Hogs say no rebuild despite early cracks

Arkansas coach Chad Morris calls his players to the sideline against North Texas Saturday, Sept. 15, 2018, during the second quarter at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. Visit nwadg.com/photos to see more photographs from the game.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas' first nine football games against North Texas were decided by an average of 28.3 points.

The teams' 10th meeting Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium was similarly lopsided with a 27-point final margin, but with one big difference.

North Texas beat Arkansas for the first time.

The Mean Green from Conference USA dominated the game in all phases -- including scoring touchdowns on special teams and defense -- to pound the Razorbacks 44-17.

Arkansas (1-2) lost 34-27 at Colorado State of the Mountain West Conference the previous week, blowing a 27-9 lead.

It's the first time the Razorbacks have lost at least two nonconference games in the same season to teams not in conferences now known as the Power 5 since 1992 when they lost to The Citadel 10-3, Memphis 22-6 and SMU 24-19.

Those 1992 Razorbacks managed to go 3-4-1 in SEC games to finish 3-7-1 under interim coach Joe Kines.

With Arkansas having its next three games against SEC West rivals -- No. 9 Auburn, No. 22 Texas A&M and No. 1 Alabama -- plus matchups later this season against No. 6 LSU and No. 14 Mississippi State along with Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Missouri, exceeding or even matching the 1992 team's victory total doesn't figure to be easy.

Tulsa is the only opponent left on the schedule Arkansas might be favored to beat.

The rough start prompted a question to first-year Razorbacks Coach Chad Morris about whether the rebuilding job he took on might be a bigger challenge than he anticipated. The previous three seasons when Morris was SMU's coach, the Mustangs beat North Texas.

"No one in that locker room wants to hear the word 'rebuild,' " Morris said. "Especially if you're a senior that has invested time in this program. But you do want to hear the fact that you want to continue to get better and find ways to improve."

Arkansas' three seniors who spoke to the media after the North Texas game -- receiver Jared Cornelius, center Hjalte Froholdt and safety Santos Ramirez -- agreed they're not interested in a rebuilding season.

"We want to win now," Cornelius said. "The time is now, the place is here. So rebuild? We could care less about rebuilding. This is our last year and we want to go out with a bang. We want people to remember us.

"We don't want to be the senior class that they kicked out and then things started to turn around after. We want to be a part of the change."

Froholdt said he knows it may sound like a broken record to some, but that the Razorbacks have to maintain the "one-play warrior mentality" Morris constantly preaches.

"If we start veering off track now, we're never going to have a good football team or even be near," Froholdt said. "We have to stay to our standards. We have to stay to what we believe in and how we think to run a football program.

"We have a tough schedule ahead, and if we're thinking it's a rebuild and we already have a losing mindset, then it's just not going to be very pretty."

LSU rallied to win 22-21 at Auburn on a last-second field goal by Tracy Cole.

The Arkansas-Auburn game at Jordan-Hare Stadium has a 6:30 p.m. kickoff and will be televised on the SEC Network.

"We're going to face an extremely good Auburn team which just had a really close loss to LSU," Froholdt said. "They're probably ready to come back out and show the world that they can play again.

"That's what we're going to do. We're going to approach every single week like that."

Ramirez said the Razorbacks' leadership has to step up now more than ever and keep teammates from pointing fingers at each other.

"Ain't not feeling sorry for ourselves," Ramirez said. "We're all men here. Regardless of overcoming adversity, football is a comparison to life. You have to continue to push forward regardless.

"We have Auburn coming up. Yeah, we just lost to North Texas, but it is what it is, man. It's not a rebuilding year. We're coming in stronger than ever, man.

"We can bounce back from this and make sure that we have everything that we need in order to play with Auburn. But it starts with preparation, not only in the film room, but in every aspect of our life and we have to have consistency."

The Razorbacks can look at the start of SEC play as a chance to hit the reset button on their season.

"Moving into conference play, your record is 0-0," Morris said. "But it's all about us. Without looking at our next opponent, we've got to look at the Arkansas Razorbacks and focus on us."

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Sports on 09/17/2018