Sporting Life Arkansas

Jim Harris Live: Texas A&M Aggies and Arkansas Razorbacks

  It’s game day: The Texas A&M Aggies and Arkansas Razorbacks in Jerry’s World . Today’s game time is set for 2:30 p.m. in Arlington, Texas, and will be televised on CBS. Jim Harris will be posting his thoughts throughout the game here, so check this page often. (Scroll down about halfway and you’ll see the posts from Jim.) Arkansas Offensive coordinator Jim Chaney on practices this week: “I thought we had solid days. Every day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday all the kids, they did right. Sure on Tuesdays you always have your share of mistakes as you implement some new stuff, but we got that corrected on Wednesday and I thought Wednesday was good. Today was solid. They are ready to go play. I think they’re excited about getting the opportunity to go down there and play in a big place and play A&M, a good football team. Excited about watching them play.” Chaney on Texas A&M’s defense: “They appear to be tackling pretty well. I think the back half is tackling good. They’re solid everywhere. It’s hard to find those glaring holes that you can look for. I think Terry (Joseph) has done a good job on their back half and I just think they’re doing a nice job playing defense. They’re playing with a lot of confidence. Statistically they are doing some nice things. Comparing them to last year is tough, every team is difficult to say on that.” Chaney on what Arkansas needs to do to win: “We have to hold on to the ball. We can’t give them another possession. We have to secure the football, without a question when we get it, we’ve got to score as often as we possibly can and be as efficient as we possibly can doing what we do.” Arkansas Defensive coordinator Robb Smith on Texas A&M’s offense: “I think they are an impressive offense. It starts with their quarterback, I think he’s made great decisions for them thus far this season. He spreads the ball around, they’ve got a good running game as well. Really impressed with their offensive line. We have our work cut out for us and we have to show up and we have to play our style of game.” Smith on what Arkansas needs to do to win: “I think the biggest thing is we have to limit big plays. They go so fast, I think it’s the best in the SEC at 20.5 seconds per play. They itch to go fast, they hit big plays. Their scoring drives are six plays. Our goal is we have to make them drive the field. We have to limit big plays, we have to tackle in space and find a way to create some takeaways and give our offense an extra possession or two. If we can do those things I think we’ll like the results come Sunday morning.” Jim Harris Live Texas AM Aggies and Arkansas Razorbacks  
2:40 p.m. Teams are just standing waiting on the kickoff while CBS’s Allie LaForce gets her taped questions in to the head coaches. Big return of 51 yards on the kickoff, with Adam McFain making the tackle on Trey Williams. A&M starts at UA 49. Brandon WIlliams gets a pop by safety Rohan Gaines on the first carry wide to the right.
2:37 p.m. — The third section of seats, which I think were priced at $125 or so, are just sparsely field by Hog fans, but there are lots more in the big upper deck ($85). A& has filled up all three of the major sections.
2:34 p.m. — Teams are on the sidelines and ready to go. Texas A&M has substantially more fans in the areas that I can see from the press box in the northwest corner of the stadium (all the press other than the game broadcasters and camerans is situated in the northwest corner at JerryWorld; you don’t think Jerry would give up great suites at midfield to the media, do you? He’s a businessman.) Texas A&M wins the toss and elects to receiver. Arkansas will defend the west goal.
2:29 p.m. — Texas A&M’s fans had a midnight cheer practice/pep rally in the Fort Worth Stockyards last night. Arkansas had its pep rallies in the late afternoon, I’m told. I made neither.
1:59 p.m. — Hello and welcome to the live game blog from Arlington, Texas, and the renewal of the Southwest Classic at AT&T Stadium, “JerryWorld.” Arkansas, 3-1, meets nationally sixth-ranked Texas A&M, 4-0. We’ve had a ton of fun already, visiting Hog and Aggie tailgates along Collins Street west of the humongous domed stadium. Catch some of those festivities on THV11 tonight at 6:30 p.m. during the Hogzone and again at 10 p.m. during the news, plus another fresh Hogzone from the AT&T Stadium parking lot at 10:30. If you like Arkansas’ all white road uniforms, then you should be happy as the Hogs are in them again. Texas A&M has ditched the maroon helmets it had in recent years for that all-white look that comes around at A&M about every 20 years (Bear Bryant days, Emory Bellard days and now Kevin Sumlin days as head coach of the Aggies). Arkansas leads this series 41-26, but A&M won the past two games when it shifted back to a home-and-home affair when the Aggies were admitted into the SEC. Arkansas won all three meetings of the Southwest Classic here at AT&T Stadium, before the teams became conference rivals again. A&M also won the last two meetings with Arkansas as SWC rivals (1990-91), but since Frank Broyles arrived at Fayetteville, the Razorbacks typically bested the Aggies even in good A&M seasons (re: Arkansas demolishing No. 2-ranked A&M 31-6 in Little Rock in 1975, for example). The game is 30 minutes away. We’ll check back in shortly. For the time being we’ll listen to the A&M corps band playing the theme from “Patton” and other assorted marches. Since A&M is the home team, we’ll get a lot of that fabulous band on the field as well, once again defying odds as they never crash into each other during their criss-crossing marching.