Arkansas ends 2025 season with a whimper, reaches low not seen since Chad Morris era

With a 31-17 loss to Missouri on Saturday in the Battle Line Rivalry game, Arkansas officially reached a low not seen since the short-lived Chad Morris era in 2018-19 — a seldom-talked about era of Razorback football among UA faithful. 

Arkansas completed its 2025 season with a 2-10 mark, its third 2-10 season in the last eight years. It also went 0-8 in Southeastern Conference play for the fourth time in 13 seasons. 2025 is the second season in three years that Arkansas has not won a single SEC game at home and the 10th year in a row that Arkansas failed to get above .500 in SEC play. 

The Razorbacks were not expected to be world-beaters with sixth-year head coach Sam Pittman at the helm in 2025, but a pair of flashy wins over Alabama A&M and Arkansas State at least showed that the Hogs had enough of an offense to make their games exciting. 

After the Sept. 6 victory over their fellow in-state FBS program, however, the wheels fell off for Pittman and Arkansas. One-score road losses to Ole Miss and Memphis weren’t the end of the world, but a 56-13 blowout loss at home to Notre Dame proved to be the end of the road for Pittman as the head coach. Pittman was officially fired on Sept. 28. 

Bobby Petrino doesn't provide a spark

Former Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino was then pressed into the interim head-coaching role, providing some nostalgia for the Razorbacks faithful who had fond memories of Petrino taking the team to the Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl in back-to-back seasons in 2010 and 2011 before an off-field scandal resulted in his dismissal. 

But Petrino’s second tenure as head coach didn’t have the same results as his first. Under Petrino, Arkansas finished out the year 0-7, dropping four more games by one possession, five by single digits and suffering a 15-point loss to Texas that saw senior quarterback Taylen Green get benched for freshman KJ Jackson. 

Jackson then started Saturday’s game against Missouri, but he was pulled on intermittent series for Green in a Morris-esque two-QB strategy for Petrino that ultimately didn’t turn into a win. 

It was a frustrating season for Arkansas, which is yet to find its next head coach going into a pivotal new era of Razorback football. 

It’s not clear who will lead the Razorbacks through the “A” and onto Frank Broyles Field at Razorback Stadium in 2026, but whoever accepts the job will be faced with igniting a fan base growing tired of being the SEC’s perennial punching bag.