Tag: Arkansas Missouri

A year ago, Missouri fans were ready to get rid of coach Eli Drinkwitz.

Arkansas fans, at least some of them, know that feeling because a bulk were unhappy when athletic director Hunter Yurachek confirmed coach Sam Pittman would return in 2024.

But Mizzou’s faith in Drinkwitz has paid dividends. The Tigers are 9-2 heading into Friday’s game against the Razorbacks and a victory, expected by the oddsmakers, would provide Missouri with its first 10-win season in a decade.

And since Missouri can’t play for an SEC Championship by virtue of Georgia’s continued dominance in the Eastern Division, those 10 wins are the biggest thing on the Tigers’ plate when it comes to storylines.

The truth is a loss won’t hurt the Tigers, really. It might not knock them out of the New Year’s Six bowls, but it also might not, depending on what the teams like Alabama and Ole Miss do in the West. Even if it did, the season is still a wild success.

Arkansas’ less so and a while a loss to the Tigers wouldn’t create much more actual damage, a win might provide some recruiting positivity heading into the offseason. But, also, like Missouri, it might not.

Truthfully, Friday’s game is really about the Battle Line Trophy and little else. And if you listen to fans on the internet, they don’t even care about that (although they actually do).

Arkansas fans sure were hoity-toity when they were told their favorite school was going to play Missouri every year in football for a trophy.  The Battle Line Rivalry, it would be called.

Many in Hogs country took offense. Missouri was the newcomer to the SEC. The Tigers didn’t really belong, supposedly. Arkansas would have to deign to play Mizzou and it was just plain disrespectful.

Maybe that was a projection of inferiority.

The Tigers have owned the series since yearly meetings began in 2014. Arkansas has two wins since: one in 2015 and the other in 2021. Two wins in nine tries suggests Arkansas be made of sterner stuff before its fans go on about Missouri not being a rival.

Rivalry games only really matter to the fans, anyway, by the way. A majority of players do not get extra excited because of an opponent. Maybe a little exists for a trophy. Maybe a little exists because of a geographical connection. Maybe a familial one from the past. But by and large, no. How many times have you heard “It’s not about them. It’s about us, what we do” from a coach or player?

Try a zillion. And what Arkansas has done against Missouri over the course of the last decade has simply been, well, not enough.

Undoubtedly, take all sports into consideration and Mizzou cannot touch Arkansas. The Diamond Hogs are perhaps one of the best 10 programs in the nation, whereas the Tigers are perhaps the worst program in the SEC. Arkansas basketball, buoyed by the last three seasons, has an edge on Missouri over the last decade or so (although we might not want to go back, say, 20 years). Track-and-field, it’s the Hogs by a mile.

You could keep going down the list, the list of secondary sports.

They’re not secondary to this author’s fandom. I prefer all three of those sports, generally, to football. But in the grand scheme, the sport that a plurality, if not a majority, of Arkansas fans says is the one they’d most like to win a national championship, it’s going to be football.

And, frankly, Missouri is just better and has been for a good, long time now.

But that gives Sam Pittman and Co. something to play for Saturday. The Razorbacks cannot go bowl-ing. They can’t send KJ Jefferson (probably) out with the season the greatest (numbers-wise) quarterback the school has ever known deserves. They can’t even save Pittman’s job (it’s already been done).

What they can do, what’s of more import, is beat Missouri. Not for this season. Not, really, even for just next season. Arkansas needs to beat Missouri so the Razorbacks can claim, for real, that they have an actual rival.

And in turn, a Razorbacks program with a rival is a stronger Razorbacks program. A stronger Razorbacks program is one that gets out of the SEC cellar. From there?

Well, let’s take it one step at a time, shall we.

Arkansas can only play spoiler on Friday against Missouri.

But what a spoiler it would be.

For the first time in several years, the Tigers, though are not only the better team record-wise but talent-wise, too. Their 9-2 record to this point is perhaps the most surprising power-conference story in FBS this year. A win over Arkansas would give Mizzou 10 wins for the first time in a decade.

Arkansas, on the other hand, can get to five wins. Not exactly reaching for the sky. But with athletic director Hunter Yurachek confirming Sam Pittman’s return in 2024, there are things to play for in the Battle Line Rivalry.

While there aren’t many storylines, per se, there are loads of talented players. Let’s check out some of them.