Toughest home game on Arkansas football's 2023 schedule?

While the toughest test for the Arkansas football team this fall will be a four-game stretch of SEC games away from home, there are still some very challenging games in the friendly confines of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

Arkansas begins its home slate in Fayetteville with a Week 2 matchup against Kent State on Sept. 9. The following weekend will feature a prime time matchup with BYU on Sept. 16.

Following that previously mentioned four-game stretch, Arkansas will return to Fayetteville for the SEC home opener against Mississippi State on Oct. 21. After that game will be a bye week and then there will be another road game at Florida on Nov. 4.

Once the Florida game is out of the way, the final three games of the regular season will be in Fayetteville against Auburn, Florida International and Missouri.

HawgBeat breaks down the three toughest games of Arkansas’ home schedule for this fall…

First year head coach Zach Arnett will lead the Bulldogs to Fayetteville for just his second road SEC game at the helm of Mississippi State football. One thing that will help Arnett is third-year starting quarterback Will Rogers, who owns the program's record for most passing yards in a career (10,689).

Rogers completed 32 passes for 406 yards and three scores in last year's 40-17 win over Arkansas in Starkville, Mississippi. He will have the luxury of once again throwing to receivers Jaden Walley and Lideatrick Griffin, as well as running back Jo'quavious Marks, who caught 11 passes for 80 yards against the Hogs in 2022.

Mississippi State also added Georgia transfer tight end Ryland Goede, Penn State transfer running back Keyvone Lee, Eastern Washington transfer receiver Freddie Roberson and Vanderbilt transfer quarterback Mike Wright via the portal.

Arnett was the defensive coordinator for the Bulldogs for three seasons before he stepped into the head coach role following the passing of former head coach Mike Leach. Arnett runs a 3-3-5 scheme and has as a reputation for having aggressive defenses that blitz heavily.

Mississippi State teams have ranked in the top five of the SEC in Arnett's three seasons in total defense, rushing defense and takeaways. He coached two of the SEC's leading tacklers last season in Jett Johnson and Nathaniel Watson (228 combined tackles), and both are back for another year.

The Bulldogs return plenty of experience on defense, but they also added four defensive back transfers, including LSU transfer Raydarious Jones and Miami transfer Khamauri Rogers.

Arkansas is 1-3 against Mississippi State in the last four games played at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, and this year's Bulldogs team could end up being pretty scrappy.

- Mason Choate, HawgBeat Publisher

New head coach Hugh Freeze will be leading his Auburn Tigers into Fayetteville on November 11th. The Hogs went on the road last season and beat Auburn 41-27 behind a stellar 1-2 punch performance from KJ Jefferson — 234 passing yards — and Rocket Sanders — 171 rushing yards.

Fans may recall that Arkansas actually faced Hugh Freeze in a game last season when he was the head coach of the Liberty Flames, who beat Arkansas 21-19. Jefferson didn’t have his best performance, as he threw two interceptions and failed to push in the game-tying two-point conversion on the final drive.

With his win against Arkansas last season and his previous SEC head coaching experience at Ole Miss, Hugh Freeze will not be intimidated by the atmosphere at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

One argument that could be made is that Auburn lacks the top-end talent that it normally has to truly make this a competitive game. While Arkansas has brought in a quality transfer portal class, so has Auburn. Michigan State transfer quarterback Payton Thorne, Jackson State transfer wide receiver Shane Hooks and Florida International transfer tight end Rivaldo Fairweather are just a few offensive names that were brought in over the offseason. Don’t be surprised if Freeze has his offensive humming by the time mid-November rolls around.

In the end, I think the biggest reason that Auburn could be the toughest home game is because of a phenomenon over the years that has resulted in Auburn being on the good end of some very fortunate breaks.

The most recent occurrence of this against Arkansas was in Sam Pittman’s first season as head coach in 2020. With time winding down and the Razorbacks needing a stop, Auburn quarterback Bo Nix seemed to spike the football backward for what should have been a fumble recovered by the Hogs. The play was ultimately blown dead, allowing the Tigers to kneel it out and win the game. So, not only does Arkansas have to outmatch Auburn in every normal facet of the game, but it also has to outmatch the Tigers in the paranormal.

- Riley McFerran, HawgBeat Recruiting

The last game on the schedule for the Razorbacks has been the thorn in their side for years. Fans want to claim there’s no rivalry with Missouri, and in a way they’re right. Arkansas hasn’t won enough against the Tigers to call it a rivalry.

For whatever reason, Arkansas has struggled to get over the hump and beat a Missouri team that by most metrics are very beatable.

With just two victories against Missouri since the Tigers joined the conference, this game will be the hardest home game on the schedule simply because it comes at the end of the season.

Finishing strong will need to be a key focus for the Hogs, as in recent seasons Arkansas has been bowl eligible with not much more to fight for, so pushing through and defeating the Tigers will be a tough task.

- Daniel Fair, HawgBeat Recruiting

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