Three keys for Arkansas to have success in 2025

By Otis Kirk

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas is coming off a 7-6 season that saw them end with a win over Texas Tech in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl.

The Razorbacks will face a very difficult schedule in the fall. The SEC portion is always difficult, but the non-conference schedule is particularly challenging this fall. Arkansas will host Notre Dame, go to Memphis and face Arkansas State in Little Rock. Notre Dame was the national runner-up to Ohio State this season. Memphis finished 11-2 and the Arkansas game will be Arkansas State’s Super Bowl.

How can the Razorbacks enjoy success in 2025? Here’s three keys to have a chance.

Eliminate Turnovers, Excessive Penalties

Arkansas could have won some more games had they avoided so many costly turnovers in 2024. They had a Pick-6 and two fumbles against Oklahoma State. They fumbled at their own 10 in a loss to Texas A&M and turned it over twice on their end of field against Missouri. They still had chances to win all three of those games. They also had turnovers that haunted them against Texas and LSU. Taylen Green had some of these. He was a very good quarterback when not turning it over, but has to clean up his mistakes for the Hogs to be as good as they can be.

Continue Building Defense

This will be the third season in a row for three of the four assistants on defense to be together. The defense has gotten better under Travis Williams. They lost Landon Jackson. TJ Metcalf and others off the defense, but were able to bring back Cam Ball, Xavian Sorey Jr. and Stephen Dix. Ball is a defensive tackle while Sorey and Dix are linebackers. The Razorbacks have some young players who have waited their turn to play. At end, Charlie Collins, Quincy Rhodes Jr. and Kavion Henderson are all expected to be key players on the defense. The Razorbacks recruited well for the secondary from the transfer portal and junior college. How quickly all the new players gel on defense could determine the success this fall. The Hogs also signed some high school players who could see action as well. Defensive tackle Kevin Oatis and linebacker Tavion Wallace are among the ones who will likely see action.

Consistent Kicking Game

When Cam Little went to the NFL Draft a year before the Razorbacks expected it caused Scott Fountain and the staff to scramble to find his replacement. Fountain found two kickers with outstanding credentials. But for whatever reasons both struggled at times in the fall. They both had some good moments and made key kicks, but as noted the inconsistency was there. While the turnovers led to the loss at Oklahoma State so did the missed field goals. Arkansas could have avoided the overtime loss if a makeable field goal in regulation had been successful.

The Razorbacks went 3-1 in the non-conference portion of its schedule in 2024 and that could be difficult to duplicate in 2025. The SEC schedule is obviously difficult as it will be each season.