Texas Football: Houston Nutt thinks Sark faces same challenges as Mack
One of the bigger games on tap for Texas football and new head coach Steve Sarkisian this fall is set to come against an old rival in the Arkansas Razorbacks on the road in Fayetteville. Texas is set to hit the road to face Arkansas this coming season on Sep. 11, with kickoff time now set at 6 p.m. CT. This was the first night game announced for the Longhorns this fall, and it will be televised in front of a national audience on ESPN/ABC.
The last time that the Longhorns faced the Razorbacks in Fayetteville was back in 2004 when the Arkansas head coach was Houston Nutt. Texas and former head coach Mack Brown got the win over Nutt and the Razorbacks by a narrow margin of 22-20 in their regular season meeting in 2004.
And Nutt recalled that meeting between Texas and Arkansas in the regular season in 2004 in an interview he did with 247Sports/CBS Sports this week. He reminisced on the better years in this old rivalry between two storied college football programs, and what it was like to witness Mack as the Longhorns head coach at the time.
What Houston Nutt noted about Mack Brown, Steve Sarkisian, and the Texas football program in the past 20 years?
It was also interesting that Nutt noted that he feels like Sark now faces a lot of the similar hurdles to moving this Texas program back in the right direction that Mack did in the early 2000s. If that is true and the Longhorns have the right guy to right the ship in Sark, then this program is certainly headed in the right direction.
Nutt was the Razorbacks head coach in three meetings against the Longhorns. He actually came out in those three meetings with Texas with two wins. The first of those two wins came in 2000, by the final score of 27-6. And then the second win for Nutt and the Razorbacks over the Longhorns came in 2003, by the final score of 38-28.
Texas would get the best of Arkansas in the two meetings that followed the Hogs 2003 win. But the latest matchup between these two teams (in the postseason to round out the 2014 season) went in Arkansas’ favor by a commanding score of 31-7, when Charlie Strong was the Texas head coach.
Moreover, Texas does still own the all-time series over the Hogs with a record of 56-22-0. And Texas can get the winning streak going back in their direction if they can take care of business against the Hogs in September.
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Nutt was the Razorbacks head coach for 10 years and registered a record of 75-48. His last year with the Hogs came in 2007. This will be the first year for Sark as the Longhorns head coach. He’s the former Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator/reigning Broyles Award winner.
And Brown was the Texas head coach for 16 years. In the process, he won one National Championship, took the program to two BCS National Championship Games, and he won the Big 12 South on six occasions.