FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Prior to the arrival of Texas in the SEC, Texas A&M was one of the noisiest teams in the SEC. Their giant bags of cash being thrown about in the early days of NIL and the run of guaranteed national titles that were supposed to come under Jimbo Fisher that never materialized, but it certainly kept the Aggies in the headlines.

However, the team Arkansas will face in Razorback Stadium Saturday is as quiet and under the radar as a No. 4 team in the country can possibly be under head coach Mike Elko. The shadow of Texas with all of its drama with Arch Manning and its offensive line issues hid their Lone Star State brothers.

That’s why fans don’t know a whole lot about A&M outside of Marcel Reed is a Taylen Green style quarterback who can cause a lot of headaches. That’s technically true, which should give the Hogs a leg up over other teams that have faced the Aggies since they have taken on Green regularly for almost a year now.

However, of the two defenses, Texas A&M is far superior, and has also had three years of practice against Reed along with a season of practicing against the Bobby Petrino offense, so there’s no edge to be gained over the Aggies in this instance. In fact, the front line is going to be a nightmare all day.

Green is going to take several big sacks if he doesn’t get the ball out quickly and the man who is most likely to drag him down is defensive end Cashius Howell who is second in the nation with eight sacks on the season.

For comparison, by far the most disruptive player for the Razorbacks is Quincy Rhodes. He leads the Hogs by a mile, but only has five sacks, which is a long way back from Howell in the national picture.

Texas A&M is built for a shootout like they faced when they took down Notre Dame on the road. They are also down for an old-fashioned slug fest like they faced against Auburn.

As a result, whether Petrino opts to try to put up a ton of points like he did most of the first five games, or if he tries to save his defense and take the air out of the ball a bit like he did against Tennessee, the Aggies are built to win either way, making life miserable for Petrino who desperately needs a victory.

Stats that stand out

When looking into this game, there are two statistics that really drew a lot of surprised attention.

The first stat that really jumps off the page is Texas A&M hasn’t lost a fumble all season. A lot of that is because of the job quarterback Marcel Reed and running back Le’Veon Moss have done protecting the ball while making big plays.

It should be noted Moss will not suit up against the Razorbacks Saturday. Moss suffered an ankle injury in the second quarter of a 34-17 blowout of Florida.

He leads the Aggies with 389 yards on 70 carries with six touchdowns. While it should increase the chances the Hogs force a fumble, there will be minimal drop-off in production at running back.

Sophomore Ruben Owens II has almost matched Moss with overall rushing yards with 327 yards. Nearly half of that came against Mississippi State with 142 yards on 21 carries for an average just shy of seven yards per carry.

The other stat that stood out is how many 10-win seasons both Arkansas and Texas A&M have had in the past 20 years. With all the money and hype that came with the Aggies before the arrival of Texas put them in a bit of a shadow, it seems like A&M should have had multiple 10-win seasons.

It would stand to reason that they jumped up and snagged at least a couple of 10-win seasons while in the Big 12. However, that’s not the case as the Aggies fan mentality that 8-5 is unavoidable every year regardless of how great of a start the season gets off to appears to be quite valid.

Since 1999, the lone 10-win or better season Texas A&M has managed to put together is that crazy year in the first season in the SEC when Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel and star receiver Mike Evans when they went 11-2 to finish fifth overall in the SEC and runner-up to Alabama in the SEC West.

Meanwhile, Arkansas has the edge on 10-win seasons with three in that time period between coaches Houston Nutt and Bobby Petrino. Nutt went 10-4 in a drama filled 2006 season.

The Hogs, with Guz Malzahn at offensive coordinator, the infamous Springdale Five on the roster and Darren McFadden unveiling the wildcat formation, reeled off 10 straight after a 50-14 loss to USC in Fayetteville to open the season.

The Hogs lost to a 10-win LSU team in Little Rock to close the season, which triggered a losing streak that continued against Florida in the SEC championship game and Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl.

Five years later, Petrino had the Hogs in the Sugar Bowl where Arkansas narrowly lost to Ohio State, 31-26, to close a 10-3 season. The following year, the Razorbacks went 11-2 with their only losses coming to national champion Alabama and national runner-up LSU as the Hogs finished 11-5.