With fall camp just a few weeks away for the Arkansas football team, HawgBeat will take a look at crucial “toss-up” games on the Razorbacks’ 2024 schedule.
Breakout Candidate: Cam Ball
These are matchups that — at least on paper — can go either way and will prove pivotal in the Hogs’ momentum and success throughout the year.
Arkansas football announces 2024 SEC Media Days attendees
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HawgBeat has already pondered over the toughest home and road games that head coach Sam Pittman and the Razorbacks will have to face over the coming months, but now it’s time to analyze tilts against Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Mississippi State.
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Sept. 7: Arkansas at Oklahoma State
The Razorbacks and Cowboys haven’t met on the football field since 1980, when head coach Lou Holtz led Arkansas to a 33-20 victory over Oklahoma State in Little Rock. All-time, Arkansas leads the series 30-15-1 with the last five matchups going the Hogs’ way.
That trend will be tested in 2024, as the Cowboys are coming off a 10-4 overall 2023 season and return star running back Ollie Gordon II along with seventh-year quarterback Alan Bowman.
Both teams will likely be 1-0 heading into this Week 2 matchup after cupcake openers, and excitement should be high because a win for either program will kickstart momentum heading into conference play.
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Looking back at 2023, Arkansas had a similar opportunity against BYU at home. The Hogs dropped that one 38-31 which then led to a six-game losing streak. It’s safe to say that head coach Sam Pittman can’t afford for that to happen again.
Can offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino get the wrinkles ironed out with quarterback Taylen Green for a tough Big 12 road tilt? The answer to that question may go a long way in determining what kind of success Arkansas will have in 2024.
Sept. 28: Arkansas vs. Texas A&M
The Southwest Classic is set to end in 2024, but the Razorbacks and Aggies will battle it out one last time in this trophy game. Despite a nine-game winning streak from 2012-20 by Texas A&M, Arkansas still holds a 42-35-3 all-time advantage. The Aggies defeated the Hogs 34-22 in their 2023 faceoff.
New defensive-minded head coach Mike Elko will have to prepare for Petrino, who was Texas A&M’s playcaller under former head coach Jimbo Fisher last season. The storylines run deep in this matchup, and there’s no doubt it’ll be another nail-biting finish.
By this juncture, Texas A&M will have already played Notre Dame at home and Florida on the road, so the Aggies will be battle-tested. On the other hand, Arkansas will have met Oklahoma State and Auburn away from Fayetteville. Both programs will have tough “ex-SEC East” games the following week in Missouri (Texas A&M) and Tennessee (Arkansas) as well.
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Quarterback Conner Weigman returns for his third season in College Station after tossing eight touchdowns with 979 yards in 2023. The former top-50 prospect will lead a new-look offense with playmakers like running back Le’Veon Moss and receivers Noah Thomas and Moose Muhammad III.
The Hogs may be 2-2 heading into this game, and dropping below .500 before the brunt of your SEC schedule is a recipe for disaster. Travis Williams’ defensive unit will need its legs for this end-of-an-era battle.
Oct. 26: Arkansas at Mississippi State
Everyone unfortunate enough to watch last season’s 7-3 offensive-lite edition of Arkansas-Mississippi State is hoping to see some fireworks in Starkville this year.
The Bulldogs hired Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby to run the show and the last few matchups in Mississippi have been higher scoring one way or another, so fans likely won’t see only 10 total points scored in this one.
Pittman and new offensive line coach Eric Mateos will meet against former Arkansas assistant Cody Kennedy, who will be coaching up a front line to protect starting quarterback Blake Shapen (Baylor).
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Shapen didn’t put up gaudy numbers with the Bears, but he had a respectable 2,188-yard, 13-touchdown campaign with only three interceptions. Defensively, Mississippi State returns talented pass rusher De’Monte Russell and safety Corey Ellington, but that side will be different without former head coach Zach Arnett.
This is a game that Arkansas fans expect to win and it will probably be the easiest road matchup of the year. If the Hogs can’t get the Bulldogs in this 50-50 before facing the likes of Ole Miss, Texas and Missouri, it’ll be a rough November in Fayetteville.
**JOIN THE CONVERSATION WITH ARKANSAS FANS ON THE TROUGH, HAWGBEAT’S PREMIUM MESSAGE BOARD**
Today’s Locked On Ole Miss Podcast discusses why Lane Kiffin and the Ole Miss Rebels will beat the Arkansas Razorbacks in Saturday’s matchup. This will be the next opportunity to play clean football, and I think they will put it together against the Hogs and Sam Pittman and cut down on the penalties that have been allowing teams to stay in the game.
This matchup is absolutely massive for the Rebels because of what it means in the season as a whole, and Taylen Green against the Ole Miss defense will draw everyone’s eye. People look at the Arkansas stats and assume this is a typical Bobby Petrino team, and that isn’t quite right. John Nabors of Locked On Razorbacks said that if Ole Miss goes up by 14, it is over because this team is not a play-from-behind team.
In our final segment of the day, we give our final thoughts on Ole Miss vs. Arkansas and talk about expectations for Saturday and why everything points to an Ole Miss win, but Ole Miss fans before a trip to Fayetteville have seen this movie before.
The No. 19 Ole Miss Rebels have a big test on Saturday when they travel to face the Arkansas Razorbacks in Fayetteville, and we now know what uniform combination coach Lane Kiffin’s team will feature on the field.
For the first time in two years, the Rebels will not be wearing a different uniform combination in each of its regular season games. Ole Miss is reusing the uniform it wore earlier in the year at South Carolina, opting to don powder blue helmets, white jerseys with powder blue accents and white pants.
You can view the uniform reveal below, complete with modeling from edge rusher Princely Umanmielen.
Since this is the first year the Rebels have ever used this jersey, they are technically undefeated all-time in this uniform combination after knocking off South Carolina 27-3 in Columbia earlier this year. They hope that good luck follows them to Fayetteville this weekend, a place they have not won since 2008.
The last time Ole Miss reused a uniform combination during the regular season came in 2021, but the last time they did it in a campaign including the postseason was in 2022 when they repeated a uniform in the Texas Bowl against Texas Tech. Assuming this is the Rebels’ only road jersey in this year’s rotation, we should also see a repeat when Ole Miss travels to face Florida later in November.
Kickoff on Saturday between Ole Miss and Arkansas is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT, and the game will be televised on ESPN.
The state has purchased 815 acres in Charleston for $2.95 million to build a new prison to help alleviate overcrowding that requires housing inmates in county jails, Arkansas officials announced Thursday.
The state spends roughly $30 million a year to house about 3,000 inmates in county facilities, according to a press release. More prison beds also likely will be needed in the future due to the Protect Arkansas Act. Backed by Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the 2023 law overhauls the state’s parole system and eliminates the possibility of parole for the most serious offenders.
“The Department of Corrections’ mission is to provide safety and hope for Arkansans, but we won’t accomplish that effectively without adequate bed capacity,” Secretary of Corrections Lindsay Wallace said in a statement.
“Working with Governor Sanders, our Department has opened more than 1,100 prison beds to alleviate our state’s longstanding bed shortage and we plan to open hundreds more soon. With this new facility, we will add even more beds and deliver on our promises to the people of Arkansas.”
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Department of Corrections officials did not have an estimated timeline or a full cost estimate for the prison Thursday. The project is expected to create thousands of construction jobs, and once the prison is built, it’s estimated it will employ nearly 800 people at an annual average salary of $46,600, according to the release.
Located about a half hour east of the Oklahoma border, the secluded Franklin County site offers needed infrastructure for what’s expected to be a 3,000-bed facility, including cell phone reception, water lines, electricity and a nearby fire department, and it’s also close to thousands of workers who could staff the facility, officials said.
Unofficial news about the purchase broke Wednesday when KDYN Radio announced in a social media post that Sanders would discuss the prison project on air Thursday afternoon. The news garnered hundreds of comments, many of which expressed displeasure about building a prison in the region and concerns about a lack of community input.
Asked about these issues during Thursday’s broadcast, Sanders said local officials were not involved in the site selection process, which was “a state-funded, state decision,” but said some were notified ahead of the formal announcement. Sanders said her administration has been very open about building a new prison in the state and is committed to working with local stakeholders throughout the rest of the process.
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Additionally, Sanders said the project is a major economic investment in the area and will help improve public safety in the state.
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“These people that we will be locking up in this prison can either be in this prison and in this facility where they are guarded or they can be in your community, and right now that’s our alternative,” Sanders said.
“Right now we don’t have the space and we don’t have the ability to arrest and lock them up. So instead of letting people free, we can put them in this facility and make sure that our state and our communities are infinitely safer.”
The governor said she’d like to break ground as soon as possible, but noted it will likely be a couple of years before the facility is fully operational. The Board of Corrections must vote to approve the prison site before construction can begin, according to the governor’s office.
It’s been two decades since the state last built a new prison. The first phase of the Ouachita River Correctional Unit opened in Malvern in 2004 when Sanders’ father, Mike Huckabee, was governor.
Nearly 20 years later, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson proposed expanding the Corrections Department’s North Central Unit in Calico Rock by almost 500 beds using surplus funds. State lawmakers approved $75 million for the expansion in December 2022, but the project was put on hold when Sanders took office in January 2023.
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Arkansas prison board OKs managerial contract to develop new facility
Last November, the governor and attorney general began butting heads with the Board of Corrections over plans to expand the state’s prison capacity and who has ultimate authority over Arkansas’ correctional system. The dispute resulted in lawsuits and the firing of former Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri, who was then hired as a senior advisor to the governor. Officials said Thursday they anticipate relying on his expertise while building the new prison.
While discussions about a new prison continued, the Department of Corrections in August turned its attention to immediate expansions when officials announced more than 100 inmates were being moved into a vacant work release facility at the Tucker Unit in Jefferson County. Officials also announced nearly 325 additional beds were planned in three other state correctional facilities in Batesville, Texarkana and Newport.
In September, Arkansas prison officials approved the acquisition of two facilities in Mississippi and Phillips counties for additional expansion opportunities.
The Board of Corrections earlier this month voted to approve a contract with Vanir Construction Management to help oversee development of the new prison.
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The board’s next meeting is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Monday at the Tucker Unit. The agenda includes a discussion about new bed space and an update on the county jail backup.