Arkansas 2018 Football Schedule Officially Released

So what if we’re only two games into the 2017 season? The SEC announced the full schedule for 2018, and for the Hogs, it’s a much more favorable schedule than this season.

Arkansas 2018 Football Schedule

• Sept 1 vs E Illinois
• Sept 8 at Colorado State
• Sept 15 vs N Texas
• Sept 22 at Auburn
• Sept 29 vs Texas A&M (Arlington)
• Oct 6 vs Alabama
• Oct 13 vs Ole Miss
• Oct 20 vs Tulsa
• Oct 27 vs Vanderbilt
• Nov 3 BYE WEEK
• Nov 10 vs LSU
• Nov 17 at Mississippi State
• Nov 24 at Missouri

The Hogs open the season in Fayetteville against Eastern Illinois before making their trip to Fort Collins. They then have a third non conference game against North Texas before starting SEC play on the road at Auburn.

The Hogs will be breaking in a new quarterback this season so having three games against non conference opponents should be a benefit. You even give him some road experience against a solid MWC team in Colorado State. Whether its Ty Storey, Cole Kelley, or Connor Noland, they will have a few games under their belt before things get tough.

Those first three games in conference play is the Hogs’ toughest stretch. They are on the road against Auburn, taking on Texas A&M in Jerryworld and get a home game against Alabama. This is the start of a huge stretch for the Hogs without a true road game. They won’t step foot on another school’s campus between September 22nd and November 17th.

The start of the second half of the schedule is three straight games in the state of Arkansas. The Hogs host Ole Miss, Tulsa, and Vanderbilt. If the Little Rock contract isn’t voided, Arkansas almost certainly is playing either Ole Miss or Vanderbilt in War Memorial Stadium. Most speculation is that Vanderbilt will get the game, but with the trajectory both programs are on the Commodores might be the bigger game. Plus if Vandy is the Little Rock game, that’s just one game in the final five weeks of the season in Fayetteville.

After nine straight games, the Hogs get their bye week much later than this season. It is late in the year but is almost in the middle of SEC play. Five conference games before and three after. That’s much better than this season’s 2017 week 3 bye. The Hogs get a final stretch of LSU, Mississippi State, and Missouri. It hasn’t been announced yet but I would imagine the Missouri game gets the usual Friday CBS slot.

Overall impressions of this schedule are pretty good! It wasn’t going to be as difficult due to Arkansas having to replace Michigan with Colorado State in the 11th hour, but with the state the Hogs will be in, it works. You have time to let the quarterback grow into the offense and you’ll have a lot of returners on defense. The big stretch of home games in the middle will be useful, and Arkansas has a chance to put together a nice year in 2018.