Arkansas could be walking into a weather test as much as a football game Saturday.
When the Razorbacks kick off against North Alabama at 3:15 p.m. in Fayetteville, the forecast calls for a high of 100 degrees. The National Weather Service office in Tulsa says the heat index could climb to 104 degrees, putting Arkansas in position to tie or break a season-opening temperature record in Ryan Silverfield’s first game as coach.
The key number will be the official kickoff temperature, since that is what gets recorded. Arkansas’ hottest opener on the books came in 1998, when Houston Nutt made his debut with a 100-degree kickoff in a 38-17 win over Louisiana-Lafayette in Fayetteville. That game started just after 6 p.m., and it remains the only Arkansas game since 1990 to begin with a triple-digit temperature.
If Saturday matches the forecast, it would be only the second Arkansas season opener to start at 100 degrees or higher.
Silverfield said he tried to prepare his team for the conditions during camp, including several mid-afternoon practices in August.
“We were fortunate that we had [heat] in training camp,” Silverfield said Monday. He later added, “I do think it’s important to be able to practice in that, and I do think it will show and pay dividends throughout the year.”
The program is also making stadium changes for the heat. Kyle Parkinson, a Razorbacks spokesman, said fans will be allowed to bring an empty, clear plastic water bottle into Reynolds Razorback Stadium to use at filling stations set up around the venue. Large box fans will be on the concourses, extra water will be available at stations throughout the stadium - including a cooling station on the first level of the north end zone - and extra EMTs will be on site.
SEC Network controls Saturday’s kickoff time because it is televising the game. Arkansas only has one game this season where it controls the start time: the Sept. 26 home game against Tulsa, set for 7 p.m.
There have been times when Arkansas had enough control to avoid the worst of the heat. On Sept. 2, 2000, the Razorbacks moved their opener against Missouri State in Little Rock from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and the kickoff temperature was 96 degrees in a 38-0 win. That remains the third hottest season-opening kickoff in the program’s record book.
More recently, Arkansas pushed its 2023 opener against Western Carolina at War Memorial Stadium from 3 p.m. to noon because of the forecast. The Razorbacks won 56-13, and the temperature at kickoff was 82 degrees with a forecast high of 95 in Little Rock. Then-coach Sam Pittman said the heat and the team’s arrival time in Fayetteville were part of the reason for choosing an earlier start instead of a later one.
Heat could become even more of a factor in early-season games going forward. A new rule taking effect next year will let all Division I teams start games as early as 11 days before Labor Day in some seasons. Outside of Week 0, the FBS season has traditionally begun on Labor Day weekend.
Arkansas already has a 2027 opener set for Aug. 28 against Gardner-Webb in Fayetteville, which would be the earliest season-opening date in program history. North Alabama, meanwhile, already has one game in the books this season, a 22-10 win over Samford last Saturday night in Huntsville, Alabama, where the temperature at the 6:03 p.m. kickoff was 91 degrees.
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