When Texas coach Mack Brown proposed adding former Southwest Conference rival Arkansas to this season's schedule, he first called legendary Longhorns coach Darrell Royal for his opinion.
Royal, who had some epic battles with Arkansas and coach Frank Broyles during the 1960s and '70s, believed Brown was tempting fate. Why allow a team no longer in the same conference a possible entry into the Texas recruiting battles?
"I told him I thought it would be a highly popular game for both states, a trip down memory lane," Royal said. "But I also said home and home, nothing more."
Royal said he still isn't sure today's game in Austin, the first regular-season meeting since 1991, is a good idea. A close friend of Broyles, the two coaching icons were to play golf and have dinner this week. But those memories of battling Arkansas for players still are fresh. And the Razorbacks this season have 22 players from Texas on their roster.
Brown decided before his first season at Texas in 1998 to add Arkansas to this season's schedule. Back then, however, things were different. Texas was struggling with just 39,000 season-ticket holders. Today, there are 66,500.
The Longhorns were coming off a 4-7 season, and the Razorbacks were coming off consecutive 4-7 seasons and had just hired some guy from Boise State named Houston Nutt as coach. Now Texas is a national title contender.
"When I first got here, people talked about our fans coming late to games and leaving early," Brown said. "I thought a game against Arkansas would be a good one to stir things up. ... But these days, every game stirs things up around here."
Nutt helped take care of that, too. Prominently positioned this week in the Texas locker room was a large photograph of Nutt with the "Hook 'em Horns" pointed downward. The photo was taken during Arkansas' postgame celebration after beating Texas 27-6 in the 2000 Cotton Bowl.
"I've seen fans do that all the time, but that was the first time I'd seen a coach do it," Brown said. "That surprised me."
For Arkansas, this is a big one. The Razorbacks, now in the SEC, have not had such a prominent nonconference opponent since 1991, when they lost to Miami 31-3.
SEEING GATORS: Tennessee is off today, and that might be good. The Vols allowed 382 yards of offense in a 34-24 victory against Marshall last week. They can use the time to get ready for next week's game against Florida.
"I guess it was good preparation for Florida to be in a dogfight like this, but we've got to go into (this week) with the mentality that we have to be better," Tennessee linebacker Kevin Simon said. "We gave them way too much. There's no reason that they should have scored 24 points."
"There's a lot of similarities," Tennessee defensive coordinator John Chavis said. "Florida will be able to have the film. It will help Florida, too. If they see the way we tackled and the way we rushed the passer, they may get real excited."
BOZ IS BACK: Former Oklahoma linebacker Brian Bosworth has started a stint on TBS, and Texas folks are none too pleased. As an All-American for the Sooners, Bosworth once said, "I don't like the color orange. It reminds me of puke," a remark he reportedly referenced during his recent audition. That caused Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg to call TBS officials.
"We hired Brian, and we're excited that he's part of our announce team," Greg Hughes said. "We had some discussions with the Big 12 about Brian. He's going to be on the air as part of our college football coverage."
Bosworth was hired in late August as the cable network's in-studio analyst. He made his debut last week.
QUICK KICKS: Notre Dame has scored two offensive touchdowns in its past 12 quarters dating to last season. Auburn, which hasn't scored a touchdown in its two losses, has scored three touchdowns in its past four games dating to last season. ... Since 1949, UCLA has had nine coaches make their debuts. Karl Dorrell became the eighth to fail to win. The only coach to win his first game at UCLA was Terry Donahue, who defeated Arizona State 28-10 in 1976.
- Information from other news organizations was used in this report.
