Arkansas and Missouri will collide in the ‘Battle Line Rivalry’ Saturday afternoon in both programs’ regular season finale. For the Razorbacks, this will be the final game of the Bobby Petrino interim head coach era. Petrino took over the program for the final seven games following Sam Pittman‘s mid-season firing, but has yet to secure a win in his first six.
Missouri meanwhile will be looking to finish the regular season on a high note after losing three of its past four games. Although it can get to nine wins with a win over the Hogs and a win its bowl game, the program’s two-year streak of 10 wins will come to an end.
Heading into that matchup, both programs are dealing with a plethora of injuries. The first SEC Availability Report of the week dropped Wednesday night. The status’ of many key players, such as Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green and Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula, is below. Of note, Green was not listed despite his injury last week.
Missouri quarterback Beau Pribula made his return to the gridiron on Saturday after missing the previous two games. In the Tigers’ 17-6 loss to Oklahoma, Pribula completed 20/36 passes for 231 yards. He also threw two interceptions in the 11-point loss. On Wednesday, Bobby Petrino complimented Pribula.
“I think (Pribula will) be the quarterback,” Petrino said. “He came back from that injury, they believe in him. He did a good job early in the year when he was healthy. And he played well last week, a couple turnovers, but he did play well.:
Although he opened the season strong, Pribula has struggled mightily in the second half of the season. In nine games this season, the Penn State transfer has passed for 1,916 yards, 11 touchdowns, and nine interceptions. He’s also rushed for 219 yards and five more scores.
Arkansas is dealing with an injury to its quarterback as well, as Taylen Green exited Saturday’s game against Texas in the third quarter due to a lower-body injury. He should however be good to go against Missouri however, as Petrino revealed on Monday.
“Yeah, (Green) is healthy,” said Petrino. “He was given the clear to come back in the game. I made the decision that, when he was healthy, when they told me that Taylen is ready to go? That was the words they said – Taylen is ready to go. And I said, no, we’re going to stay with KJ (Jackson), so we kept KJ in the game.”
Since the ‘Battle Line Rivalry’ resumed in 2014, Missouri has won nine of the 11 matchups, including eight of the past nine. With Petrino likely out of the running for Arkansas‘ full-time job, this will act as his final swan-song.