STARKVILLE, Miss. -- In the not-too-distant past, the University of Arkansas could count on a win over Mississippi State on the gridiron like clockwork.
The Razorbacks won every game in the series between 1999 and 2007, and took 15 out of 17 between 1995 and 2011.
Arkansas never finished below the Bulldogs in the SEC standings between 2000 and 2011.
Those days of domination ended in 2012.
Since interim coach John L. Smith took the helm from Bobby Petrino, Mississippi State has won seven of eight games, with no let up in sight.
The No. 16 Bulldogs (1-0) are more than a two-touchdown favorite against the Razorbacks (0-1) for today's 6:30 p.m. game at Davis-Wade Stadium.
The game will pit first-year head coaches in Arkansas' Sam Pittman and Mississippi State's Mike Leach, whose debut last week in a 44-34 road upset of defending SEC and national champion LSU turned heads across the country.
The Bulldogs will allow roughly 25% capacity at Davis-Wade, meaning a crowd of a little more than 15,300 is expected.
The noise factor is anybody's guess. The piped-in crowd noise volume allowed by the SEC is 75 decibels, which sounded like a moderate level at Arkansas' Reynolds Razorback Stadium in last week's 37-10 season-opening loss to Georgia. Arkansas has practiced with crowd noise this week, but the X-factor is the cowbell ringing allowed by the SEC despite its longtime ban on artificial noisemakers.
"I don't know exactly about the cowbells and where they come in," Pittman said. "I think the rule says they can't use them. And then on big plays, they can go up to 90 decibels, but it can't have anything to do with the opponent not being able to hear and things of that nature."
The Razorbacks have been mired in the most horrendous slide in program history, with back-to-back 2-10 seasons after the hiring of Chad Morris in December 2017.
Pittman is the Razorbacks' fifth head coach since the high-flying days of Petrino ended after his motorcycle wreck.
Arkansas will take two lengthy losing streaks into the game: 20 consecutive SEC losses dating to a late 2017 win at Ole Miss, and 10 consecutive losses overall going back more than a year to a 55-31 shootout with Colorado State on Sept. 14, 2019.
Though SEC analysts consider Pittman's task a major rebuilding job, he and his staff are not looking at it that way. They have put their blinders on, focused straight ahead, and have preached positivity.
"Never mentioned it," Pittman said of the losing streaks. "It doesn't have anything to do with us. It's a whole different new team, new staff, a lot of new players. We're trying to set our own goals and what we get done. So, nah, we just never have mentioned it."
Senior linebacker Grant Morgan has embraced the approach by Pittman's staff.
"We're going to go into every single week preparing to win, playing our best game every single week," Morgan said. "It doesn't matter who's put in front of us, we're going to try to be our best."
The Razorbacks gave indications they might be getting on track in this 10-game SEC-only season last week when they led No. 4 Georgia 7-5 at halftime.
The Bulldogs rallied for a 27-point win -- largely spearheaded by their defense and special teams -- but the Arkansas defense drew praise for holding tough against bad field position for much of the game. Georgia managed 387 total yards to Arkansas' 280, and averaged 4.3 yards per play on 89 snaps compared to the Razorbacks' 4.2 yards per play on 67 snaps.
Redshirt freshman safety Jalen Catalon gave an indication of the new mentality after the loss to Georgia.
"I think it's definitely a step forward," Catalon said. "We'll never accept losing. Losing is not what we're wanting to do. We're trying to change the culture around here. I think the defense definitely made a statement that it's not like how it was before.
"Our coaches coach us like we're the best defense in the country. If we don't have that mindset, they don't want us in here. They don't want us on the defense if we don't believe we can be the best."
The test will be of a different magnitude today for the Barry Odom coordinated Arkansas defense.
Instead of facing an untested redshirt freshman quarterback such as Georgia's D'Wan Mathis, whose passing accuracy is still unrefined, the Razorbacks will take on a veteran in K.J. Costello, whose transfer from Stanford looks like perhaps the top SEC offseason transaction.
Costello's confidence in his pass catchers is soaring after the trio of Osiris Mitchell, tailback Kylin Hill and JaVonta Payton all surpassed 100 yards receiving last week. Mitchell is No. 2 nationally with 183 receiving yards per game (on 7 catches), while Hill is No. 4 (8-158) and Payton is No. 11 (6-122). Arkansas' Treylon Burks is No. 15 after his career-highs of seven catches for 102 yards and a touchdown last week.
While quarterback Feleipe Franks and the Arkansas passing game will have to be on point to have a chance at upsetting the Bulldogs, senior tailback Rakeem Boyd's contributions in the running game might loom larger. Boyd had 21 rushing yards on 11 carries against Georgia. A successful running attack against Mississippi State could lead to clock control and maybe added pressure for the "Air Raid" offense.
"That's the big thing," Pittman said. "We can't be one dimensional. We need to get him rolling. We've worked very, very hard ... and we did obviously in our preseason camp. We have really emphasized that part of it.
"We've got to get him going, and it's all about, to me it's communication, making sure we don't have any breakdowns, things of that nature. I think we just have to be more consistent and more aware of movement than what possibly we were last Saturday."
Mississippi State had eight players combine for seven sacks at LSU, using stunts and twists to apply constant pressure.
"That's our base defense," Mississippi State defensive coordinator Zach Arnett said. "Our base defense is bringing pressure. The guys did a nice job executing. By no means were we perfect all the time. There were quite a few busts out there that could've and should've led to points. We've got quite a few things to clean up."
Leach, who talked to UA officials about their head coaching vacancy over the winter, and the Bulldogs will try to continue their own streak of domination in the series against Arkansas. Arkansas still leads the series by a count of 16-13-1, but the Bulldogs are advancing rapidly.
While the Bulldogs went off on No. 6 LSU for 623 passing yards and 634 total yards, the Bulldogs gouged Arkansas for 640 total yards -- 460 of them on the ground, led by Hill's career-high 234 yards rushing -- in last year's 54-24 rout.
Leach said Costello and company have plenty of room for improvement after last week's explosion.
"You just kind of keep trying to polish it and get it better," he said when asked how his expectations for Costello changed after the huge performance at LSU. "The biggest thing is just do the same things over and over again, but do them better.
"I wish I really had a better answer for you, but I'll be the first to tell you our team and K.J. combined probably aren't nearly as good as your impression. I feel like we have a long way to go. I think there's a lot of work we can do."
Though he didn't create the long Arkansas losing streak, Pittman is its current proprietor and has to deal with the Hogs' past.
He was asked after the Georgia loss when the Razorbacks would win again.
"I'm hoping it's Saturday," he said. "That'd be long enough. I don't know. We're all disappointed we lost to Georgia, but in my opinion, we're heading in the right direction.
"We've just got to keep working. We're a blue-collar school, blue-collar university, blue-collar state. We've got to go to work, and that's what we did. I think it showed there in the first half, but we've got to figure out how to finish a game. Certainly, whenever that win comes, I don't know, but I know we're striving for it and working in that direction."
