Coaching search, bad team dimming normal Hogs-Horns week before game

When Arkansas and Texas play a football game, there have been times resembling a major holiday but not this year

Texas Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian and team gesture after the game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It's Tuesday and nobody really seems to worked up over Arkansas playing Texas in a football game and what interest does exist it's rather tame.

That comes from someone that remembered these matchups were often the cause for planning years in advance. A trip to Austin, Texas, would have some folks saving for a year to be able to have the ready cash to go.

It was a game for real stakes once upon a time. National championships and conference titles have been decided by that game. There are still plenty of folks around that cannot stand the Longhorns' burnt orange color (they claim it's illegal because it hides the ball).

Even though the series cooled somewhat after the Razorbacks went to the SEC in 1992, here we are playing against. Nobody really seems to care that much this year.

Texas Longhorns quarterback Arch Manning (16) looks on after a game against the Georgia Bulldogs at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Ga. | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

That's mainly because neither team is a great one. Texas has gone from preseason No. 1 to at the bottom half of the Top 25, but that's still considerably higher than the Hogs.

Arkansas staring down the barrels of a third 2-10 season since athletic director Hunter Yurachek took over. Sorry, but Sam Pittman was fired as the coach after getting freight-trained by Notre Dame in Razorback Stadium in September.

The Longhorns are just trying to make a statement at the end of the season and getting wins over the Razorbacks and Texas A&M (a much bigger opponent for the Longhorns' faithful than the Hogs ever have been) would put a better taste in everybody's mouth down there.

Things have just been distracting around Arkansas for a month and a half now.

After Pittman was let go, some fans were hoping former coach Bobby Petrino could come in and revitalize things but he really hasn't improved a thing. The defense has played a little better, but that sounds more like somebody trying to find a positive out of a group that still gets inexplicably beaten on plays and can't keep anybody below what a struggling offense can produce.

Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback Taylen Green is brought down by Texas A&M defenders in game at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. | Ted McClenning-allHOGS Images

The trajectory of the program hasn't gone up since that Notre Dame game. The difference in points has been better but this Razorback team doesn't have the discipline to close out close wins. You've got plenty of evidence of that this season.

Texas, meanwhile, is playing the politically-correct game in the media. Horns coach Steve Sarkisian has talked this week about a trap game, praising the Hogs and delivering the usual things to avoid getting put up on bulletin boards in Fayetteville.

Right now, though, it is the next game on the schedule that doesn't really seem right.

Coaching search adds another interview to list

It was a week ago when Razorbacks on SI reported there was a source close to the situation telling us there was a "mutual interest" between the Hogs and former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald and that has popped back on the radar.

According to a report by CBS Sports, that interview happened in the last couple of days, but there is obviously no indication how that went.

It is a name that comes from out of nowhere to a lot of people and there will be some comparisons with former coach Bret Bielema having a Big Ten comparison but that's going to require some research.