Arkansas in for messy two weeks after embarrassing showing against Notre Dame

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Throughout Arkansas Razorbacks' history, it's pretty easy to look back and identify program changing moments.

Saturday, in the first-ever game against Notre Dame, no one struggled to see another one of those moments just took place following a 56-13 loss where Arkansas starters struggled against the Irish second team for much of the game.

Surprisingly, the Hogs defense came out at the beginning of the second half and showed that had they wanted, they could have played well enough and hard enough to give Arkansas a chance to win.

What preceded that moment of effort was a game that featured what should have been a cornerstone moment when offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino dialed up a hand-off to gigantic offensive lineman Shaq McCroy to cap off a will-breaking power football drive that should have turned the game.

That score made it 14-10 with just over 11 minutes left in the second quarter. Then, Notre Dame went on a short run to expand the lead to 28-10 before the offense could respond with a field goal with 3:48 remaining in the half.

At roughly the two-minute mark, the following tweet went out, providing a marker of hope and opportunity that could have potentially saved the day.

A single stop would give the @ArkRazorbacks a good chance to make it 28-20 at the half, but just hard to envision this defense getting a stop at any point.#WPS #Arkansas
— KentSmith_Reporter (@KentSmithReport) September 27, 2025

Then Notre Dame scored two touchdowns in a 24-second span in the final 35 seconds of the half after a big play over the middle from Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green to Raylen Sharpe fittingly resulted in a fumble, the ultimate jab to send Hogs fans over the edge. Instead of going in the half down a touchdown, the entire season and at least one career appeared to end as the Razorbacks trailed 42-13.

Boos broke out, and despite a better effort out of the defense in the second half, the offense kept up its pattern of struggling to produce in the final two quarters. In literally 1.5 actual home games, the stadium was empty and the season cancelled in fans' minds.

There's no telling what's next. There's no way defensive coordinator Travis Williams can be retained through the bye week after the way things have played out the first five weeks of the season.

Most Arkansas way to end a half. Notre Dame is good, but this is starting to feel very Western Kentucky. If players love Travis Williams, they aren't showing it. He may not make it out of halftime.#wps
— KentSmith_Reporter (@KentSmithReport) September 27, 2025

Notre Dame put up 420 yards in the first half (641 total0 and never punted as players passed off receivers to no one and missed tackle after tackle. Williams is liked as a person and was even viewed as a prime candidate to take over in the interim or even permanently had Pittman been fired or decided to retire entering the season.

His energy both in the defensive room and also on the recruiting trail was infectious. Unfortunately, that didn't keep points off the board as things quickly spun out of control on the defensive side after the secondary reportedly became the financial focal point during transfer portal season.

If Williams is let go, that basically sets up a situation where if the desire is for Pittman to be done at season's end, it will likely come in the form of an announced retirement set to be effective at the end of the season. Getting rid of Williams and Pittman outright during the season would just be too messy.

It not only makes the Razorbacks seriously short-handed on coaches, it leaves Bobby Petrino as the only reasonable option to take over as head coach. However, that is a sticky situation for Arkansas.

It reportedly took a lot of squinting to find loopholes to bring Petrino back to Fayetteville for legal reasons tied to his original dismissal as head coach. There was a ton of work that allegedly went on behind the scenes to eventually come to the agreement that since the former coach wasn't going to be the head coach, he could technically be employed at Arkansas again.

In this instance, that wouldn't be the case. He would indeed be the head coach.

It's possible the interim tag would be enough to satisfy any legal concerns, but it would likely have to come with a rider that says he absolutely can't be named head coach. However, that's going to be pushing it.

Either way, as loud echoes of "Let's go Irish!" ring throughout the stadium as Notre Dame's second team plows through the Arkansas defense to deservedly round out the game in the only way this program changing beating should end, this is going to be an interesting and historic two weeks.

Hang on because it's going to be wild and potentially messy. The only way it can get messier is if nothing is done because even the biggest homer can see some sort of change has to happen.

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