With a pivotal Week 2 road matchup against the No. 16 Oklahoma State Cowboys (1-0) on deck, the Arkansas football team (1-0) will have to overcome daunting odds to pull off the early-season upset Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
According to Oklahoma State's game notes, the Cowboys have won the second-most home games (24) in college football since 2020. That number is tied with UTSA, Clemson and NC State, and only Alabama has more (26) in the same span.
Boone Pickens Stadium is home to Oklahoma State's self-proclaimed "tightest sidelines in all of football", which presents a unique challenge to an Arkansas team chock-full of newcomers on both sides of the ball.
"Very, very loud," Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said Monday. "Very, very close — as in, they can stand up and look right on top of you. We talked to our players and coaching staff about that as well, because we can’t let their fans be a distraction to us when we’re trying to learn on the sideline or trying to talk about the next series or whatever it may be.
"But it’s extremely close. I think it’s the closest one in the country. Extremely loud. I think they have 55,000, but it’s a loud stadium, so we’ve talked about that. Crowd noise will be a huge part of this week’s preparation and we started that on Saturday."
Besides what will be a loud and raucous Cowboys' fanbase, Arkansas will also have to face an Oklahoma State program that ranks fourth nationally with 34 seniors, possesses a strong historical winning mark in non-conference play (49-11 in last 60 games) and has a 96-24 record versus opponents outside of the AP Top 25 (since 2010).
"You just got to go in and play football," defensive tackle Eric Gregory said Tuesday. "It's football at the end of the day. The only difference really is it's the crowd when you look at it. Once you eliminate that, it's just football, so this is a mindset we come in with. We're going to go in there and eliminate the crowd noise and we're going to play football."
Oklahoma native Luke Hasz — who was offered by Oklahoma State at the end of his high school sophomore season — said this matchup is purely business.
"It’s definitely exciting," Hasz said Tuesday. "I have a lot of former teammates on their team from high school. Just being able to go back to Oklahoma where my family’s at, and just a lot of people I know, it’ll be exciting. This past weekend was exciting too, but I’m definitely excited to get there and play in my home state."
On paper, there's no wonder why BetSaracen tabs Arkansas as a 7.5-point underdog heading into this tilt. But games are played on the field, and the Razorbacks have pulled off a similar upset before.
Almost eight years ago, a 1-0 Arkansas team led by Bret Bielema was tasked with ending a 14-game home winning streak against the No. 15 TCU Horned Frogs. Quarterback Austin Allen and the Hogs defied the odds and defeated TCU, 41-38, in overtime.
The prevailing thought echoed by Razorback players Tuesday evening: it's time for Arkansas to make a statement on the national level.
"I think it’s big," Gregory said. "Our first game of the season we had success, but this is a different team, to be completely honest. A different team. We have to come in kind of with the same mindset. It’s really no different. We come with the same mindset, we have to do what we do. We have to play ball, we have to line up, know our assignment and focus on the small things."
Be sure to tune it to HawgBeat and The Trough premium message board for full game week coverage of the Razorbacks’ matchup against Oklahoma State, which will kickoff at 11 a.m. CT Saturday on ABC.
