Sports

Arkansas Went To Absurd Lengths To Create A Home Field Advantage Against Texas

#College Football
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The Texas Longhorns are one of the best teams in college football. They’re 8-1 and ranked third in the country in the latest College Football Playoff rankings. The Arkansas Razorbacks, meanwhile, are not. Arkansas is 5-4 this season and just 3-3 in conference.

So when the Razorbacks welcomed the Longhorns to Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday, they did so as significant underdogs. ESPN listed the Longhorns as 13.5-point favorites in the contest. That is why Arkansas, understandably, went to extreme lengths to try to give themselves of a home-field advantage.

One of those lengths, literally, involved the grass used for the field at Razorback Stadium.

SEC Network announcer Jesse Palmer reported that the grass field looked much longer than it typically does, both at other SEC stadiums and at Arkansas most games,

Why would this matter? Because the longer grass, in theory, slows down the game. The Longhorns have a significant speed advantage over the Razorbacks at several positions. But that advantage is lessened if the teams are playing on a longer grass surface than usual.

Fans Are Split In Opinions On Arkansas’ Long Grass Tactics Against Texas

Some fans thought the idea was genius.

“So Arkansas forgot to cut the grass on their field… Genius moves!… I love home field gamesmanship… I know, longhorn fans are gonna cry about it, but give those root hogs credit. They’re trying to win a game… Not cutting the grass, that’s genius,” one wrote.

“Arkansas trying to slow Texas’ speed down by growing out the grass on the playing surface is glorious. I love it,” said another.

But not everyone agreed with those sentiments. Other fans believed that it was a dirty trick by the Razorbacks and considered it unsportsmanlike.

“Arkansas is so scared of the Texas speed they let the grass grow all week to try and slow them down. I wish this was a joke,” said one Longhorns fan.

Regardless of how you feel about the tactic, it sort of worked. Texas leads the Razorbacks 10-0 at the half. But the high-powered Longhorns offense has been kept in check and Arkansas gets the ball to start the second half. So maybe they’re onto something.