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Week 1 Overreaction: Texas Tech Is Clearly Must-Win For Arkansas

Now that we completely know what to expect from each of Arkansas' opponents, the Razorbacks must come away with a victory in Lubbock to have a successful season. (QUASI-SATIRE)

By Doc Harper
Hogs will have to hush the crowd in Lubbock
Hogs will have to hush the crowd in Lubbock
John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

No program on a 10-game losing streak should overlook anybody, even a team like Nicholls State even though they just gave up 474 rushing yards and 72 points to Air Force.

The Razorbacks should take the hold on have to do a Google search Colonels serious enough that they dominate them. Nobody needs another Samford-esque performance. Bret Bielema said all the right things in his press conference about how many times FCS teams have upset FBS teams in recent years, but he also made reference to playing a lot of the freshmen, so they're clearly expecting an easy win.

And once that happens, we can all focus on what Week 1 revealed to be without question the most important game of the season for Arkansas - Texas Tech.

Going into the year, most everybody who thought Arkansas had a shot to go to a bowl probably thought the Razorbacks had to win one of the two games in Texas. Many thought the Hogs had a good shot at beating A&M in Arlington because of their notable personnel losses and the fact that it's a neutral-site game. But if the Aggies play against Arkansas like they played against South Carolina, the Hogs ain't winning that game.

Sure, Arkansas can play better than they played against Auburn (we hope!), but it's hard to see how they could keep up with Texas A&M if they're still playing at that level at the end of the month. Hope everyone still has fun in the Metroplex, though.

However, we all learned that Texas Tech looked incredibly beatable as they were nearly upset at home by UCA. The Bears hung with the supposedly high-octane Red Raiders and stayed in the game until the very end when they fell 42-35. UCA was so thrilled about it they sent out this infographic tweet:

Via transitive property or some such, we can all deduce that if UCA was that competitive against Texas Tech, Arkansas can certainly expect a decent chance of winning there if for no other reason than the Razorbacks should have a great opportunity to showcase their running game. The challenge will be slowing down the Raiders' passing game just a smidge.

Now, there's plenty we may not know at this point about Tech. Perhaps they didn't take UCA too seriously and weren't very focused. Maybe they used a limited playbook to save things for later opponents. But what is clear that, given the two performances, it looks like it could be much easier to defeat the Red Raiders than the Aggies.

If Arkansas is going to a bowl game this season, when you look at the rest of the schedule and know that every team always plays at least as well in Week 1 as they do the rest of the year, the Hogs will have to win this game to get to six wins. Beat Tech (along with Nicholls and NIU) and Arkansas is 3-2 at worst out of September, and the team is heavily favored to be 4-4 after October. That'll set up for a chance in November run to a bowl game, so winning in Lubbock is crucial.

I'll hang up and listen.

More Week 1 Overreactions:

Dr. Bo Wallace sucks.

Alabama's clearly no longer at their dynasty level.

Arkansas may not be able to tackle Todd Gurley.

Did anybody watch Missouri?

Tennessee's back.

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