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.