It won’t be just a football kicked to open tonight’s 6 p.m. Arkansas-Ole Miss SEC West game televised via pay-per-view from Frank Broyles Field at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

The kickoff kicks out 11 months of pregame hype. A football game for a while will replace the referendum so many Arkansas fans still wage on the coach no longer at Arkansas.

Houston Nutt, Little Rock born and bred, returns to his native state with his Ole Miss Rebels, 3-4, 1-3, against the Razorbacks, 3-4, 1-3, he coached from 1998 through November 2007 but are now coached by Bobby Petrino.

Eleven months later and still the Internet message boards and radio talk shows crackle with debates among those their opponents derisively call “Nutt-Huggers” or “Nutt-Haters.”

Given there’s already plenty of border rivalry to embellish any Arkansas-Ole Miss game, the Nutt factor probably makes this clash of ordinary records one of the most extraordinary matchups for Arkansas fans since the epic Arkansas-Texas buildups back in vintage Southwest Conference days.

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It’s not a completely new situation for Houston Nutt. He’s been pitted against Arkansas before. As a former Razorback quarterback in 1976 and ‘77 under Frank Broyles and Lou Holtz, who surmised he didn’t fit in Holtz’s future game plans, Nutt had transferred to Oklahoma State and returned in 1980 to play against the Razorbacks. He threw a couple of TD passes off the bench before OSU lost in Little Rock.

“There’s a little of the same feel,” Nutt said last week. “But really it’s pretty different. As a player, you are just worrying about getting the snap count and the plays. As a coach with the players on the opposite side you coached and recruited, you do think of the relationships and you think about the relationships [at Ole Miss] you are building now.”

Mike Markuson, James Shibest, Tracy Rocker and Chris Vaughn, assistants accompanying Nutt from Arkansas to Ole Miss and Danny Nutt and Clifton Ealy, former Arkansas assistant coaches become Ole Miss administrators, likely have similar thoughts.

So probably do Bobby Allen and Tim Horton, assistants remaining from Nutt’s Arkansas staff to assist Petrino.

All vow to prepare like it’s any other game but it won’t feel that way until the ball is kicked off.

“Once that ball is kicked off, you are totally into the game,” Nutt said. “It’s the players blocking and tackling.”

Same goes for Petrino.

He knows the Razorback fans’ emotions are pent up for this game.

“I understand the buildup by the Razorback fans,” Petrino said. “That’s natural.”

But for Arkansas’ new coach and the players he inherited and recruited, Petrino said, “It’s our football team against their football team. Let’s take the coaches out of it.”

Well, for a second let’s leave the coaches in it.

Fact is, despite the 3-4, 1-3 ordinary records, both coaches have accomplished some extraordinary things with their new teams.

Ole Miss had lost 14 straight SEC games under previous coach Ed Orgeron, but Nutt, much like he did with the 1998 Hogs he inherited, has motivated confidence. This current Ole Miss team shocked No. 5-ranked Florida at The Swamp in Gainesville, Fla., and played the bejabbers out of No. 2-ranked Alabama before finally losing, 28-24 last Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Wake Forest and Vanderbilt, both in the Top 25 earlier, also barely beat Ole Miss as did South Carolina.

Just like he did with the 1998 Hogs he inherited from Danny Ford, Nutt has taken tough kids whose confidence had been battered by tough times and positively motivated them to out-play their negative past.

It doesn’t hurt any that some of those tough kids include NFL prospects Michael Oher on the offensive line and Greg Hardy on the defensive line and a fine quarterback, Jevan Snead, transferring last year from Texas.

On Arkansas’ side, Nutt left a team that lost a lot from 2007 graduating a big senior class plus All-American running backs Darren McFadden and Felix Jones turning pro early but left a foundation including Rimington Award-winning center Jonathan Luigs and blossoming star running back Michael Smith on which to build.

Petrino has done that. Even with the meltdown in the final 4:41 last Saturday at Kentucky, the Petrino-coached Hogs have improved immensely from the team that opened eking by lightweights Western Illinois and Louisiana-Monroe and getting pounded by Texas and Alabama.

For both teams that accomplished so much only to lose at the end, this week’s distractions have probably been a welcome diversion from last week’s heartache.

Now, though, all stand ready to kick off the game and kick out the hype.