Seldom has the expected been achieved so unexpectedly.

“ We are 2-0, ” Arkansas firstyear coach Bobby Petrino said last Saturday night in Little Rock. “ And that is right where we need to be going into the Texas game next week. ”

Well, the Razorbacks indeed are 2-0. And that’s what they needed to be and were expected to be opening at home in Fayetteville and Little Rock against Western Illinois and the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Those are the only alleged nonconference breathers in an otherwise brutal schedule of eight Southeastern Conference games plus Texas and Tulsa. However WIU and ULM games certainly did not leave the Hogs breathing easily. Perhaps aided by an iron lung, but neither victory was remotely easy. Two Saturdays ago at Frank Broyles Field at Reynolds Razorback Stadium the Hogs trailed WIU 24-14 in the fourth quarter but won it, 28-24 on quarterback Casey Dick’s 4-yard touchdown run with 1: 49 left. They cut it even closer last Saturday night at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. Arkansas trailed, 24-6, with 6: 11 left in the third quarter and was down, 27-14, with 12: 56 left. To prevail, the Hogs first needed Casey Dick’s 76-yard pass to D. J. Williams setting up Michael Smith’s 4-yard run for one touchdown and Dick’s 2-point pass to Williams. Then they needed Petrino’s daring call of Dick’s fourth and one 25-yard throw to rookie receiver Chris Gragg, unused until the special “ Cowboy personnel” grouping that Petrino assembles for certain short-yardage situations. The Dick to Gragg pass put Arkansas on the ULM 7. Dick and Williams eventually connected for their second 8-yard touchdown pass to tie it 27-27 at 1: 22. Shay Haddock, the walkon second-half promoted, broke the tie with the PAT.

Heralded Arkansas kicker Alex Tejada suffered a first-half nightmare of a missed PAT, two missed field goals, one a long one from 46 but the other a 25-yard chip shot, and a kickoff out of bounds after a delay of game penalty. Gragg and Haddock were improbable game-winning heroes but became a field goal away from heroes in a losing cause. ULM quarterback Kinsmon Lancaster (23 of 39 for 270 yards ) hooking up for two more big pass plays to Anthony McCall (6 catches for 125 yards and 2 TDs ), moved the Warhawks from their 31 to the Arkansas 27. The Hogs forced a fourth and seven Jeremy Gener’s 45-yard field goal attempt. Gener was 2 for 2 Saturday from 20 and 40, but this long try sailed awry. Finally, with 36 seconds left, the breather’s last gasp. “ I’m about to have a heart attack, ” Arkansas senior All-American center Jonathan Luigs said postgame. “ And I’m 22. ” No telling what Petrino thought Sunday other than from his TV show.

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Increasingly media restricted since the coinciding advents of the athletic director Jeff Long and Petrino administrations, the UA for the first time in at least 50 years made its head football coach off limits to the press the Sunday after a Saturday game.

Petrino does have a press conference today.

Just guessing, but imagine Petrino and the staff work combining two diverse perspectives in their approach to this fourgame gauntlet of visiting eighth-ranked Texas in Saturday’s 2: 30 p. m ABC televised game followed by SEC clashes hosting 11 th-ranked Alabama and fourth-ranked Florida and visiting ninth-ranked Auburn.

No. 1 comes the massive effort to improve all phases. From failing to score in the first-quarter despite lodging in ULM territory long enough to establish residence to Lancaster’s 270 passing yards and especially in special teams, the Hogs seem to have a year’s worth of work to finish this week.

The special teams problems weren’t just relegated to Tejada’s troubles. The Hogs also suffered a blocked punt, stepping out of bounds at their 5 while returning a kickoff and later requiring punter Jeremy Davis to make a touchdownsaving tackle.

But the Razorbacks have overcome all their troubles in the fourth quarter on successive weeks, and that’s contagious.

“ They deserved to win it in the fourth quarter, ” ULM coach Charlie Weatherbie said. “ They won it last week in the fourth quarter and that makes it easier to believe. ”

Texas will have cause to worry in Austin if the Hogs somehow hang around until the fourth quarter.

Of course if they repeat their special teams nightmare, the Hogs likely won’t hang around anything in Austin other than the noose of a lopsided loser.