FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — For the first time since the days of the SWC, Arkansas and Texas met in Fayetteville on Saturday as conference foes.
Both teams entered, for the first time, as members of the SEC. For Arkansas, yet another crack at a top-25 team at home, with Texas ranked #3 in the country.
Coming into the game the Hogs needed to take care of the ball, especially early to have a chance. Though five minutes into the first quarter, Taylen Green was picked off by Texas' Jahdae Barron. Green's pass was on target to his intended receiver, Tyrone Broden, but the ball deflected off the senior's hands and into the possession of the Longhorns.
A little over two minutes later, Texas made the Hogs pay as Quinn Ewers completed a 20-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Matthew Golden to give the Longhorns a 7-0 lead with 7:23 left in the first quarter.
After back-to-back threes and outs by each team, Arkansas put together a promising drive highlighted by a 23-yard completion from Taylen Green to Isaiah Sategna.
Rashod Dubinion and Ja'Quinden Jackson had short runs to put the Hogs into Longhorn territory but the drive was stalled by two sacks of a combined 22 yards lost on Green. On fourth down, Arkansas punter Devin Bale shanked a punt that went eight yards, his worst punt of the season.
To begin the second quarter, Texas nearly made it into the Arkansas red zone before the Hog defense made a few nice stops and forced a 39-yard field goal by the Longhorns to put Texas up 10-0 with 11:15 left in the first half, and after some more ineffective Arkansas offense, that would be the score at halftime.
The second half of the game started much in the same way.
A quick Arkansas possession ended in another Texas sack, then the Longhorn offense started to drive. The Hogs bent rather than breaking, as they held Texas to a field goal and a 13-0 lead.
Finally, there were signs of life from the Arkansas offense.
A long completion to Andrew Armstrong got the Hogs into Texas territory, and Ja'Quinden Jackson, who started his college career at Texas, punched it in from a yard out to get Arkansas on the board.
The Arkansas defense held firm again, and the offense continued to find some success, a field goal bringing the deficit to just three with just under 13 minutes to play in the 4th quarter.
The vaunted Texas offense started to move the ball again, a short touchdown pass bringing the score to 20-10 with nine minutes left to play. A fumble that bounced out of bounds on the drive could haunt Hog fans for a long time, especially considering the ensuing Arkansas drive.
The Hogs were moving once again until disaster struck.
After a nice pickup on a wide receiver screen, CJ Brown fumbled, and this time, the ball bounced right to a Longhorn.
From there, Texas ran out the clock on a 20-10 win.
Arkansas falls to 5-5 on the season. They will host Louisiana Tech next Saturday, November 23, and that will be the final home game of the year.