NO. 17 ARKANSAS AT NO. 21 AUBURN

Competitive edginess: Bielema, Malzahn add fuel to SEC West fire

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema, left, talks with Auburn coach Gus Malzahn prior to a game Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015, at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
Arkansas coach Bret Bielema, left, talks with Auburn coach Gus Malzahn prior to a game Saturday, Oct. 24, 2015, at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

AUBURN, Ala. -- The campuses of Arkansas and Auburn are separated by 663 miles, the second-farthest distance between two schools in the SEC West.

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But there are some underlying ties that bind the programs, not to mention their near-even play on the field, that make Arkansas vs. Auburn one of the most underrated rivalries in the SEC.

Today's 5 p.m. kickoff between No. 17 Arkansas (5-2, 1-2 SEC) and No. 21 Auburn (4-2, 2-1) at Jordan-Hare Stadium will mark the 25th meeting between the schools since the Razorbacks joined the SEC in 1992.

Auburn, which beat Arkansas 21-15 in the 1984 Liberty Bowl, leads the series 13-11-1.

The Tigers hold a 2-1 series lead since current head coaches Bret Bielema and Gus Malzahn took over their programs before the 2013 season.

Bielema's lone victory came last year in a 54-46 quadruple-overtime decision at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, which sent the teams spiraling in different directions.

"When you think about it, it still makes me mad, but that's last year," Malzahn said. "You've got to figure out a way -- that's history. There's nothing you can do about it. I try not to think about things I can't control anymore."

Bielema and Malzahn bumped heads from the minute they entered the league.

They squabbled separately at SEC media days 2013 over offensive philosophies and what they meant to player safety. In 2014, Bielema claimed a Swinging Gate formation was left off of copies of discs provided by Auburn in the teams' tape exchange.

In that 2014 game, Arkansas made a key fourth-down conversion using a Swinging Gate pass play. Moments later, Auburn player Anthony Swain appeared to fake an injury to stop the clock, a tactic Malzahn had insinuated other teams used against the Tigers.

The public feuding has died down the past two years, although people who know Bielema and Malzahn said their fire for this series burns as bright as ever.

"They're very good coaches, but obviously there's not a love lost," said oddsmaker Danny Sheridan, who spoke at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club this week. "I don't think they send each other Christmas cards."

Malzahn, who was born in Fort Smith and attended college at Arkansas and Henderson State, has a coaching staff dotted with Arkansans.

Arkansans first became familiar with Malzahn during his 14-season run as a high school coach at Hughes, Shiloh Christian and Springdale before spending the 2006 season as the Razorbacks offensive coordinator.

Two of Malzahn's offensive assistants, coordinator Rhett Lashlee and running backs coach Tim Horton, played at Arkansas. Receivers coach Kodi Burns graduated from Fort Smith Northside in 2007 and signed with Auburn.

Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads served as Auburn's defensive coordinator during Burns' sophomore year of 2008, when Camden native Tommy Tuberville was in his 10th and final season as the Auburn head coach.

"I realize that Gus played a couple of years here, and you've got Tim as their offensive coordinator and all those things tie in here, but our kids don't know anything about that," Bielema said on the SEC coaches teleconference.

Malzahn, also asked about the Arkansas-Auburn rivalry on the SEC call, said, "You probably know I thought more about it back in the first days when I was at Tulsa, or when I was coordinator here. It's a big game. We just kind of look at it as another game on our schedule. They're a good team again, and traditionally we've had a lot of good games with them."

Auburn, which has outscored Arkansas 633-629, is 6-5-1 at home, starting with a 24-24 tie in their first meeting as SEC opponents in 1992.

Arkansas tight ends coach Barry Lunney Jr. played that day as a freshman quarterback in what was an upset result for the Razorbacks.

Home teams are 12-11-1 in the series, and Lunney said he is well aware of the penchant the teams have for beating each other on the road.

"That's probably a unique aspect out of all our SEC West annual matchups," Lunney said. "I would say that's probably been more true than any other matchup. But we're not sitting around talking about that.

"We didn't start my meeting today saying, 'Guess what, fellas, here's the stats on the home team.' But hopefully history will be on our side in that regard."

An unranked team has beaten a ranked team seven times. Arkansas has done it six times, meaning more than half of the Razorbacks' 11 victories have come as an underdog.

Today, Arkansas is ranked higher in both the Associated Press and USA Today polls, but Auburn opened as a nine-point favorite and was still a 10-point favorite Friday.

Personnel on both sides point to last season's four-overtime game Oct. 24 as a pivotal point in their season.

The Razorbacks were 2-4 and coming off a 27-14 loss at Alabama followed by an open date. The victory over Auburn started a 6-1 run, which ended with a 45-23 rout of Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl.

"That definitely sparked us," Arkansas offensive tackle Dan Skipper said. "It was huge. That was one of those big wins to kind of turn the tide of the year."

Arkansas faced three score-or-lose plays in the overtime periods and came through on each one: Brandon Allen's 6-yard pass to Drew Morgan on fourth and 3 in the first overtime; Kody Walker's 4-yard touchdown run on fourth and 2 in the third overtime; and Allen's two-point conversion throw to Jeremy Sprinkle after that.

"That was one of those where they're not gonna give up, and we're not gonna give up, so it's just gonna be a grind," Morgan said. "Auburn's one of those teams that, they come out and they don't care who you are or where you're from, they're gonna hit you right in the mouth and we're gonna come back swinging."

Morgan shook a tackle from Carlton Davis and scored a 25-yard touchdown on the first play of the fourth overtime, Walker caught the two-point conversion pass, then Josh Liddell broke up quarterback Sean White's throw for Ricardo Louis on fourth down to end the game.

"I would say that's No. 1," Liddell said when asked where the Auburn game ranked on his list of wildest games. "Four overtimes, that's definitely No. 1."

As much as the victory boosted Arkansas, Auburn went the opposite direction in a 1-4 finish in SEC games.

"It was uphill after that game," Malzahn said.

The Tigers admit they took extra time to study Arkansas during the summer, and last week's open date provided a few extra days to prepare.

"I know they'll give us everything they've got," Arkansas linebacker Dwayne Eugene said.

"During the summer, Arkansas is definitely one of the games we focused on as a team," Auburn senior lineman Alex Kozan said. "A lot of those games -- Georgia, Ole Miss -- that we lost by one score. Mississippi State, too. That was one of our messages during the summer, to finish games like that."

Today's matchup could have a similar effect on the seasons of the two teams.

"Is it an important game? Yeah, it's an important game because it's the next SEC game and we're playing at home," Malzahn said. "They just had a big win, and they've got some momentum."

Sports on 10/22/2016

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