By ROBERT CESSNA
Arkansas (1-2) vs. Texas A&M (3-0) at Arlington, Texas, 6:30 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2)
Line: Arkansas by 1 1/2.
Series Record: Arkansas leads 38-24-3.
Last meeting: 1991, Texas A&M 13-3.
What's at Stake
The former Southwest Conference rivals meet for the first time in 18 years at the new Cowboys stadium. Texas A&M brings in the nation's top offense and hasn't started 4-0 since 2006. Arkansas, which has dropped consecutive SEC games, has been prone to the big play, allowing six touchdowns of 40 yards or more the past two games.
Key Matchup
Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett vs. Texas A&M LB Von Miller. Mallett has thrown for 877 yards and seven touchdowns in coach Bobby Petrino's pass-happy offense. The sophomore struggled last week, going 12-of-35 for 160 yards against the Crimson Tide. Miller has caused problems for opposing offenses, leading the nation with eight sacks. The Aggies have piled up 14 quarterback takedowns this season.
Players to Watch
Arkansas: RB Dennis Johnson averages 32.8 yards on kickoff returns. The sophomore opened the season with a 91-yarder for a TD against Missouri State.
Texas A&M: QB Jerrod Johnson has thrown for 961 yards and nine touchdowns without an interception as the Aggies lead the nation in total offense (574.3 yards per game).
Texas A&M quarterback Jerrod Johnson and national sack leader Von Miller were cutting teeth the last time the Aggies played the Arkansas Razorbacks, so they have no recollection of the history between the former Southwest Conference rivals.
Of course, most Aggie fans don't have many Razorback memories, either, despite the teams playing 65 times. There were good games but few that fans can recall like they might some of the Texas games.
Why?
For all of the programs' success in the old SWC, A&M and Arkansas seldom met with a conference championship on the line.
The two won or shared 27 SWC titles from 1915-91, but on 18 of those occasions, the team that didn't win the title finished with a .500 or below conference record. Often when A&M was down, Arkansas was in hog heaven. But when the Aggies were on top, the Hogs were in the slop.
Texas was each program's natural rival, so what most A&M and Arkansas fans remember about the old SWC days happened most frequently against the Longhorns. The Aggie-Razorback rivalry has seemingly subsided into footnote territory.
For example, A&M's 2003 media guide included a six-page section on the history of Aggie football. Games against Texas are frequently mentioned, but only one contest against Arkansas is depicted -- a 20-16 A&M victory in 1990, the program's first win in Fayetteville, Ark., since 1967.
In a relatively thorough account of Razorback history on collegefootball.com, there are only two references to A&M-Arkansas games.
The first was the initial victory by legendary Arkansas coach Frank Broyles, a 21-8 win in 1958 that came after he'd lost his first six games.
Broyles talked about that game Monday at the Little Rock Touchdown Club. "That '58 team stayed with me," he said. "They built the foundation of what you could do: get better with a good attitude, don't let the losses beat you but get better and better. We did improve."
The only other A&M reference in the collegefootball.com article was Arkansas' 31-6 victory in 1975. A&M was 10-0 and ranked No. 2 in the country under former coach Emory Bellard heading into the trip to Little Rock, Ark., and the game was moved to accomodate a national television audience. Arkansas' Teddy Barnes made a remarkable catch for a touchdown on a pass thrown by quarterback Scott Bull just before halftime to break the scoreless tie. The Razorbacks rolled in the second half against an A&M team that had allowed only 73 points in the first 10 games. The Razorbacks carried that momentum into the Cotton Bowl where it thumped Georgia 31-10. A&M, forced to settle for a SWC tri-championship along with Texas that year, dropped a 20-0 verdict to Southern Cal in the Liberty Bowl.
There's a few other A&M-Arkansas games that could have been included.
A&M earned a hard-fought 10-6 victory in 1985 en route to the first of there SWC titles under Jackie Sherrill.
But the game that many still talk about (in disgust in these parts) is Arkansas' 23-22 victory at Kyle Field in 1989, which was the last year the Razorbacks won the SWC -- by a game over the Aggies, coincidentally. A fourth-down pass interference call kept alive Arkansas' game-winning 70-yard drive. The call was made by line judge Ron Underwood, who played for Arkansas in the 1950s and at the time lived in Little Rock.
A&M relished its 13-3 victory in the league finale between the two in 1991, which was on ESPN. The 13th-ranked Aggies were in the process of winning the first of three straight SWC titles under former coach R.C. Slocum.
There's no doubt the series was becoming more competitive when it ended. The two combined for six of the seven SWC titles from 1985-91. The only losing record either had in league play during that span was Arkansas' 1-7 finish in 1990. Other than that, the two were a combined 81-18-1 with A&M holding a 4-3 edge over the last seven meetings.
Maybe the Aggies and Razorbacks can pick up where they left off and make this a big-time rivalry with national attention.
Both teams have some work to do to return to the lofty status they once enjoyed. A&M's lone Big 12 Conference championship was in 1998. Arkansas has never won the SEC title.
A&M fans probably should thank Broyles for taking the Razorbacks to the SEC, which helped lead to the breakup of the SWC. There's no doubt both programs are better off in all sports after settling into the nation's two best sports conferences.
A&M defensive coordinator Joe Kines was Arkansas' defensive coordinator in 1992 when the Razorbacks opened SEC play with a 45-7 victory at South Carolina, which also was joining the league at the time.
"I think that was big for the program," said Kines, who was promoted to interim head coach by Broyles for that game after Jack Crowe was fired following a season-opening loss to The Citadel. "Coach Broyles was very visionary. He took it in a different direction, and I think it's probably been good for their school."
Now the retired Broyles and A&M athletics director Bill Byrne envision this 10-year series as a stepping stone to success for both programs. Both men feel good about the program's second-year coaches -- Bobby Petrino at Arkansas and A&M's Mike Sherman.
The teams are loaded with talented young players. A&M has 11 underclassmen listed as starters for the game, while Arkansas has 10 sophomore starters. The teams have just 13 seniors starters combined.
There's other pluses for the series. You can't beat new Cowboys Stadium as a venue. Both programs recruit the Metroplex heavily, and ESPN2 will broadcast the game, even though neither team is ranked.
All that's left is for both teams to become major players in their conferences and give us some memorable games. And that's just about where this series was when it was interrupted.
TEXAS A&M FOOTBALL
Arkansas, 1-2, vs. Texas A&M, 3-0
6:30 p.m. Saturday, Cowboys Stadium, Arlington
TV: ESPN2. Radio: 1620 AM, WTAW and Sirius Ch. 122
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