Saturday's Game Has to Finally Be as Personal for Pittman as It is for Drinkwitz

Arkansas coaches, players should be seething by Saturday to match how much Mizzou cares about pointless 'rivalry'

Missouri Tigers running back Cody Schrader (7) celebrates after placing the Missouri line into the Battle Line Trophy at the end of the game against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Missouri won 48-14. Mandatory Credit: Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. — Arkansas coach Sam Pittman became the first coach in 21 years to qualify the Hogs for a bowl in four out of five seasons.

However, if he's going to hit the offseason with the momentum he would like to have, he's going to have to do something no coach has done in Razorbacks football history — beat Missouri in Columbia. The Hogs are 0-6 there, and, for good measure, 0-3 in Little Rock and Dallas, but that's not really pertinent to what's going on between the two programs this weekend.

Once Texas A&M came into the league, Arkansas got stuck with the Tigers because no one else wanted anything to do with them and it made the most sense. The two schools managed to raise blood pressures on both sides on the basketball court during the Nolan Richardson-Norm Stewart eras, so might as well give it a shot.

The problem was Arkansas fans had fully bought into finishing the season with LSU in the Battle for the Golden Boot through a series of close and usually meaningful games for both teams. Missouri was an afterthought both for the Razorbacks and the rest of the league.

Even a dozen years later, Hogs fans still forget Missouri's on the schedule and the Tigers are often on the receiving end of jokes on YouTube about people not believing they are in the SEC. However, if Pittman is going to overcome the barrier years of apathy about Mizzou has created, it had better become real to him and his players immediately because it's certainly real on the Missouri side.

Back when it was first announced Oklahoma was coming to the SEC, reporters asked the logical question.

"It doesn't seem like Mizzou really has a rivalry in the conference," a reporter asked. "If Oklahoma joins the SEC, would you be excited to kind of rekindle that rivalry?"

Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz scoffed at the idea. See, while the Battle Line Rivalry is a fabricated ruse forced upon Arkansas fans with little to no concern for how they feel, in Drinkwitz's mind, it's the epic tale of an oppressed coach and his soldiers facing a frenzied force of Razorbacks that want nothing less than to end all hope and joy for anyone who would dare adorn the colors black and gold.

"I kind of like the rivalry we got with Arkansas. I mean, I don't remember the last time they beat us, so I kind of like that one and the Battle Line Rivalry," Drinkwitz responded with one of his subtle digs at Arkansas that no one in the Natural State noticed at the time. "I mean, it's pretty good for us so, but I think we'll just keep that one right now. That's a good one. "

He's done what he can to try to make it an actual rivalry. He had extra special cigars brought in to celebrate last year's win, gets overly euphoric about that silly trophy and made it a point to put up billboards in Arkansas when he landed recruits in Pine Bluff and Jonesboro.

For Drinkwitz it's personal. It's vitally important to him that his home state take note of him and actually care what he's doing, so whatever it takes to get attention and to make Arkansans want to beat him, he's going to do it because in his mind that will be the respect he so desperately craves.

"I'm from the state, and so that makes it a little bit more special, a little added incentive," Drinkwitz said. "So I'm not going to speculate about anything. Just because y'all don't think it's a rivalry doesn't mean it ain't a rivalry, it means a whole heck of a lot to my household, and I know it means a whole heck of a lot to Barrett Banister's household and I know we like having that trophy at the end of the game, so I think we'll keep the one that the commissioner set forth."

It certainly matters to Mizzou fans now. They took time during the summer to make fun of Travis Williams' celebration of landing the commitment of Top 50 recruit Tavion Wallace, something Arkansas fans would never notice if it happed across the Missouri border.

Still, it should matter to Pittman. He's gotten flat outworked in the state of Arkansas in recruiting by Drinkwitz at times.

Also, there's that little matter of the billboards. While it's common practice, there was little doubt that those, especially the one in Pine Bluff of Courtney Crutchfield, had a certain amount of vitriol behind them as a personal jab at Pittman and the Razorbacks.

Pine Bluff is buzzing about these billboards that appeared overnight featuring @courtney_C2024 and @AustynDendy headed to @MizzouFootball to play under @CoachDrinkwitz. #SEC #sports #football pic.twitter.com/BZrpTuCLtf

— suziparker (@suziparker) December 20, 2023

Drinkwitz has finally done just enough, drip by drip, to make Arkansas fans at least care about beating him. Once he's gone, Missouri will go back to being its old invisible self like it is in the rest of the sports unless Barry Odom somehow makes a return trip to Columbia, but even that would just be in good spirits.

Pittman's got at least two more cracks at Drinkwitz. It's time to shut down all the bravado while making sure there's no room for his childish antics like dressing up as Darth Vader.

Mizzou got the edge because this game was personal for its coach and didn't matter to Arkansas or its players. This time around, there story surrounding Arkansas isn't about players looking to hit the portal or coaches counting down the days until NIL obligations are met so locker room problems can be shipped off to be someone else's headache.

But, that isn't enough. It has to be personal for Pittman and that has to carry over to his players and coaches

He should rewatch every touchdown that ran up the score before bed, when he wakes up and while he eats lunch. Pittman should be seething by the time he hits the practice field and have a pregame speech in him that is part Houston Nutt crossbred with 1990s promos by The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

He should be so mad that he makes defensive coordinator Travis Williams listen to Cody Schrader highlights on loop all week long instead of hip-hop songs. That's what it's going to take to match the level of care Drinkwitz has managed to build up for this game.

This can't be the typical Missouri game where no one cares and it just gets blown off by everyone involved. Somehow, someway the Tigers must matter because the ridiculousness of Drinkwitz winning simply because he realizes it's on the calendar when others don't must end.

HOGS FEED:

• SEC Shorts: 4th & 25 may have been replaced at Ole Miss; Georgia doesn't want SEC title

• 4th&5: Good, bad, ugly of win over Louisiana Tech

• Razorbacks Set to Finish Phase One With Much Still to Prove

• Razorbacks avoid third straight loss, beat Arkansas State

• Calipari's Success Best Highlighted When Compared to Arkansas

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