ARLINGTON, Texas -- Heartbreak sums up the Arkansas Razorbacks' perspective the past seven years of the Southwest Classic.
The University of Arkansas, trying to regroup after a jaw-dropping loss to San Jose State, jumps back into SEC play today against Texas A&M, its former longtime Southwest Conference rival. The Aggies, once a foil for the Razorbacks, have held the Hogs under their thumbs most of this decade with a string of tightly contested games -- many featuring overtime -- with late drama that has typically tilted toward Texas A&M.
Kickoff is at 11 a.m. at AT&T Stadium.
The backdrop for this game includes all the connections to Texas A&M on the Arkansas side, including Coach Chad Morris, quarterback Nick Starkel, tailback Rakeem Boyd, and defensive coaches John Chavis and Ron Cooper.
Additionally, there's the growing sentiment that this series will return to on-campus games after the current contract with AT&T Stadium and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, the former Razorback standout, expires after the 2024 game.
[HOGS LIVE: Follow along with live updates from Arkansas-Texas A&M game]
The Razorbacks and Aggies share the same record -- 2-2 overall and 0-1 in SEC play -- but Texas A&M's losses have been to No. 1 ranked and defending national champion Clemson and current No. 7 Auburn. Arkansas has lost at Ole Miss, picked to finish sixth in the SEC West, and San Jose State, which had been 4-23 in its previous 27 games.
Morris, the second-year Arkansas coach and an A&M graduate, put the Razorbacks' current week in perspective last Saturday.
"This will be a defining moment for this football team this week and moving forward," Morris said. "Its a gut-check time now. It's a gut check. It's accountability. We're going to find out a lot about ourselves this week."
Arkansas will carry a 12-game SEC losing streak, dating to late 2017, and a seven-game losing streak to the Aggies into Arlington.
Morris was asked what snapping the losing streak to the Aggies would mean.
"Any time you can get a conference win would be huge," he said. "To go on the road, go to Dallas, a big part of our footprint in recruiting, would be huge. It's a big game for both teams.
"You're gonna see the best of both football teams Saturday morning. It would be huge for this football program moving forward."
The Aggies are 23.5-point favorites, which second-year Texas A&M Coach Jimbo Fisher said came as a surprise.
"It's a great team and has great players, and plus there's rivalry and tradition and all the things that go into it," Fisher said. "I had no idea that we were favored that much, and like I said, I can't see that on film."
The Razorbacks have changed up some of their game-week routine -- including relocating Chavis to the press box to coordinate the defense -- and hunkered down to get through a rough week after the 31-24 loss to San Jose State.
"As a team, we don't worry about social media or point spreads," Arkansas cornerback Jarques McClellion said. "We know coming into this game, it's always something crazy, going to overtime and stuff like that. We've just have to play our hearts out and make sure we do our jobs, and maybe it might come out in our favor."
Senior defensive tackle McTelvin Agim is well aware of the emotional losses Arkansas has suffered against Texas A&M.
"We definitely want that win," he said. "It's basically time to put everything in place to finally get it, to finally finish the game."
Old-school Arkansas fans can recall the Southwest Conference days when Arkansas routinely rolled over the Aggies. The Razorbacks led the series 38-24-3 when Frank Broyles led them to the SEC in 1992.
But this has been a different era for Arkansas football since Bobby Petrino, who had a .667 winning percentage with the Razorbacks, was fired for cause in the spring of 2012. The Razorbacks have just one winning conference season since 2011.
The Razorbacks' domination of Texas A&M continued under Petrino as they won the first three games of the renewed Southwest Classic from 2009-11 in Arlington to improve to 41-24-3 in the series.
The Aggies' recent streak -- dating to a 58-10 smoking in College Station, Texas, guided by quarterback Johnny Manziel in the Aggies' first year in the SEC in 2012 -- has been filled with frustration for Arkansas.
A handful of them -- including three overtime losses at AT&T Stadium -- epitomize the frustration of the Bielema era. That aura was best captured when Bielema admitted he felt like punching his buddy Kevin Sumlin when the pair shook hands at midfield after the Aggies' 28-21 victory in the 2015 game.
Arkansas appeared to have the 2014 game sewn up when Jonathan Williams broke a run of nearly 50 yards down to the Aggies' 1 with the Razorbacks ahead 28-14 early in the fourth quarter. However, offensive tackle Dan Skipper was penalized for tripping on the play, negating the long run. The Aggies rallied for a 35-28 victory in overtime.
They came back from a 21-13 fourth-quarter deficit the next year to win 28-21, also in overtime.
In a shootout two years ago, Arkansas led 21-10 in the second quarter and scored two go-ahead touchdowns in the fourth quarter. It wasn't enough. Christian Kirk had a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the fourth quarter and quarterback Kellen Mond led a drive for a tying field goal with four seconds remaining. Mond connected with Kirk for a 10-yard touchdown in overtime, and the Aggies held Arkansas for a 50-43 victory.
"It's been frustrating, and it's been a close game pretty much every time," Arkansas senior tailback Devwah Whaley said. "It just comes down to who wants it more and who executes the best."
Fisher won his first game in the series 24-17 last year, the fourth game decided by exactly seven points in the past five meetings.
Texas A&M safety Eldrick Carper summed up the recent series from the Aggies' perspective.
"Honestly, over time, I just feel like in a game like that in an atmosphere like that, both sides are going to bring their all," he said. "It's always been a tough matchup. Much respect to those guys over there. They've always brought a good game."
The Aggies appear prepared to pull out of the neutral site meeting in Arlington after 2024.
Texas A&M Athletic Director Ross Bjork, speaking to the Dallas Morning News, said this week: "Here's how I view it: We should have every SEC home game on our campus from here on out. How we do that after the contract is over is still yet to be determined. I think we should have four SEC home games every single year on our campus."
Arkansas Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek, speaking Monday in Little Rock, talked about the benefits of playing in east Texas and also on campus.
"Obviously, we enjoy playing in Dallas and we enjoy the relationship and the partnership that we have with Mr. Jones and the Jones family and playing there in the Cowboys' venue at AT&T Stadium," Yurachek said. "Also, Texas A&M is a great rivalry game to have on campus.
"We'll continue to evaluate whether this is the right place for us to play this game in Dallas or not. The more games we can have on our campus, the better it is for our fans and for our student-athletes."
Morris called the game in Arlington "a great plus for us," but said speculation about the series moving to campus sites is "a whole other discussion for a whole other day."
Fisher said this week he loves playing at AT&T Stadium.
"It's a great thing, and I'm not against it," he said. "You're in a tremendous venue. You're in an area where a lot of our players come from. It's great for their families to be able to come there.
"Learning to play in a neutral site venue is good for your program because of different scenarios that will occur hopefully in your future."
Sports on 09/28/2019