Friday, August 23, 2013

TAT: A Few Notes on the 2014 Arkansas Razorback Football Schedule

This article also appeared online at The Arkansas Traveler website, uatrav.com, on August 23, 2013.

Arkansas released their 2014 football schedule Wednesday morning. The schedule features seven in-state home games and five away games. Here are a few more notes.
-Arkansas’ four non-conference games feature three home games against Nicholls State (Sept. 6), Northern Illinois (Sept. 20) and UAB (Oct. 25) and one road game against Texas Tech (Sept. 13).
-Nicholls State, an FCS school (formerly DI-AA), has never played Arkansas or any Southeastern Conference school. In the past 10 seasons, they have played four teams in BCS conferences, losing all four by a combined score of 195-58.
-Northern Illinois is coming off of a MAC Championship and Orange Bowl appearance last season.
-Former Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee returns to Fayetteville Oct. 25 as the head coach of UAB. McGee was the quarterbacks coach at Arkansas from 2008-2011 and offensive coordinator in 2010 and 2011. The Blazers were 3-9 last season, McGee’s first as a head coach.
-The Razorbacks haven’t played Texas Tech since 1991, their last year in the SWC. Arkansas has dominated the all-time series, with a record of 28-7.
-In SEC play, Alabama (Oct. 11), Georgia (Oct. 18), LSU (Nov. 15) and Ole Miss (Nov. 22) will be Arkansas’ home opponents, while Auburn (Aug. 30), Texas A&M (Sept. 27), Mississippi State (Nov. 1) and Missouri (Nov. 29) will be their road opponents.
-The Razorbacks open the season Aug. 30 at Auburn. It will be the first time Arkansas has opened the season against a conference opponent since the 1980 season opener at Texas, when both were members of the Southwest Conference. They have never opened a season against an SEC opponent since joining the conference in 1992.
-The Texas A&M game will return to AT&T Stadium, the home of the Dallas Cowboys, for the first time since 2011. In the three previous matchups with the Aggies at AT&T Stadium, Arkansas was 3-0 and outscored them 113-74. The next 11 games in the series will be played at AT&T Stadium.
-Arkansas has two bye weeks. The first is Oct. 4, before the Alabama game and the second is Nov. 8, before the LSU game.
-For the first time since joining the SEC, Arkansas’ final regular season opponent will not be LSU. Instead, Arkansas plays the Tigers Nov. 15.
-Arkansas’ permanent cross-division opponent changed from South Carolina to Missouri. The Missouri game will be the Razorbacks’ new Thanksgiving weekend opponent.
-Five of the seven in-state games will be played in Fayetteville, while the other two will be played in Little Rock. The home game locations will be announced at a later date.

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