FAYETTEVILLE -- Saturday afternoon the 2025 football season at Arkansas will mercifully end as Missouri is the opponent.
Arkansas (2-9, 0-7) and Missouri (7-4, 3-4) have both had underwhelming seasons by preseason expectations. Bobby Petrino took over as interim head coach following the one-sided loss to Notre Dame. The Hogs are winless since then, but have had several close calls. Missouri has lost to every ranked team they have faced this season.
The Razorbacks will have 30 players involved in Senior Day. Petrino had a message for them.
"I think they want to put all they have into it, prepare themselves," Petrino said. "We’ve got a lot of guys that have been playing football since they were probably 6, 7, 8 years old and now this could be their last go around. So they should invest everything they have into this week and every practice, every meeting, make it special for them."
While last week Petrino embraced the Texas rivalry he talked about Missouri which wasn't a member of the SEC when he was previously the head coach.
""Yeah, that is definitely new for me," Petrino said. "You know, we used to always finish this one off with LSU, which was a lot of fun. And you know, Missouri has done a really nice job. Their football team they've built with the D-line, linebacker, secondary, they're very good on defense. Offensively, they've been a team that always can run wide zone, and they believe in it. They do it really well. Their running back’s a very, very good player, and they've had some quarterback issues with injuries, that they've overcome a lot. So you got to say they've done a really nice job."
Petrino was asked if he had ever had any run-ins with Eli Drinkwitz, the Missouri head coach.
"I’ve never had any run-ins with him," Petrino said. "I know him really well. He used to come down here when I was the head coach and watch us practice when he was still in high school. When he was the University of Missouri and I was at Missouri State, they came down, flew down and watched us practice and met with us for an afternoon on some of the things we were doing offensively. We’ve known each other for a long, long time, but we’ve never had any run-ins. I’m from Montana, run-ins means you that you don’t really like each other."
The big question for Arkansas is who will start at quarterback? Taylen Green has started every game under Petrino as offensive coordinator. Green was injured when throwing an interception against Texas and was replaced by KJ Jackson. Jackson completed 16 of 29 passes for 206 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed four times for 17 yards and a touchdown. Green had completed 10 of 20 passes for 118 yards and an interception. He also had rushed six times for 56 yards and a touchdown.
"Oh no, not yet," Petrino said Monday. "Not yet. We’ve got to play it out in practice and make sure everybody’s in good shape. And we probably won’t even announce it, you know. We’ll just work it and see who’s ready to go."
Petrino was also asked if Green is healthy?
"Yeah, he’s healthy," Petrino said. "He was given the clear to come back in the game. I made the decision that when he was healthy, when they told me that Taylen is ready to go. That’s the word they said, ‘Taylen is ready to go.’ And I said, no, we’re going to stay with KJ. So we kept KJ in the game. I thought he earned it. Took the ball, drove us down. I think we got three scores with him in the game, two touchdowns and a field goal, and I thought he did a good job."
Is there a scenario where Petrino feels he could play both quarterbacks on Saturday?
"Really it’s too early to even answer any of these," Petrino said. "But I understand the question. It’s a big thing, who’s going to be the quarterback this weekend? But I really wouldn’t know that. That’s not exactly what you would like to do. You’ve like to have the starter come in and play really well and drive us up and down the field and score a bunch of points — no turnovers — and play well and not have a thought in your mind that you’re going to rotate quarterbacks. I’ve never really been a huge believer in that except for I guess my first go-around at Louisville. The previous head coach … well not previous, the long time ago head coach, famous coach for the Dolphins, Howard Schnellenberger, he always played his backup quarterback the first series of the second quarter.
"We had Brian Brohm as our backup quarterback, true freshman, Stefan Lefors as our starter, so we played Brian the first series of the second quarterback I think in every single game. And it worked out well for us. It wasn’t very fun for Stefan. He didn’t like it. His family didn’t like it. Probably more than him, his family didn’t like it. I remember we were at Tulane and playing in the dome. There wasn’t many people at it at that time. We were a little bit better than they were, but when we started the second quarter, there was a bunch of boos and it wasn’t Tulane booing us. It was Stefan’s family. That’s what I remember about playing two quarterbacks. So no, I’m not going to want to do that, that’s for sure. Sorry about the long story, guys. Just made me think about it."
Petrino also talked about how Green should be remembered regardless of Saturday's outcome.
"Yeah we came in together, obviously, and I had a big thing to do with recruiting him here," Petrino said. "We inherited an offense that wasn't real good. I feel like he's done a really nice job of competing. He's been tough. He's been able to win games. At one time, in his first year here, we were 4-2 and feeling good about it. He ended up having a great game in the bowl game. This year, it's been a hard go. I think it's been a hard go when you have an offense that is explosive and able to score points, but not able to score as many as the other team. That puts a lot of pressure on you. You start feeling the pressure and you tighten up. And I think that's where some of these errors and things have come is, when you feel like you have to score every single time you go out on the field, you don't just play as freely as you would, you know? I think that's been, you know, some of the issues. Obviously, he needs to overcome that and take care of the ball. It's just been a thing about taking care of the ball more than anything else. Everything else, he's done a good job of playing, but he has been prone to turn the ball over. In games where you have to try to outscore the other team, it adds up."
The kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. at Razorback Stadium and televised on The SEC Network.
