RAZORBACKS TAGGED as visitors for Texas Bowl.
FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas will be the designated road team for the Texas Bowl on Dec. 31.
The Razorbacks lost a coin flip with TCU to determine the home and road designations for the neutral site game at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Arkansas was not alone among SEC members in acquiring “visitor” status for their postseason games, as the Razorbacks are joined in that category by Texas A&M (vs. North Carolina in the Orange Bowl), Florida (vs. Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl), Auburn (vs. Northwestern in the Citrus Bowl), Georgia (vs. Cincinnati in the Peach Bowl) and Ole Miss (vs. Indiana in the Outback Bowl).
SEC “home” teams in bowl games are Alabama (vs. Notre Dame in the Rose Bowl), Kentucky (vs. North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl), Missouri (vs. Iowa in the Music City Bowl) and Mississippi State (vs. Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl).
Coaching papas
The wives of tight ends coach Jon Cooper and receivers coach Justin Stepp both had children last week.
“We’ve had two new ones added to our staff and to our family,” Sam Pittman said Sunday night. “From what I’m understanding everybody’s doing great.”
Julia Cooper gave birth to Carter Renee Cooper, while Brooke Stepp had Allison Blair Stepp.
“Cooper and Stepp, their babies were born on the same day,” Pittman said. “I think that was kind of cool.”
Two nights
Bowl teams will spend two nights in their host city and have the option of traveling to the game two days early and returning home immediately after their game or traveling the day before the game and staying the night of the game in the host city.
The Razorbacks have opted to travel to Houston on Tuesday, Dec. 29, two days before kickoff vs. TCU, and return immediately after the 7 p.m. game.
No. 19 bowl
The Arkansas vs. TCU matchup was ranked No. 19 among the 28 bowls by Tom Fornelli of CBSSports. com in terms of strength of teams, quality of the matchup and styles of play.
Fornelli brought up the Razorbacks’ losing record of 3-7, but then wrote, “Though, to be totally honest, I’m cool with Arkansas getting a bowl game because I like Sam Pittman that much. Also, this is an old school SWC reunion. The Texas Bowl always seems to do a solid job finding interesting storylines for its game with a local connection. Both of these teams have been extremely profitable for gamblers as well, with each 7-3 ATS [against the spread] this year. That despite Arkansas being an underdog in all 10 games it played.”
11 in a row
TCU opened as a 5.5-point favorite over Arkansas for the Dec. 31 Texas Bowl in Houston.
Unless the line shifts dramatically, the Razorbacks would finish the season as an underdog in all 11 games, a first for the program. The Razorbacks under firstyear Coach Sam Pittman lodged upsets over No. 16 Mississippi State, and vs. Ole Miss and Tennessee this season. They were also a heavy underdog for a meeting at No. 13 Auburn and led 28-27 in the final minute before an officiating error allowed Auburn to keep possession of the ball and make a game-winning field goal in the waning seconds.
Arkansas also lost two other tight games: 27-24 against LSU and 50-48 at Missouri in consecutive games. The Razorbacks enter the bowl on a fourgame losing streak.
‘Pooh’ pounder
The nickname of Arkansas linebacker signee Christopher Paul Jr. doesn’t exactly match his playing style.
The Razorbacks landed “Pooh” Paul, a 6-1 thumper out of Crisp County High School in Cordele, Ga.
“Pooh’s a big one,” Coach Sam Pittman said. “He’s a maybe 250-pound linebacker. Their team actually beat Jimmy Smith’s old team, our running backs coach. And they had a time with that on the Zoom meeting the other day. But they beat Cedar Grove, and that’s where Jimmy had been before he went to Georgia State.
“But I love Pooh, a coach’s son. Just a big, mean, physical linebacker. He’s a Mike. We needed a little more size there at linebacker.”