FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas tight ends coach Barry Lunney has a few memories of TCU rolling around in his head, but they may not be the ones that necessarily come to mind first.
Lunney, who was raised in Arkansas during the days of the Southwest Conference, never got a chance to play the Horned Frogs while he played for the Razorbacks, but remembers long-time TCU head coach Jim Wacker (1983-91) and crickets.
Lunney is obviously remembering TCU’s 33-12 win over BYU in 1987 that was described as “a onslaught of Egytian proportions" in which crickets covered almost the entire field in the fourth quarter.
Clean-up crews gathered up some 100, 55-gallon bags of the insects after the game.
“The two things that I remember most as a kid, I just remember who Jim Wacker was on the Raycom broadcast, or whatever, and the crickets on the field,” Lunney said. "I remember watching it and there were crickets everywhere.”
Lunney and Arkansas (1-0) would no doubt like to hear crickets from the home fans in Fort Worth, Texas, when the Razorbacks battle No. 15 TCU (1-0) Saturday at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
The Horned Frogs’ Amon Carter Stadium looks much different now than when the teams last played there in 1991 and TCU has become one of the nation’s most successful programs.
“It has changed a lot from that standpoint,” Lunney said. “Their brand now - with all due respect - is different than it was then. They have earned that.
"They are a tremendous program and it will be a really, really big challenge on the road.”
Arkansas likely will need good games from tight ends Jeremy Sprinkle, Austin Cantrell, Jack Kraus and others to pull off the upset.
Sprinkle caught a fourth-down pass in the fourth quarter that, combined with Cole Hedlund’s PAT, rallied the Razorbacks in a 21-20 win over Louisiana Tech.
“I thought Jeremy got off to a solid start,” Lunney said. “It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it was a solid, good start, in part because, honestly, it was his first start as an inline tight end and he handled those duties pretty well for us during the course of the game.
“And then I thought Austin, when he came in and played, I was pretty pleased with how he played. He made some mistakes that you would expect from a first-time player playing in his first game, but his physicality showed up and it was a good way for him to start his career. So he needs to build off of that.
“The other guys filled in or were sporadic in the substitutions in the game and got their feet wet. Jack has been in some games before. He came in when Austin went out and did a really good job for us in the run game in the fourth quarter when we needed to be two tight ends. He did a good job for us."
Lunney feels good about how redshirt freshman Cantrell is coming along.
“Anybody that is close to our program or watches programs knows about him and he is very powerful,” Lunney said. “One of the things early on in his career is that power did not always show up on game day or in practice and that is one of the reasons he redshirted. He just wasn’t quite ready yet to show what his physical capabilities are in a game.
“Hopefully that is coming out of him or at least starting to. That will be a good confidence booster for him to try and grow from.”
Lunney said TCU’s linebackers are converted safeties and perform well in the pass-happy Big 12. He said the tight ends will need to be more physical this week than they showed in the opener.
“They are quick,” Lunney said. “Their linebacker - Travin Howard - is from Longview (Texas) and we recruited him our first year here. It was at the end of the deal and we were contemplating on whether to get in there and offer him or whatnot. I remember him and I know he was a safety in high school and now he is a linebacker.
“He typifies what they are try to do - that those guys, put a few pounds on them and move them down to the second level and play with speed in their league. They do a really nice job. They are active and they are good tacklers.
“The best thing about them to me is they are so well-coached that they are never out of place.”