In the Beginning...

A Preview of the Arkansas Razorbacks v Tennessee Volunteers on October 11, 2025.

Dearest Razorbacks Fans,

We’ve had a rough month. We fumbled away back-to-back road games, got boat raced at home, fired our coaches, and then got to wait a long two weeks to see what team will show up in the next game.

While we find ourselves at a 2-3 record. Those 3 losses were all against teams ranked in the top 25. So we can dwell on the past or charge courageously into the future.

I personally think we have arrived at the precipice. The first five games of the season? They are no longer a narrative; they are a historical incunable—a relic of a bygone era, sealed and filed away for future doctoral theses in “The Folly of Football Expectations.” This Saturday at Neyland Stadium isn’t merely Week 7; it is the official commencement of the Arkansas Razorbacks’ new campaign under the leadership of our favorite coach, Bobby Petrino.

A genesis has occurred in Fayetteville, a jarring, in-your-face reset button pressed with the brutal finality that only the SEC can provide. We are witnessing an inchoate program, raw, reforming, and utterly unpredictable, right before our eyes.

The Audition of a Lifetime

The stakes? Existential. This is the new seven-game season, and for every coach and every player, it is the highest-stakes professional audition of their lives.

Coach Bobby Petrino, the man who lives his redemption arc in 4K, is now the interim leader. His presence alone provides a delicious narrative tension: The Hogs are playing for the chance to make him permanent, and he is coaching for the chance to cleanse a decade of hurt and questioning “what if"?”. Every snap is a resume line, every perfectly called play is a step toward permanence. The players are now unbound—no one is playing for the status quo. They are playing for their own survival, their future head coach, and the sheer necessity of showing the world: We are still the Hogs.

The Streak, The Spread, and the Spark

Now, let’s talk about the opponent, the No. 12 Tennessee Volunteers.

The pundits have already drawn the chalk lines, making the Hogs a comfortable two-touchdown underdog. And frankly, my dearest Sty dwellers, let them. Let the oddsmakers, the talking heads, and the Vols fans settle comfortably into their hubris. Because we know a deep, dark secret they dare not utter in Knoxville: Arkansas owns them.

We don’t just beat Tennessee; we haunt them.

• The Razorbacks have an active and beautiful, four-game winning streak over the Volunteers.

• The last time they beat us? 2007. Think about that. George W. Bush was still President, the iPhone was one year old, and the concept of a “Substack” was science fiction. Granted we don’t play them every year, but there are some freshman playing today that have never seen the Vols beat the Hogs. We are their boogeyman, their one, ugly little truth they cannot escape.

And when you see that 2-TD spread, I don’t want you to wince. I want you to smile. Because we’ve been here before. We’ve been written off, counted out, and given the burial plot before kickoff, only to rise like a glorious swamp monster. We were a massive underdog in a pivotal SEC game just last season and rode out of there with the win. It’s what Hogs do.

The Vol cheerleaders do a pushup for every point scored, I’d love to see us get an early defensive touchdown and get a flag for unsportsmanlike conduct for dropping down and doing 6 pushups in the end zone.

We know Petrino will aggressively try to unleash Taylen Green and the passing game, an approach that is necessary against a fast-paced Vols offense. The defense, now under a reshaped staff, needs to harness the post-bye week energy into organized chaos—forcing turnovers and winning third downs.

This game is the first chapter of the Hogs’ new story. It’s time to stop talking about what was lost and start writing about what they can win. Woo Pig Sooie!

Hogs 35 - Vols 31