Real rivalry or not, the recent record is rather one-sided.
Missouri football faces Arkansas in its regular-season finale on Saturday afternoon in Columbia, where there is potential for snowfall on Faurot Field during the game. The Tigers have never lost to the Razorbacks on their home field. Since Eli Drinkwitz took over the program, MU is 3-1 against the team from Fayetteville.
As it does just about every year, the subject of the validity of the MU-UA rivalry has been front and center in Arkansas circles.
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman fielded some questions about it and more, in Fayetteville this week. Here’s what the Razorbacks coach said about Mizzou:
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Missouri is 8-2 since the Battle Line Rivalry was formed in 2014. The Tigers ran the Hogs off their own field last season in Fayetteville.
The recent struggles haven’t escaped Pittman.
“On Monday you have a presentation of their football team, and I think (the recent record) certainly is part of it. Anything that you think can be a little bit more of a motivator, which, they shouldn’t need anything else,” Pittman said. “We’re playing for a trophy. We’re playing Missouri. They’re a rival game for us. They beat hell out of us last year. That should motivate us.”
A lot of the discussion leading into the game has centred around whether the rivalry between the neighboring states is growing; whether there’s more reason for the two teams to truly dislike one another.
Pittman, perhaps avoiding bulletin board material, perhaps being earnest, said he puts Mizzou right at the top of Arkansas’ rivalry totem pole with LSU and Texas.
True or not, they’re paired with each other for the forseeable future. And the recent history hasn’t favored the Hogs.
“We’ve played them four years and won one of them — out here. So that makes us 1-3. So, you know, the first year we were out there, I think I went for 2 and we messed around and made it, and then there’s 30 or 40 seconds left, they went down and kicked a field goal and beat us,” Pittman said. “And we’ve had some good games. Obviously, last year was not and it was for them. So, it’s hard to win. You see other teams going in and playing in Missouri, I think they’re undefeated at home this year, and it’s a hard place to play.”
Is there anyone left in the league that hasn’t been in the crosshairs of MU coach Eli Drinkwitz’s pot-stirring?
Well, Arkansas fans seemingly rank near the top of the aggrieved list.
Pittman’s heard about it for a while.
“I have respect for (Eli). He’s stirred up a lot of stuff, not just with Arkansas,” Pittman said. “So, I have a lot of respect for him. He’s a hell of a coach now, and you don’t want him to have the ball on the last drive. I mean, you don’t, because he’s outstanding and has won a lot of games that way. You know, it’s a rivalry. He told me he was going to try to stir it up, too, when we first came here.
“I respect the guy. He’s obviously done a really nice job there. So, you know, we’re rivals, and they’ve got the trophy, and they’ve had it for the last two years and we’d like to get it back.”
Saturday’s game is going to be Brady Cook’s last game on Faurot Field. The third-year Missouri football starting quarterback will run out of eligibility at the end of this season.
The Arkansas coach, who is 0-2 against Cook, was asked what it is that makes Cook hard to contain.
“Athletic; can throw; knows the offense probably as good as his coach does,” Pittman said. “He’s a winner, and those guys are scary. I mean, he’s a winner. And, like I said, you could just feel it through the TV when he came back for the Auburn game — made, certainly, a big difference in that game.”
One of the reasons Drinkwitz isn’t the most popular man in his home state right now has been recent recruiting wins. Arkansas native wide receiver Courtney Crutchfield and running back Austyn Dendy got Missouri Tiger-emblazoned billboards in their hometowns after committing to the team in CoMo.
Pittman was asked, somewhat point blank, why there aren’t so many players from the Show-Me State on the Arkansas roster. Here’s what he said:
“Well, I’m looking at their two-deep and I don’t think there’s a whole lot of Arkansas kids in that two-deep. But to answer your question about (recruiting) Missouri, we’ve tried,” Pittman said. “They’ve got really good players, especially Kansas City and St. Louis. Missouri is getting a lot of those kids. Oklahoma has been getting a lot of the Kansas City kids. … We’ve tried to amp up our staff numbers into those areas, because they’re close, and especially with (I-49) coming all the way through now, it’s even faster to get there.”
Cornerback Dreyden Norwood, out of Fort Smith, Arkansas, has played the most snaps on defense for the Tigers this season. Jordan Harris, from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, has played 331 snaps at tight end as a sophomore.
Crutchfield and Dendy, both from Pine Bluff, were four- and three-star commits this season in Class of 2024 and were ranked among the top-10 players in Arkansas in that cycle.