Off to a 2-0 start for the fourth time under head coach Sam Pittman, Arkansas will begin SEC play against nationally ranked Ole Miss in Oxford. The game is scheduled for Saturday, September 13 at 6 p.m. on ESPN. Arkansas has not won at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium since 2017.
Arkansas holds an all-time record of 59-48-3 in conference openers since joining the Southwest Conference in 1915. Head coach Sam Pittman, who is 3-2 in SEC openers, aims to secure back-to-back victories in conference play openers for the second time during his tenure.
Quarterback Taylen Green has attracted early attention as a Heisman Trophy candidate after completing 41 of 57 passes (71.9%) for 561 yards and a nation-leading ten touchdowns over two games. He has also rushed for 192 yards and one touchdown. In Arkansas’ recent win over Arkansas State, Green recorded 390 total offensive yards—239 passing and 151 rushing—with five total touchdowns. His rushing performance ranks as the fourth highest by a quarterback in program history.
Linebacker Xavian Sorey Jr. contributed significantly in the victory against Arkansas State with a team-high fifteen tackles, including two tackles for loss, half a sack, a forced fumble, and an interception. Sorey became the first Razorback defender since at least 1997 to reach those statistical marks in one game.
Last weekend’s win marked only the fourth time in program history that Arkansas surpassed both 300 rushing and passing yards in a single game—323 rushing and 309 passing yards were recorded against Arkansas State. Previous instances include games against Ole Miss (2021) and Mississippi State (2024 and 2016).
Wide receiver O’Mega Blake led the team with five catches for sixty-four yards and one touchdown versus Arkansas State. After two games this season, Blake leads the Razorbacks across major receiving categories: twelve receptions, one hundred eighty-five receiving yards, two touchdowns, and ninety-two point five receiving yards per game.
Saturday’s contest will be the seventy-second meeting between Arkansas and Ole Miss. The Razorbacks hold a thirty-eight-thirty-one series advantage overall but trail nine to six in games played at Oxford. Two results are not recognized due to vacated Ole Miss wins from 2012 and 2013.
Taylen Green’s ten touchdown passes through two games are the most by an Arkansas quarterback over such a span since Ryan Mallett accomplished the same feat in 2009.
The Razorbacks have made one hundred ninety-four consecutive extra points since December fifth, twenty-twenty—the second-longest active streak nationally based on date behind Northwestern’s run starting October twenty-fourth, twenty-twenty.
Under offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino’s leadership, Arkansas ranks fourth nationally with forty-five scrimmage plays of ten or more yards among teams that have played two or fewer games this season; they also rank among national leaders with seventeen plays of twenty-plus yards (tied third) and eight plays of thirty-plus yards (tied sixth).
Seven different players have caught touchdown passes through two games—a new program record achieved within just part of this season; previously it had occurred only four times across entire seasons between nineteen fifty and nineteen ninety-seven.
“Off to its fourth 2-0 start of the Sam Pittman era, Arkansas heads to Oxford to open SEC play against nationally ranked Ole Miss,” according to official information from University sources.
