Kirk Herbstreit talks Arkansas, recaps his ill-fated Texas prediction
When ESPN’s College Gameday got to the very end of last weekend’s show, Kirk Herbstreit was faced with a dilemma when it came to choosing a side in the Texas-Arkansas game.
“We thought ‘Hey Sark beat Louisiana who’s a Top-25 team. They might be better than we thought,’ Herbstreit said Monday on The ESPN College Football Podcast with Matt Barrie in reference to a Week 1 38-18 victory.
“‘They go to Arkansas, old-school, Southwest Conference rivalry. [Arkansas] might battle for a half, but Texas is too athletic. They’ll pull away.’ I wanted to pull the trigger on Gameday. Everybody is Texas, Texas, Texas, and I’m last. I’m like ‘Yeah, I don’t like the feel of this. I wish I had the guts to say it, but I don’t. I’m going Texas.’ And Arkansas just manhandled them at the line of scrimmage.”
Arkansas beat their former and future conference foe 40-21, allowing zero points in the first half and just 256 yards of total offense. Texas played two quarterbacks, Hudson Card and Casey Thompson, and neither of them exceeded 61 yards passing. Heisman contender Bijan Robinson was held to 69 yards on 19 carries and one touchdown early in the third quarter.
Barrie added that the momentum on display Saturday night was not totally out of the blue, as Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman seemed to have something brewing in his first year at the school in 2020.
“[Pittman] had below average talent, but they had above average belief last year,” Barrie added regarding the Razorbacks 3-7 year last season. “They were doing just enough to make you think ‘Well what’s going on in Fayetteville.’”
In 2019, Arkansas went 0-8 in conference play and 2-10 overall. Their only wins came against FCS Portland State and Mountain West Colorado State. Last season, against an all-SEC schedule, Pittman lead his team to three SEC wins against Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee, and outside of blowout losses to Alabama, Georgia and Florida, they lost their other four games by a combined 18 points.
“It’s not just about having better players and recruiting,” Herbstreit said. “You always hear coaches talk about culture and the importance of culture. Sam Pittman came in there and right away not only affected the culture with the players and inside the locker room, [he affected] the fan base. That’s one of those fanbases, they don’t need a lot to be able to buy in.”
Herbstreit noted that Arkansas is the team the entire state throws their support behind given a lack of professional sports.
“I think the hire of [offensive coordinator] Kendal Briles was a great hire… I think Barry Odom is one of the better defensive coordinators in, not just the SEC, but in the country,” Herbstreit added.
Briles and Odom are in their second years in Fayetteville. Briles came to Arkansas after stints at Baylor (under his father, Art), Florida Atlantic, Houston and Florida State; while Odom was the head coach at Missouri from 2016-2019.