By DON KAUSLER JR.

In recent years, the battle cry of Arkansas football sometimes as sounded like "Woe Pig Sooie."

Wooo. Times could be changing. The Razorbacks are coming off a 24-14 victory at Auburn. They have not won their first 2 SEC games since the 2006 college football season, the last time they appeared in the SEC Championship Game. That’s beyond Bobby Petrino’s glory days as the head coach.

They have won consecutive SEC games once since 2015. That was in 2021.

Except for 2021, when they started 4-0 overall and 1-0 in the SEC before losing 3 in a row, they have not started a season with a 4-1 overall record since going 10-1 in 2011.

Since 2012, they are 1-12 against Texas A&M. That includes a 1-9 record in games at Arlington, Texas. The victory was in 2021.

Whoa. An era – some would say an error – could end Saturday with the last game of the Southwest Classic series at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. No. 24 Texas A&M (3-1, 1-0 in the SEC) is a 4-point favorite in a game that will kick off at 2:30 p.m. CDT. The game can be seen on ESPN.

A victory would improve Arkansas to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the SEC, and could springboard it toward its best season in years – or at least since going 9-4 season in 2021.

Petrino is back on the Arkansas sideline as the offensive coordinator. He was Texas A&M’s offensive coordinator last season. That was Jimbo Fisher’s last season as the Aggies’ head coach.

First-year Aggies head coach Mike Elko was Texas A&M's defensive coordinator from 2018-2021 before going 16-9 in 2 seasons at Duke.

The Aggies’ blemish this year was a 23-13 season-opening loss at home to then-No. 7 Notre Dame. Texas A&M was ranked No. 20 at the time. The Fighting Irish lost their next game at home 16-14 to Northern Illinois. Notre Dame (3-1) now is ranked No. 16.

The Aggies sputtered last week in a 26-20 victory over Bowling Green.

Arkansas’ loss came on Sept. 7 when it fell 39-31 in double overtime at then-No. 16 Oklahoma State. The Cowboys (3-1) now are ranked No. 20 as they come off a 22-19 loss to now-No. 10 Utah.

FIRST DOWN

Sore loser? Apparently, Auburn Coach Hugh Freeze doesn’t think much of Arkansas. On Monday, he ruffled the Razorbacks’ fur when he had this to say on his weekly radio show:

“I mean no offense whatsoever at all to Arkansas or to Cal. I love Sam Pittman, I hope he wins the rest of his games. But I’m telling you, the hard truth is we play them 9 more times, we beat them 9 times.”

No offense? Indeed. Auburn had 5 turnovers. Arkansas intercepted 4 passes from 2 quarterbacks, 1 a redshirt freshman who started his second game and the other a veteran who came off the bench to start the second half. T.J. Metcalf had 2 of the interceptions.

Arkansas responded to the disrespect Tuesday on @RazorbackFB, its official account on X (formerly Twitter), posting a video of 1 of Auburn starter Hank Brown’s 3 interceptions with the words, “That’s a pick nine times out of nine for @jj4x_.” That was a reference to Arkansas senior defensive back Jayden Johnson.

SECOND DOWN

Suspended: Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman announced at the end of his Monday news conference that running back Rashod Dubinion has been suspended indefinitely for violating team rules. Will anybody notice?

Dubinion, a once-promising 5-10, 201-pound junior was projected as the Razorbacks’ No. 2 running back in the offseason, but 3 running backs now are ahead of him on the depth chart: transfer Quinden Jackson, freshman Braylen Russell and sophomore Rodney Hill.

Jackson is fourth in the nation in rushing with 472 yards on 69 carries (6.8 yards per carry). He has run for 8 touchdowns.

Dubinion ran 3 times for 15 yards and caught 2 passes for 11 yards in Arkansas’ 70-0 season-opening victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, but he did not play against Oklahoma State, UAB or Auburn.

Dubinion's high point came in Arkansas' Liberty Bowl victory over Kansas at the end of the 2022 season, when he rushed 20 times for 112 yards and 2 TDs.

In 2-plus seasons, Dubinion has run for 568 yards (3.6 yards per carry) and 6 TDs.

THIRD DOWN

Trophy hunting: The Southwest Classic started in 2009 with a neutral-site game. Saturday’s game will mark the end of that era. Starting next year, the game will rotate between Fayetteville and College Station, Texas.

Under Petrino, Arkansas won the first three trophies. The game returned to each team’s campus in 2012 and 2013, after Texas A&M joined the SEC. The series resumed in Arlington in 2014. Because of Covid-19, the game was played in 2020 in College Station.

Arkansas is 4-11 in the games played in Arlington. The Razorbacks lead the all-time series 42-35-3.

Eight of the 15 games in Arlington have been decided by 1 score. Three games have gone to overtime.

Elko said he thinks the environment in the home of the Dallas Cowboys is a reason why so many of the games have been close.

“I think the kids play their best football on that stage,” he said. “I think everybody gets excited to play in that stadium. Obviously, this game means a lot to both teams. We always seem to get their best, and we always try to give them our best.

"I think when 2 teams do that, you wind up with a lot of close, entertaining football games. Obviously, as a coach, I don't remember too many of them to be entertaining when I was here. They were all way too close for my liking. From a fan's perspective, they're entertaining games, and I certainly expect this to be another one."

Pittman admits that he loves the atmosphere “with half the people from Arkansas and half the people from Texas A&M.”

"It’s really, really cool, and it’s a great environment to be in, and it’s really fun,” he said. “Funner whenever you win. We’ll try to do that this week."

But Pittman is happy to see the series shift back to games on campus. Only 1 of the Razorbacks’ first 5 games this season was scheduled to be played in Fayetteville.

"I believe that it’s really hard to get the fan base excited if they don’t have an opportunity to see the Hogs," Pittman said. "This would give an opportunity, at least 1 more every other year, to have a home game."

FOURTH DOWN

Spy the guy: Legs are making Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green dangerous. His arm has not done as much damage to defenses in the past 2 games. Too many passes have been off target.

In Game 3 against UAB, he completed 11 of 26 passes (.478) for 161 yards and no TDs. He had 1 pass intercepted. But he ran for 96 yards and 2 TDs. Against Auburn, he completed 12 of 27 passes (.444) for 151 yards and 1 TD. He had 2 passes intercepted. But he ran 18 times for 80 yards.

Elko was asked this week if he will use a so-called “spy” to limit Green. That is, will a designated defensive player go 1-on-1 against the quarterback?

"That's always an interesting question, because that's a word fans have used: 'Oh, you just spy the quarterback,'” he said. “It's way more complicated than that, because when you look at it, we're running an 11-man defense. It takes 11 people to fit the run.

"They're going to call a play. They may run the football. We can't just say, 'Oh, you spy the quarterback.' So I think what you try to do, first and second down within each of your coverage structures, each of your defenses, is you're trying to identify as the play goes out who kind of becomes the guy paying attention to him if he does pull that ball down.

"So, I don't know that it's specific to this guy spies him. It's kind of as the play unfolds, as the route concept develops, as the coverage develops, who winds up in that spot that has to make sure he keeps secondary eyes on him?

“I think we're a little bit fortunate, because we had some preparation with this with Notre Dame. I think we faced a dual-threat quarterback against Notre Dame that was a very similar-type mindset in terms of how you have to go about this. So that helps, but still they present different challenges."