Tre Lamb didn’t exactly throw a haymaker at Arkansas on Monday, but the Tulsa coach still managed to land a few clean body shots.
His comments came in response to a question about why Group of Six teams haven’t been pulling off more upsets over Power Four opponents this season. Lamb pointed to programs that have been willing to schedule aggressively, then used Arkansas as an example of the kind of team those schools don’t want to see.
“I don't know how many of the good Group of Six teams have played games they can win," Lamb said. "South Florida was really good last year and they beat Florida.
Tulane was really good and they beat Northwestern and Duke. Nobody wants schedule Boise [State].
Nobody wants to schedule Tulane. Nobody wants to schedule USF.
"Arkansas had us and Memphis on the schedule this year and bought Memphis out. You don't want to play Memphis. Not if you're at Arkansas."
The Memphis line is the one that will stick. The Tigers beat Arkansas 32-31 last year with Ryan Silverfield coaching, and while the Razorbacks are not playing Memphis in Fayetteville this season as originally planned, the move wasn’t made to dodge that matchup.
Arkansas shifted the game because the SEC is moving to a nine-game conference schedule in 2026, leaving the Razorbacks with too many non-conference games on the books. Arkansas will host Memphis in 2030.
Even so, Arkansas had to pick which non-conference game to move in 2026, and it chose Memphis before the Razorbacks ever lost to the Tigers. Given how Memphis has looked this season and how Arkansas has stumbled out of the gate, that decision suddenly looks pretty sensible.
Still, Saturday’s meeting with Tulsa carries plenty of risk for the Razorbacks. The Golden Hurricane are 3-0 for the first time since 2008 and got votes in this week’s AP poll. Tulsa also already owns a Power Four win this season after knocking off Oklahoma State, so there’s no reason to treat this as a routine home game.
That’s part of why Arkansas finds itself in a spot it would rather avoid. The Razorbacks are only 8.5-point favorites, with a 54 percent chance to win - numbers that would normally be much more comfortable against a Group of Six opponent, even a solid one.
Lamb made it clear Tulsa isn’t heading to Fayetteville just to make up the numbers.
"They're paying us a lot of money to come over there," Lamb said. "Why not try to leave with a win?"
The size of Arkansas’ payout to Tulsa wasn’t specified, but it’s safe to assume the Golden Hurricane are being well compensated for the trip. If Arkansas loses, that money will become an easy punchline.
It would also be a damaging loss for first-year coach Ryan Silverfield. A home defeat to a Group of Six team would be the kind of result that hangs around, and history hasn’t been kind to coaches in that situation. Chad Morris is the obvious example, after losing to Colorado State in the second game of his Arkansas tenure and finishing 4-18 in less than two seasons.
Lamb knows Tulsa has a real shot to make noise if it handles the moment.
"We're going to everything we can to win this football game," Lamb said. "Huge momentum game. You have a good showing over there, you play well, and your team believes you got a chance to be one of the better Group of Six teams in the country.
"A good Group of Six team wins this game. We gotta go lay it all out there.
[Arkansas] has a chance to be a good football team. They're not there yet, they're figuring some things out.
We ain't there yet, either. We gotta humble ourselves and go try to get this done."
In Other News...
Arkansas Faces A Bigger Problem Than Tulsa This Week
Tulsa brings an unbeaten record into Fayetteville and a rushing attack that can make life uncomfortable for any defense, but Arkansas has its own concerns to sort through before kickoff. The Razorbacks have spent too much time searching for a steady ground game and a reliable rhythm at quarterback, and those issues have made even seemingly manageable matchups feel more complicated than they should.
The larger question this week is whether Arkansas can settle those spots quickly enough to take control early and avoid letting Tulsa hang around. A shaky start would only add pressure to a defense that has already had to carry more than its share, and the uncertainty surrounding the starting quarterback gives this game an edge beyond the usual nonconference tune-up. [Read more 🡒]
Arkansas Puts New Coach In A Tough Spot He Wont Use As Cover
Arkansas financial gap with the top of the SEC has become part of the backdrop around the program, especially as the Razorbacks try to stop a losing streak against Power Conference opponents. In his first year on the job, Ryan Silverfield is stepping into a situation where resources matter, but so does the message he sends about what comes next. He has acknowledged the challenges without letting them become an excuse, and that matters in a league where patience is thin and expectations never really soften.
Silverfields early stance has been clear: the job is not to explain away the hole Arkansas is in, but to keep pushing the program toward a higher standard anyway. That leaves the Razorbacks in a familiar but uncomfortable place, needing more financial support and stronger backing from the administration if they want to close the gap with the SECs better-funded programs. The harder part is that improvement has to show up while those structural issues are still very much in play. [Read more 🡒]
Arkansas Heads Into Tulsa With One Problem Fans Can't Ignore
Arkansas heads into its final non-conference game of the season at Tulsa with the kind of matchup wrinkle coaches usually notice right away. Tulsa is expected to be without starting quarterback Baylor Hayes because of a knee injury, which would put Dexter Williams in line to start, and that changes the look of an offense Arkansas has been studying closely. Ryan Silverfield said he has spent time breaking down Tulsas style and, as always this time of year, the Razorbacks are trying to clean up what they can before the schedule gets deeper.
For Arkansas, the bigger concern is still closer to home. Silverfield acknowledged the teams struggles in the rushing game, with the Razorbacks sitting near the bottom nationally in that category, and that remains the kind of issue that can shadow a team even in a game it expects to control. He also noted the continuing fundraising push around the program after a recent Board of Trustees review, another reminder that what happens off the field is still tied to the resources Arkansas believes it needs on it. [Read more 🡒]