Razorbacks didn’t just lose at Texas but showed first signs of quitting

Most alarming sign yet for Arkansas isn't on the scoreboard but we won't know until Missouri game

Arkansas Razorbacks interim head coach Bobby Petrino during the first half against the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

AUSTIN, Texas — There are losses, and then there are moments when a football program shows you exactly where it stands.

Arkansas didn’t just lose another game Saturday. It revealed something far worse than blown coverages or sluggish red-zone execution.

The Razorbacks showed the first on-field signs that parts of the locker room may be checking out.

And in college football, once a team crosses that line — even in small pockets — the season isn’t just gone. The foundation starts cracking.

Interim head coach Bobby Petrino didn’t dance around it. He didn’t hide behind clichés. He didn’t pretend the 52-37 defeat at Texas was simply about Arch Manning carving up a tired defense, although he certainly did that.

Petrino said what every coach dreads admitting: some players stopped competing.

“I felt like there was a number of people — maybe not a number, but a few people, that lost their attitude, lost their teamwork in the second half,” Petrino said.

That isn’t frustration. That’s a warning shot.

When a head coach goes public with that assessment, it means the issue was obvious enough that ignoring it would have been dishonest.

For Arkansas, a team staring at its ninth straight loss and a season that’s been defined by close calls turning into weekly collapses, this is no small comment. This is the clearest sign yet that the Razorbacks are running out of gas — physically, mentally and emotionally.

This wasn’t about Texas. This was about Arkansas cracking.

Yes, Arch Manning tore Arkansas apart. He threw for 389 yards and four touchdowns, ran for another and even caught a touchdown pass.

Texas scored on its first three drives. The game followed a familiar script for the Razorbacks.

But Manning didn’t force Arkansas to lose focus. He simply exposed what happens when a team has been pushed right up to its breaking point.

By the time Texas stretched the lead in the second half, the Razorbacks’ body language was unmistakable. Missed tackles. Sloppy positioning. Emotionless jogs back to the huddle. A defense that looked less like a unit and more like a group of players waiting for the clock to run down.

Petrino saw it. So did anyone else watching.

Program has entered the danger zone

Arkansas isn’t just losing games. It’s losing the edge that keeps a struggling program from collapsing completely.

Every coaching transition has a moment where the effort threatens to erode. In other words, they let go of the rope. On Saturday, Arkansas may have reached that moment.

The timing is brutal. The coaching search is underway. The transfer portal window looms.

Players are deciding whether the offseason represents a fresh start or an exit route. And now the team must prepare for Missouri while carrying the weight of its worst day mentally.

When Petrino said some players “lost their attitude,” he wasn’t speaking rhetorically. He was diagnosing a program that, for all of its injuries and offensive problems, still managed until now to keep its commitment level intact.

That streak ended in Austin.

Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback KJ Jackson (7) passes the ball during the second half against the Texas Longhorns at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

Green’s mistake, Jackson’s spark – None of it masks real issue

Taylen Green’s third-quarter turnover — a soft pass into pressure that Jelani McDonald intercepted — was a momentum-killer.

KJ Jackson played hard and gave Arkansas two touchdowns and some needed spark. Both facts matter, but neither changes the real story.

This loss turned into something deeper than a scoreboard problem the moment the second half revealed a team whose focus and energy had fractured.

Petrino called the second half “a good old-fashioned ass kicking.” That part wasn’t surprising. The admission that teamwork broke down was.

Teams lose games every week. They don’t admit losing their mentality unless something has gone fundamentally wrong.

What this means for Arkansas going forward

Next week’s season finale against Missouri now becomes less about the matchup and more about the integrity of the program.

There are some big questions in the week before the final game:

• Will players fight for each other?
• Will leadership hold?
• Will veterans guide younger teammates or simply try to get to the finish line?

Those answers matter far more than any scheme breakdown.

Arkansas will set its direction immediately after the season. A new coach will be hired. The roster will shift. The messaging will change.

But whether the locker room is salvageable — whether it’s still capable of competing for each other despite the record — is a question that cannot be solved in a press release.

Saturday made one truth unavoidable: the program isn’t just struggling. It’s wobbling.

And when a team shows signs of quitting, even briefly, history tells us the fall can come fast.

One more game remains.

Whether Arkansas can keep the foundation from sliding further will define this season more than anything that happened on the scoreboard in Austin.