Texas A&M Football vs. Arkansas Preview
The Aggies roll into this weekend’s matchup in a strange spot. Their arrow is pointing up with their on-field play; however, today’s news that star sophomore QB Conner Weigman will miss the remainder of the season is something that has to be weighing on the minds of every Texas A&M football fan and player. Even so, playing in the SEC is an unrelenting grind, so the Aggies have to—and will be—ready for the Razorbacks.
Arkansas themselves are at a bit of an inflection point for their season. They won their first two games against completely overmatched opponents a bit less than convincingly. After that, they lost to a BYU team in a very concerning way: not only is BYU not very good, but the Hogs blew a double-digit lead at home and were outplayed physically down the stretch. Given what has been the identity of the Arkansas program under Sam Pittman—a physical, running football team—this was extremely out of character in a way that causes you to question the ceiling of the 2023 Razorback squad.
The Hogs followed that performance up with a showing in Death Valley against LSU that had to have helped the fanbase regain some confidence. Even though they ended up losing, the Hogs came within 3 points of defeating a top-12 team on the road who is the current favorite to win the division. The fact remains, though, that they lost that one. With that, they fell to 2-2 overall ahead of a brutal stretch in their schedule; after they face the Aggies, they visit Ole Miss and Alabama back-to-back. It is easily conceivable that they could find themselves at 2-5 in the middle of October. That’s getting ahead of things, however. Let’s take a look at this specific matchup that we’ll see this weekend.