Arkansas ready for a rematch

FAYETTEVILLE, ARK.» Nick Starkel spent his first week running practice reps with the Arkansas starters the same way he spent the previous weeks running practice reps with the second unit.

For a player in his first year at a new school making his first start at quarterback, Starkel was cool about the change.

He has to stay that way Saturday, too, if his Razorbacks have any hope of salvaging the season.

Arkansas (1-1) hosts Colorado State (1-1) in a game that features two teams predicted to finish near the bottom of their respective conferences.

A loss for the Razorbacks, however, would make a far bigger ripple — especially after the Rams beat Arkansas a year ago in a stunner that helped ensure the first season for coach Chad Morris at Arkansas would be nothing worth remembering.

Starkel shrugged off any notion of pressure.

“Everyone in the QB room prepares as if they’re the starter,” Starkel said. “There’s a guy running with the 1s and that’s probably who is going to start. But it’s really the same preparation for me.”

The nonchalance was par for the course for Arkansas players all week, but they remember last year’s loss.

Arkansas won just one more game the rest of the year. CSU won two.

Morris said it is up to his team to make sure they don’t lose consecutive games to a Mountain West foe.

“They look much improved from a year ago,” Morris said. “These guys are definitely playing extremely well. But ... It’s about us. That’s our focus on how we’re going to respond this week.”

Colorado State had lost six straight games dating to last year before beating Western Illinois 38-13 last week.

“I think any team, any program that gets a win, you build off of it,” Morris said.

The Rams said they cannot afford to fall behind again to Arkansas, not on the road.

“We definitely can’t,” defensive tackle Ellison Hubbard said. “It’s going to kill us if we let them run over us. This year we took a different approach and make sure we stop the run. We’re going to be ready for that run.”