The Arkansas Razorbacks suffered their third straight loss on Saturday in their first ever meeting with Notre Dame, 56-13. A highly anticipated preseason matchup turned into a beatdown of epic proportions as the Fighting Irish rolled up 420 yards and 42 points in the first half and were never in jeopardy of losing to the Razorbacks.

The Arkansas program is at a crossroads after three straight inexplicable losses. They fumbled away their chances to beat Ole Miss and Memphis on the road then didn’t even show up in what was tabbed as a historic matchup with Notre Dame. The Razorback faithful showed up to support their Hogs with Saturday’s attendance coming in as the 10th largest in program history.

As in almost every other highly attended game, the Hogs let their fans down once again. The only two wins in their top ten most attended games came last season against Tennessee and in 2006 against the Volunteers. Too bad the Razorbacks are traveling to Knoxville in two weeks.

In this week’s Sunday Rewind, lets take a look back at the Five Burning Questions from Thursday. The answers to those questions sum up what happened inside Razorback Stadium in Saturday.

WHICH DEFENSE WILL MAKE ENOUGH STOPS TO WIN THE GAME

It turns out that when Raylen Sharpe couldn’t haul in Taylen Green’s third down pass on the first drive of the game, Notre Dame made the stop it needed in holding Arkansas to a field goal. Scott Starzyk later nailed a 49-yard field goal to be one of the only bright spots for Arkansas in the game. 

The Irish scored a touchdown on all six of their first half drives. Their 42 points on Saturday was the most allowed by an SEC team to a non-conference opponent in 20 years. CJ Carr looked like his childhood hero, Tom Brady. The freshman finished with 354 yards and four touchdowns in three quarters of action.

Notre Dame did not have its second third down of the game until three minutes left in the first half. They dominated the Hogs through the air and on the ground to the tune of 641 total yards. While Miguel Mitchell finished with a team-high 12 tackles, in today’s game, it’s not good when your safety leads the team in tackles. 

The Irish didn’t do anything exotic defensively. They brought pressure when they wanted to and mixed up their coverages enough to confuse Taylen Green.

WHAT CAN ARKANSAS DO TO SLOW DOWN LOVE AND PRICE

The short answer is nothing. Jeremiyah Love had four first half touchdowns. He had two rushing scores and added two touchdown receptions. Notre Dame dialed up a nice throwback screen to Love at the six minute mark in the second quarter to increase the lead to 21-10.

The best backfield in college football torched the Hogs for six total touchdowns. Pre had a touchdown rushing and a 35-yard touchdown receiving. He was barely touched by a Razorback defender on both scores.

CAN TAYLEN GREEN LEARN FROM HIS MISTAKES

The Arkansas offense had their worst performance of the season on Saturday. They finished with 365 total yards. Green had 207 yards passing and 81 yards rushing including a 54-yard run in the first half.

The problem with the Razorback offense was consistency. Green was 17-of-32 passing and finished with an interception. The only touchdown of the day came from none other than Shaq McCoy. Everyone loves big man touchdowns, and McCoy was the first lineman to score a rushing touchdown for the Razorbacks since Shawn Andrews in 2003.

Big man TD 😤 pic.twitter.com/9IHWKZ6lO8

— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) September 27, 2025

Green tended to force the ball to O’Mega Blake once again on Saturday. Blake finished with a team-high six catches and 73 yards. Green’s best throw of the day was  a 33-yard strike to Blake on the first series of the game. Notre Dame did their homework on Green and baited him into making some bad decisions on Saturday. Their were quite a few tipped passes and the windows were much smaller than previous weeks.

10 ➡️ 9 pic.twitter.com/DpNXqMc7T4

— Arkansas Razorback Football (@RazorbackFB) September 27, 2025WILL ARKANSAS PLAY WITH PRIDE

The Razorbacks don’t get a chance to play storied programs like Notre Dame too often. There is a return trip scheduled to South Bend (Ind) in a few years, but there is nothing scheduled past 2028.

Arkansas showed fight on offense just like they have in every other game this season. The Swiss cheese defense is where lack of effort and intensity continued on Saturday. Only after they were down 29 points going into the third quarter did the Hogs show any semblance of life. Phillip Lee played hard for most of the game. He finished with a sack and 2.5 tackles for loss.

The defense forced Notre Dame to punt on their first drive in the second half. Razorback fans were likely thinking. “Hey, maybe we can score and get back in this game.” Then Marcus Freeman and his team did something the Razorbacks have seldomly done under Sam Pittman. They ran a fake punt on fourth and a bus ride inside their 30 yard line and step on the proverbial throat of the Razorbacks.

Freeman went for the kill shot and sent a message to the Razorbacks. Arkansas stood zero chance after that. Should Arkansas have been prepared for a fake? Teams usually don’t run a fake punt up 29 points, but Freeman was looking to make a statement and snatch whatever small hope of momentum back to the visiting sideline.

A former coach of 39 years said it best after the game. “I have never seen a defense seem to care as little as the Arkansas defense. They don’t pursue the ball. They just seem to give up.”

HAS SAM PITTMAN LOST THIS TEAM

If there was any question about this coming into the game, there is zero doubt after one of the worst losses in program history. Pittman has had a number of bad losses in his six year tenure. Everyone knows about the 7-19 record in once score games, but there have been some outrageous home losses over the last four seasons.

This was a ‘let go of the rope game.’ Only those inside the program know what will happen next. Is Notre Dame 43 points better than Arkansas? They were on Saturday, but they aren’t that much better of a team. The Irish have an easy schedule to finish the season and have an outside shot at the College Football Playoffs.

In the G-Unit song, Money Make the World Go Round, the chorus starts outs with “Money make the world go round, you better get it. Money has always been at the core of college athletics. The rich always seem to get richer and it isn’t by mistake. Ohio State reportedly spent 20 million dollars on the 2024 roster through NIL payments and disbursements through collectives. It bought Ryan Day his first national championship.

If Arkansas chooses to go in a different direction with the leadership of the football program, they may need to heed the advice of the forementioned rap group, they better get it and they better get it right.