Arkansas Coach Thankful to Have Texas Longhorns Rivalry Back

Unfortunately, the latest round of conference realignment has killed some of college football's fiercest rivalries. Some rivalries, such as Bedlam between Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, have been broken up by the two foes now being in different conferences, while others between schools in the same conference don't get to play as often because they're just so big now.

As a silver lining, however, some rivalries that were once lost are now back in full force, with perhaps the most notable example being that between the Texas Longhorns and Arkansas Razorbacks.

These two teams were previously bitter foes in the Southwestern Conference for nearly 80 years, but the rivalry was unfortunately put on hold when the Razorbacks moved to the SEC in 1995. Now that the Longhorns are in the SEC as well, though, the rivalry is back on, much to the delight of both teams.

Sam Pittman Says Texas May Be Arkansas' Top Rival

At SEC Media Days in Atlanta, Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman was asked if the fanbase still considers Texas a rival after such a long hiatus, and his answer couldn't have been more clear.

"I feel like they do," Pittman told reporters. "I feel like it was a very passionate, very loud football game. Obviously we lost 20-10 this year. But I believe it is reviving the Texas-Arkansas rivalry. We're 1-1 in that going down to Texas. Tough place to play. Great football team.

"But we'll be looking forward to going down there. I'm sure they'll be looking forward to getting us down there. We have not played down there in those two games. We played at home. I believe if you ask our fan base and from the feel of the stadium when we play the University of Texas, I believe that it's one of our rivals, if not number one."

The Longhorns and Razorbacks met for the first time as conference foes again last season in Fayetteville, with the former walking out with a 20-10 victory. Before that, however, they met as non-conference opponents back in 2021, with Arkansas whooping Texas 40-21 on its home field. That loss actually served as a bit of a wakeup call for head coach Steve Sarkisian, who was in just his second game on the Longhorns' sideline.

"From a fanbase perspective — especially the traditionalist fanbase — they love the rivalry with Arkansas,” Sarkisian told reporters earlier this week. “I think naturally, when I took the job, I knew of a rivalry with Oklahoma and [Texas] A&M because they made sense.

“I found out about the rivalry against Arkansas when they whooped our ass in the second game of my career when I got to Texas. So that rivalry got really good really fast for us. So we respect it, we honor it. It’s a heck of a rivalry and it’s a great game to be apart of.”

This season, the Longhorns will welcome the Razorbacks to Austin for the first time since 2008, and there's no doubt that Darrell K Royal will be rocking for the occasion.