SEC team. At the time they weren’t at the top of the SEC. There were some pretty good teams still there. So we had a hill to climb to get to where we wanted to get to,” Sarkisian said.
“It feels pretty good knowing we’re going in there this year with what we think is a little better roster, a little better understanding, from a coaching staff perspective, of what’s going to be needed in that environment — it’s a very tough environment — but what’s going to be needed kind of from an emotional and mental standpoint, but also from a physical standpoint.”
Over the last three years, Texas has become a much more effective road team, winning nine consecutive true road games since losing to Oklahoma State in Stillwater 754 days ago.
“I think our culture, our connectivity, our love for one another, has been a big piece of that puzzle. You know, our guys are very connected. When we go on the road, it’s a smaller group. It’s a smaller team on the road, there’s less fans, obviously, and we need each other. We have to lean into each other. We have to pour into one another,” Sarkisian said.
“To do that, you know, you can’t just turn it on the week of the game, and I think that it speaks volumes to the connectivity that these guys have in that locker room, that they can really lean into one another on the road. They can hold each other accountable on the road of what’s acceptable and what’s not, and how we’re going to perform and the mindset that we need to be in. I think it takes great poise and composure on the road, and I think that we’ve learned and grown into that aspect of it well as well.
On Saturday, when Texas travels to Fayetteville looking to record 10 straight road wins, the Longhorns will have 11 players who were with the team in 2021 — senior tight end Juan Davis, senior tight end Gunnar Helm, redshirt senior center Jake Majors, senior left guard Hayden Conner, redshirt junior offensive guard Max Merril, senior Jack end Barryn Sorrell, redshirt senior defensive tackle Vernon Broughton, super senior defensive tackle Alfred Collins, super senior linebacker David Gbenda, super senior cornerback Jahdae Barron, and senior place kicker Bert Auburn.
“I think there’s 11 guys on our team that are on our team today that were there in Fayetteville. Nine of those guys are starters today that probably weren’t starters back then at that time. We can use little, subtle video reminders and things of what that moment was like, but at the end, it’s going to be their leadership, right?” Sarkisian said.
“Because we may have some players, younger players, that are looking like it’s just another game, and I know those guys are in that locker room right now talking about that game and talking about that environment and owning that environment and why it’s important to own it and having the right poise and composure, staying enamored with what we need to do. But I know all 11 of those guys probably got a pretty bad taste in their mouth and got a chip on their shoulder from the last time we were there.”
Sarkisian doesn’t want his team to play emotional as a result, so the focus is on the Longhorns this week as they try to give the Razorbacks a better showing on Saturday, to show those hateful Arkansas fans what a Texas team under Sarkisian really looks like.
“Our preparation now is back into getting enamored with what we need to do so that we can be the best version of ourselves Saturday and I think Longhorn nation deserves that,” Sarkisian said.
“I think Arkansas deserves that because they didn’t get the best version of us four years ago and we need to make sure that we give them our best version this time around.”