The Arkansas Razorbacks (6-6, 3-5 SEC) will look to win their second Liberty Bowl in three seasons Friday when they face the Texas Tech Red Raiders (8-4, 6-3 Big 12) in postseason action at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis.

Arkansas is led by fifth-year head coach Sam Pittman, who will field a different looking team than what he had in the regular season. The Razorbacks have lost more than 20 scholarship players, including a significant number of starters, to the transfer portal since the end of the regular season.

“The majority of the kids that are going to play in the bowl are going to be on the team next year, so we are using that as development and belief,” Pittman said Dec. 12. “Just because you’ve been hiding over in the corner, doesn't mean you can’t play. It’s just somebody that had developed faster, or we had faith a little bit because we’ve seen them do things. I think this bowl prep is going to enhance our football team.

“Somebody is going to come out of it like E’Marion Harris did two years ago and you’re going to come out of it and go ‘Man, we should have been playing him a little bit more.’ That’s really what we are looking for and then obviously our goal is to win every bowl game we play.”

Texas Tech third-year head coach Joey McGuire hasn't had the mass exodus the Razorbacks have had, but he will be forced to start true freshman quarterback Will Hammond after starter Behren Morton underwent shoulder surgery at the end of the regular season.

"We're going to go out here and prepare like he's the best quarterback in the country, man," Arkansas linebacker Stephen Dix Jr. said Dec. 18. "Whoever it is. But we're going to, you know, play our best ball. Just prepared the best way we can."

Arkansas owns a 29-8 advantage in the all-time series against Texas Tech. The last meeting resulted in a 35-24 win for the Red Raiders in Fayetteville on Sept. 19, 2015. The Hogs beat Texas Tech, 49-28, on the road the prior season.

The Razorbacks are 2-0 in bowl games under Pittman, with wins in the Outback Bowl following the 2021 season and the Liberty Bowl after the 2022 season. Arkansas has been bowl eligible in four of the five seasons under Pittman (2020 Texas Bowl cancelled).

HawgBeat has also compared both teams' grades from Pro Football Focus, which is a football analytics website that provides grades for each individual player and full teams after analyzing each game for all Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. Grades are given from 0-100, with the higher the grade signifying better performance.

Here's a look at how both teams stack up based on stats from this year and high school star ratings:

Offense

Texas Tech || Arkansas

Scoring: 38.6 (5th) | 30.3 (48th)

Total yards: 459.8 (9th) | 451.2 (13th)

Passing: 298.1 (9th) | 269.2 (21st)

Rushing: 161.8 (67th) | 182.0 (42nd)

Third downs: 49.5% (6th) | 43.0% (42nd)

Sacks allowed/game: 2.0 (t-64th) | 2.8 (t-110th)

Turnovers: 19 (t-81st) | 22 (t-109th)

Defense

Texas Tech || Arkansas

Scoring: 34.5 (120th) | 24.9 (70th)

Total yards: 451.9 (123rd) | 366.0 (66th)

Passing: 305.3 (132nd) | 244.2 (107th)

Rushing: 146.6 (64th) | 121.8 (32nd)

Third downs: 36.9% (51st) | 35.5% (40th)

Sacks/game: 1.6 (t-103rd) | 2.1 (t-60th)

Turnovers forced: 21 (t-28th) | 13 (t-100th)