The Texas Bowl: What They’re Saying

Taking a break from eating another piece of candy and that sugar cookie with the red and green sprinkles on top, we cruised around the world of sports reporting to see what folks were saying about the Texas Bowl matchup featuring to old foes: The Texas Longhorns and the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Trash talk, put downs, photos or was it photoshopped? Compliments, respect and history. The Texas Bowl featuring the Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas Longhorns is more than a battle between two .500 football teams.

We start with this image and what Saturday Down South had to say about it:

Arkansas doesn’t take the field against Texas until Dec. 29, but it appears another type of game has already begun thanks to Bret Bielema. The Hogs’ head coach recently took a picture with Texas head coach Charlie Strong while giving a Horns down sign with his left hand:

SDS has updated it’s original report with the following:

Editor’s Note: Arkansas coach Bret Bielema since told reporters that he did not flash a Horns down sign, claiming the viral image was doctored in Photoshop

BurntOrangeNation.com reports:

All Texas players are eligible for the Texas Bowl game against Arkansas.

Bleacher Report says:

Thanks to high-profile upsets near the end of the season, the 2014 AdvoCare Texas Bowl between the Arkansas Razorbacks and Texas Longhorns is much more than just a battle between a pair of .500 teams.

Charlie Strong’s Longhorns found a way to take down Texas Tech, West Virginia and Oklahoma State in successive fashion to become bowl eligible. Bret Bielema and the Razorbacks did much of the same with upsets of LSU and Ole Miss.

The result is a standoff between a forceful rushing attack and a Texas defense that carries along a struggling offense.

Monday night’s marquee showdown is not one to skip.

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The fact Williams even rushed for 83 yards and a score on a 4.2 per-carry average against Alabama in a 14-13 loss speaks volumes about how effective the attack can be against any opponent.

Texas knows a thing or two about strong defense, though. The Longhorns ranked No. 1 in total defense and pass defense in the Big 12 this year.

Though they lost the game, the Longhorns defense held Baylor—a team that averages 48.8 points to lead the nation—to 28 points. A West Virginia offense that averages 33.2 scored just 16 against the unit, while Texas Tech managed just 13 despite its average resting slightly above 30 points per game.

Chuck Carlton of the Dallas Morning News reports on the pregame chatter and antics:

The historic rivalry between Texas and Arkansas still has the ability to spark ill will — and not just among folks on the AARP mailing list.

Maybe John Harris took a sly verbal shot at Arkansas’ Jonathan Williams. Or it might have been a statement of fact about Texas’ approach to the bowl game and stadium.

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Williams, an Allen High School graduate and one of Arkansas’ two 1,000-yard rushers, had been tossed a softball question from the podium about playing in NRG Stadium, home of the Texans. He talked about the honor of being on the same field where Arian Foster, J.J. Watt and Andre Johnson had done their thing.

The response was just a little different from Harris, a Naaman Forest product.

“It won’t be a big deal to us,” said Harris.

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“I’m not going to make a big deal in playing in a big stadium when I play in one every week,” Harris said afterward. “There’s no point in that. I’m telling the truth.”

Arkansas linebacker Martrell Spaight had a different interpretation of the Harris’ quote.

“I take a lot of stuff personally,” Spaight told reporters, “so I definitely took it personally.”

And on that photo we showed you earlier…

Even the traditional head coaches’ handshake after the news conference escalated things.

Aaron Peters, an Arkansas television reporter, tweeted a photo that showed Bielema flashing the upside down Hook ’em with one hand while clasping Strong’s hand with the other. Image manipulation, Twitter skeptics said. Bielema denied it.

Peters defended the post with four pictures taken from his cellphone at the news conference and said he didn’t even know how to Photoshop.

Brandon Chatmon at ESPN writes:

When Texas coach Charlie Strong looks across the field to see a pair of 1,000-yard rushers on Bret Bielema’s team during the Advocare V100 Texas Bowl, it will be hard for him not to be envious.

“If you can get that, you can win,” Strong said. “When you get the two 1,000-yard rushers, you know you’re a physical football team and you’re running the ball. It is all about ball control.”

Arkansas is in Year 2 of the Bret Bielema project, with the former Wisconsin head coach’s blueprint starting to see dividends with a bowl appearance, a pair of shutouts in Arkansas’ final three games, and one of the SEC’s best running games serving as the foundation. Johnathan Williams (1,085 rushing yards) and Alex Collins (1,024 rushing yards) have paced the SEC’s No.4-ranked running game heading into the meeting with its former Southwest Conference foe.

From Brett Dolan in Houston:

Arkansas Head Football Coach Bret Bielema hasn’t been a state resident that long. He grew up in Illinois. He played college football at Iowa and then stayed in conference to coach at Wisconsin. However Bielema is gaining an appreciation of Razorbacks football history, especially in how it pertains to the rivalry with former Southwest Conference foe Texas.

Bielema has received books detailing the 1969 “Game of the Century” and his mailman has had to work overtime delivering Christmas cards and letters from Arkansas fans telling the coach how important it is to play and beat the Horns.

The Head Hog admits the ongoing history lessons came full circle when he got to inform Arkansas coaching legend Frank Broyles of their opponent for the Texas Bowl (December 29th, 8:00 p.m. at NRG Stadium), when the pairings were announced.

“When I heard the reaction out of Coach Broyles’ voice, when he was hearing it for the first time, it gave me chills,” Bielema admitted. “What it means to play Texas to a certain generation and how much that needs to be carried forward to our players.”

Broyles also provided some insight to Bielema.

“He said, ‘be ready for those Longhorns,” Bielema said. “’They will come at you. You have to be ready from the first snap. The fans of Arkansas are going to be excited.’ A lot of history goes back to the Southwest Conference and Darrell Royal. I got chills.”

In fact, every day of practice leading up to Monday’s game, Bielema plans to incorporate a story and a little history of the rivalry with the two schools to his players.

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