Arkansas gets a brutal reset this week.
After a late-night trip to Utah and a 43-10 loss that ended after midnight local time, the Razorbacks now turn around for an 11 a.m. CT kickoff Saturday against No.
2 Georgia. The Bulldogs have spent their first two games flattening Tennessee State and Western Kentucky by an average of 55 points, and Arkansas walks into this one already dealing with a heavy lift on the field and a rough turnaround off it.
The travel and timing issue was a sore spot even before the season played out. Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek pushed back when the kickoff times for the Utah and Georgia games were announced during the SEC meetings in May, arguing the schedule put the Razorbacks at a major disadvantage.
After the Utah game, the team didn’t land back in Arkansas until about 6 a.m. CT, a team spokesman told the Athens Banner-Herald.
Yurachek made his case publicly on X after the kickoff was announced: “The assigned schedule will cost our student-athletes nearly a full day of rest and recovery. This is not simply a competitive disadvantage - it is a genuine welfare issue for the young men who represent our program and contribute greatly to the bottom line of our television partners.”
Georgia coach Kirby Smart said he understands why that setup would frustrate a team.
“I wouldn’t like it either," Smart said. “It’s a tough situation to be in.”
Smart, now in his 11th season at Georgia, added that every program has to deal with the realities of travel and kickoff times in its own way.
"To each his own in terms the way you manuever the week and how you manage the week from a standpoint of recovery," Smart said. "Everyone's going to play pretty much the same number of away games.
Everybody's going to play the same number of home games for the most part within one or two. You have to navigate that.
It's certainly challenging."
At the SEC meetings, commissioner Greg Sankey said the league had communicated Arkansas’ “displeasure,” with ESPN and noted he wasn’t “thrilled about,” the turnaround time, but the kickoff stayed put.
For Arkansas first-year coach Ryan Silverfield, the bigger issue right now may simply be getting his team pointed in a better direction after the Utah loss. He said the locker room was angry after the defeat.
“Guys in the locker room were frustrated, they’re pissed off,” he said Saturday night. “They’re angry and I said, ‘Those are feelings you’re supposed to have, but we have to find a way to quickly learn from this game and bounce back.’”
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