ESPN news: Texas is excited to resume the SEC rivalry with Arkansas and Texas A&M.
Although Texas’ games against Arkansas and Texas A&M aren’t until November, talk about the legendary rivalries returning was already generating this week at the SEC spring meetings, where Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian made his first appearance as a new league member on Wednesday.
For the first time since 1991, when both teams were in the Southwest Conference, Arkansas will play Texas as a conference foe on November 16. The Hogs defeated the Horns 14–13 in that game.
Texas and Texas A&M will resume their fierce rivalry in College Station on November 30 to round out the season. After playing every year from 1915 to 2011, which tied for the eighth-longest continuous series at the time, the two haven’t met since 2011. Justin Tucker’s 40-yard field goal in that 2011 game in College Station gave Texas a 27–25 victory.
“I’ve been part of some great rivalries in college football, and I know there was so much talk about realignment and I know realignment looks different for every school, but for us, we gained two rivals back,” Sarkisian stated. It’s fantastic news for Texas and Longhorn country that we will be playing Arkansas once more. A&M is returned to us. When we talk about the A&M game, we talk about houses being divided, decades of amazing games, and Thanksgiving weekend. We’re excited to bring that game back, and I’m sure A&M is too. My admiration for Coach [Mike] Elko is immense.”
The state’s enthusiasm for the Arkansas-Longhorns series hasn’t diminished, according to coach Sam Pittman, even if the games have gotten closer.
When we didn’t play Texas, Texas has been our rival, according to Pittman. “It is evident in the state. Two or three seasons ago, we did have the chance to play Texas, and it was quite significant for the state of Arkansas. Reviving an old rivalry is a fantastic bonus, at least for us.”
Chris Del Conte, the athletic director at Texas, responded as if it were obvious when asked what he’s most excited about entering the SEC: the games.
“For our old-timer people in Austin, Arkansas is a helluva game,” he stated. “In DKR [Stadium], Darrell Royal and Frank Broyles retired on the same day. President Nixon arriving in the 1960s. These are going to be incredible, historic games.”
Del Conte reaffirmed his want for the Thanksgiving weekend game against the Aggies to continue, as it had in the past, frequently the day after the holiday.
He remarked, “Maybe it’s Friday, but as long as we’re playing? Put on the straps.”
Del Conte acknowledged that it would be challenging to make a firm decision in the absence of knowledge about whether the SEC will eventually adopt a nine-game conference schedule.
“For me at the University of Texas, I prefer a nine-game schedule because we have a neutral site game [against OU],” he stated. “I would prefer to play the Red River game after four home games and four away games. However, eight means you have an unbalanced timetable. One year you have three, the next four.”
