This will be a weekend of reckoning with demons for the Arkansas Football program. Ahead of Saturday’s matchup against Missouri State and former head coach Bobby Petrino, today marks another dubious date in Arkansas football history.
On this day four years ago, Arkansas football lost to North Texas 44-17 in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Whether you consider it the low point of the Chad Morris era or just one of the first dominoes to fall in a two-year domino rally of terrible football, it’s a dark point in the program’s history nonetheless.
Arkansas football lost to North Texas in Fayetteville exactly four years ago today.
(My nominee for the most shameful game of the Morris era of Arkansas football was Ty Storey coming back to Fayetteville with Western Kentucky to beat the Hogs 45-19. Cat Stevens said the first cut is the deepest. For me, the final nail in the coffin is the darkest.)
Please don’t despair every time you see that fake punt reshared today. Sure, it’ll be easy for national media outlets or fans of other SEC programs to clown Arkansas Football today. We’ll undoubtedly encounter a flurry of “Haha…remember when?” tweets and articles.
Shoot, I’m doing that here myself.
Don’t wallow, though, Arkansas football fans. This is a post about hope.
Think about how far this program has come in four short years. That late-Bret-Bielema-through-Morris era of football feels like a far more distant memory than one recruiting cycle. One recruiting cycle!
Mr. Ol’ Col’ Beer himself, Sam Pittman, has turned this thing around in a flash and put a ton of terrible football in the rearview for an entire proud state. Club Dub’s dusty, little-used disco ball has been sold off on Facebook Marketplace, while Pittman’s jukebox seems full of hits.
Someone far more intelligent than me said you couldn’t know laughter without the tears. So laugh about North Texas today, Arkansas football fans! We’ve cried enough.