Tonight, the Texas Tech football team has an opportunity to move the program forward a step under head coach Joey McGuire. Beating Arkansas in the Liberty Bowl would give the Red Raiders their first nine-win season since 2009 and potentially set Tech up to be a preseason top-25 team to start 2025.
The last time Tech faced Arkansas, the year was 2015 and a sophomore named Patrick Mahomes II led the Red Raiders to a 35-24 win in Fayetteville a year after the Hogs had come to Lubbock and run wild against Tech in a blowout win.
After that game, we had the infamous postgame press conference in which then-Texas Tech head coach Kliff Kingsbury took a shot at then-Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema for comments Bielema made the previous summer at a Texas high school football coaching seminar.
Since then, the leadership of both programs has changed so any animosity tonight is expected to be confined to the playing field. Still, emotions should be high when the Red Raiders and the Razorbacks lock horns in Memphis.
Tech fans may not have paid too much attention to Arkansas this year, though given that the Hogs were not a factor on the national scene. At 6-6 on the season, it has been tough to get a handle on just what head coach Sam Pittman's team is.
After all, Arkansas beat then-No. 4 Tennessee 19-14 and played teams like Texas A&M, Texas, and Missouri competitively. On the other hand, they were blown out by Ole Miss and LSU at home and they lost a road game to an Oklahoma State team that finished last in the Big 12 this year by going winless in conference play.
So with that in mind, let's take a look at three things Red Raider fans should know about tonight's opponent. We'll start by introducing you to the most dangerous weapon on the Arkansas offense.
Texas Tech will have to contain a dangerous dual-threat Arkansas QB
Everything the Razorbacks want to accomplish on offense revolves around quarterback Taylen Green. That's especially true tonight given reasons we'll discuss momentarily.
What should scare Red Raider fans is that the 6-foot-6, 230-pound junior from Lewisville, Texas is a dangerous athlete who can make plays with his arm and his feet.
In the regular season, the first-year transfer from Boise State threw for 2,813 yards and 13 touchdowns with nine picks. Completing 60.8% of his passes along the way, he set a career-high in passing yards.
With his legs, he racked up 521 more yards. What's more, he found the endzone seven more times on the ground.
Of course, earlier this season, Tech gave up 197 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown to Washington State quarterback John Mateer. Green never approached that number on the ground in 2024 (he topped out at 96 rushing yards and that was against Alabama-Birmingham) but he ran for over 60 yards in half of his team's games in the regular season.
Meanwhile, Tech did a better job of corralling mobile quarterbacks in the games after the Washington State debacle. Still, the fact that Green can pick up yards with his feet is something that should worry Red Raider fans.
Arkansas has been decimated on offense by departures
One reason why more may be put on Green tonight is because the Razorback offense has been absolutely decimated by departures and opt-outs. That leaves Green with a questionable supporting cast to work with.
Perhaps the biggest opt-out for the Hogs is the SEC's leading wide receiver, Andrew Armstrong. This year, he led the conference in catches (78) and yards (1,140) and his absence will hurt an Arkansas passing attack that wasn't all that dependable even when Armstrong was on the field.
Also not playing for Arkansas tonight will be the team's leading rusher Ja'Quinden Jackson. This year, he ran for 790 yards and 15 touchdowns while averaging 5.3 yards per carry. Like Armstrong, he has opted out to prepare for the NFL Draft.
Up front, Arkansas will be without three starting offensive linemen, right guard Joshua Braun who has transferred to Kentucky, center Addison Nichols, who has transferred to SMU, and left guard Patrick Kutus, who has transferred to Ole Miss. In fact, Arkansas is expected to start a center tonight who has never played the position in a game before.
Thus, this could be a case of the two teams pitting their greatest weaknesses against each other with the suspect Tech defense going up against an Arkansas offense decimated by absences. Whichever unit can come up the biggest in that matchup could be the one that turns the tide for its team.
Arkansas struggles with turnovers
One part of the game that has truly held the Razorbacks down has been turnovers. In fact, they are one of the worst teams in the country in that crucial aspect of winning.
With a turnover margin of -0.8 per game, the Razorbacks rank tied for 119th in the nation out of 133 teams. By contrast, Tech ranks 58th in America with a turnover margin of +0.1 per game.
Fumbles have been a huge problem for Arkansas. In fact, by losing on average 1.2 per game, they rank tied for last in the FBS this year.
Several times this year, untimely turnovers killed the Hogs. Against Texas A&M, Green lost a fumble after being sacked on what was the final drive of the game for his team, which trailed 21-17 at the time.
Against Texas, while trailing by ten points in the fourth quarter, another lost fumble sealed their fate in a 20-10 loss. And against Missouri, a third-quarter fumble gave the ball to the Tigers who converted to turn a 14-10 Arkansas lead into a 17-14 Missouri lead. The Tigers would go on to win 28-21.
On the other hand, Tech has done a good job of creating timely takeaways this year. Wins over Cincinnati, Arizona, and Oklahoma State all either turned on or were sealed by turnovers created by the opportunistic Red Raider defense. Hopefully, Tech can follow that script tonight and force some game-changing takeaways from Arkansas.