AUSTIN, Texas — At halftime of the Southern Cal-Oregon State game Thursday night, Mack Brown sent a mass e-mail to his Texas Longhorns.

It was a warning that it could happen to them Saturday against Arkansas if they weren’t careful.

It didn’t appear Saturday that the warning was needed as the Longhorns waltzed through the Arkansas Razorbacks 52-10, with the lone Hogs touchdown coming on an 80-yard fumble return by defensive end Antwain Robinson.

Losing to Texas might have been a disappointment, but it was not a surprise.

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It is hard to win on any level when you have 11 yards rushing and 191 total yards. So while the defense is still a problem, the offense is, too.

The Longhorns are good, and for most of the game it seemed they had too many men on the field, mainly because of Colt McCoy.

Believe it or not, McCoy was not some five-star recruit, or even a four-star recruit. He was an often overlooked quarterback from Class 2 A Jim Ned High in Tuscola, Texas.

When Texas offered him a chance, he grabbed it, and now he’s in the process of rewriting the school’s passing records.

Saturday, he looked like a Heisman winner. A burnt orange version of Tim Tebow.

At the half, with Texas leading 31-3, he was 10 of 12 passing for 100 yards and 1 touchdown. He also had rushed for 80 yards and two touchdowns.

As a team, the Razorbacks had only 136 yards total.

By the time McCoy left the game, with Texas leading 45-3, he was 17 of 19 for 185 yards and 3 touchdowns and would singlehandedly have more total yards than the Razorbacks combined.

It would be hard to say Texas is better than Alabama, but the Longhorns definitely have the better quarterback.

The two touchdowns McCoy passed for in the second half left no doubt Brown was making a statement more than he was running up the score.

First, the Big 12 is closing the gap on the SEC, which has been the dominant college football league for the past few years and won the past two BCS national championships.

The other thing was if Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino thinks he’s going to recruit the Lone Star State, he needs to know whom he needs to beat.

This Longhorns team does not have its traditional power running game, but the Longhorns came out throwing under the Razorbacks’ defensive schemes and later stretched the field.

Basically, they had their way from start to finish.

Judging by Saturday’s performance, it’s going to take some time if the Razorbacks are going to be on the level of Texas for the return game that Athletic Director Jeff Long recently said was penciled in for 2014.

It was another top-10 opponent and a bottom-100 performance.

If you need a ray of sunshine, here it is: Texas’ second-team offense was not better than Arkansas’ first-team defense. Oh, and Dennis Johnson’s performance on kickoff returns. He got lots of practice Saturday and had 150 return yards on six kickoffs. Lastly, true freshman Tyler Wilson got some big-time experience in a hostile environment.

Starters against starters, though, it was clearly the Longhorns who dominated every aspect of the game.

No matter how many times it has been written and said, this was going to be a rebuilding year regardless of the coach, and the bottom line is the process of healing has just begun and will need another season of therapy.

The Hogs returned only nine starters and a handful of seniors, some of whom appear as though they haven’t bought into the discipline and distance of Petrino, who is a hands-on CEO type and will never be confused with a warm-and-fuzzy guy.

Not only is this a reloading season, but one of transition from an emotional players’ coach to an unemotional football coach.

Saturday, Texas was the better team. Now the Hogs have to prepare for Florida, which will be fired up after losing to Ole Miss 31-30.

It isn’t going to get a lot better this season, but real fans, like real Razorbacks, won’t give up.