Texas football has no more room for error if it wants to keep its thin College Football Playoff hopes alive.
The No. 17 Longhorns (7-3, 4-2 SEC) renew a once-fierce rivalry with Arkansas Saturday at Royal-Memorial Stadium in Austin, and they’ll try and bounce back from a 35-10 drubbing at Georgia last week. Arkansas (2-8, 0-6) may dwell at the bottom of the conference standings, but the Hogs have shown some fight under interim head coach Bobby Petrino, who replaced the fired Sam Pittman in September; all six of their SEC losses have come by single digits, and they fell to No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 20 Tennessee by a combined 12 points.
Can head coach and play caller Steve Sarkisian, quarterback Arch Manning and the Texas offense get untracked against one of the worst defenses in the SEC? And can a suddenly generous Longhorn defense fend off the SEC’s best rushing attack and dual-threat quarterback Taylen Green?
Read below for live scores and updates as the No. 17 Texas Longhorns take on the Arkansas Razorbacks in Austin.
This section will be updated once the game begins.
Texas junior linebacker Anthony Hill Jr. has been ruled out against the Razorbacks. Hill reportedly suffered a hand injury during last week’s game at Georgia, and his status had been in question throughout this week. However, No. 17 Texas ruled him out before Saturday’s kickoff.
Redshirt freshman Spencer Barnett will serve as the kickoff specialist for Texas against Arkansas, according to a source. Barnett, an Austin native who graduated from Westlake High School, kicked off earlier this season against Sam Houston. Mason Shipley has handled both place-kicking and kickoff duties since kickoff specialist Will Stone announced his intention to enter the transfer portal in mid October. Shipley, who is 15 of 19 on field-goal attempts this season, has six touchbacks on 37 kickoffs this season. Stone had eight on 20 attempts before leaving the program.
When: 2:45 p.m. Saturday
Where: Royal-Memorial Stadium
TV/radio: ABC, 1300, 98.1, 105.3 (Spanish)
Moneyline: Texas -338, Arkansas +268
Spread: Texas is favored by 8½ points