Fans on both sides restless as Hogs face Aggies
— Anxiety vs. desperation personifies today’s Arkansas-Texas A&M game at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
Arkansas, 1-1 under Bret Bielema, and Texas A&M, 2-1 under Kevin Sumlin, have done nothing to sweeten the respective fan bases soured by how the Razorbacks (7-6) and Aggies (8-5) finished 2016.
Arkansas lost to Missouri (28-24) and Virginia Tech (35-24) late last season after respective halftime leads of 24-7 and 24-0.
11 a.m. The Razorbacks have not scored in the second half of their last three losses, TCU with a 14-0 scoreboard advantage after halftime in its 28-7 victory Sept. 9 in Fayetteville.
With Arkansas losing its last five to Texas A&M, the last four under Bielema, Razorback Nation is restless before the Southeastern Conference opener today at
11 a.m. on ESPN.
“Obviously the public has been pretty hostile towards us, which I am not saying is bad or good,” Arkansas senior All-American candidate center Frank Ragnow said diplomatically. “We are just trying to rally as a team and realize that we are still a good ball team and we’ve just got to respond. We’ve really had to come together.”
Hot as it might be getting in Arkansas on the Razorbacks and their coaches, it’s sizzling on Sumlin and the Aggies in College Station, Texas.
Even one of Texas A&M’s Board of Regents publicly called for Sumlin’s ouster after the Aggies blew a 44-10 lead and lost
45-44 at UCLA in their season opener Sept.
3. Confidence wasn’t restored after the Aggies were tied 14-14 in a 24-14 win over visiting Nicholls State. Last week, playing its second game in College Station, A&M trailed Louisiana-Lafayette
21-14 before a 31-0 second half produced a 45-14 triumph.
A&M boosters are fuming that the 2016 Aggies staggered from a 5-0 start to the program’s third straight 8-5 finish, losing their last four SEC games.
A&M’s first half against UCLA and second half against Lafayette shows Sumlin’s always talented Aggies are just as talented as ever, Bielema said.
And that they do have the momentum of their last half well played.
“He’s got good skill players who can make a big play in a hurry at the wide receiver- and running-back position,” Bielema said. “They are more than adequate in the O-line. Defensively they’ve had some really good seniors move on but the thing that’s come back to us (is) their defenders are very athletic and opportunistic and defended well. The team we’re facing is the same one since here the last four years.”
So even with All-American defensive end Myles Garrett graduated to the NFL, asking if the Aggies and defensive coordinator John Chavis still have a quality defensive end is like asking if the Rockettes still dance with precision.
“When you’re trying to replace the No. 1 overall draft pick, you can say there’s going to be drop off,,” Arkansas offensive-line coach Kurt Anderson said. “But at the same time, these are two really good ends and they have some young pups that definitely are going to be special players. Their interior line has the same guys we played against last year.”
Safety Armani Watts, preseason first-team All-SEC, heads A&M’s secondary.
Offensively, A&M running back Trayveon Williams averages 7.8 per carry. Junior receiver/punt returner/occasional ballcarrier Christian Kirk has annually bedeviled the Razorbacks. Freshman quarterback Kellen Mond took command of the Aggies’ second-half surge against Lafayette.
Bielema vowed during the postgame ashes of the TCU loss that the Razorbacks, facing an open date, “need to be the most improved team in America” against the Aggies.
“A lot of guys took a step forward,” Bielema said. “I think a lot of kids took their performance at TCU personally. I really like the growth of this team.”