College Football 2021: 4 teams that will be on upset alert in Week 4
2. Texas A&M (vs. Arkansas)
Arkansas has had a great start to the season, headlined with a big win over future SEC rival Texas. But this is where we find out if the Razorbacks are ready to hang with the current big boys of the conference.
The Razorbacks have quickly gone from basement dweller to a trendy team to pick to win eight or nine games. The aforementioned win against Texas was huge, but don’t sleep on the wins over Rice and Georgia Southern. It’s not that they won, it’s the manner in which they won. Arkansas could have easily fallen asleep at the wheel and let mental mistakes occur but handled business like a great team.
The also undefeated Texas A&M has shown it’s a beatable team. The Aggies barely got out of Colorado with a win a couple of weeks ago in a win that looks uglier now after the Buffaloes’ pounding at the hands of Minnesota. The Aggies recovered nicely last week with a 34-0 win over New Mexico that wasn’t as close as it sounds.
It was a performance Texas A&M needed following the injury to quarterback Haynes King. Zach Calzada steps in for King and he looked great last week, but a Texas A&M quarterback should always look great against a team like New Mexico.
This will be a tough test for Calzada, who will be facing a Razorbacks defense that only gives up 142 passing yards per game. Arkansas will need a strong performance out of its defensive line like it had against Texas when they sacked the quarterback three times and was constantly breaking through the Longhorn line.
The question will be if Arkansas can move the ball against a stingy A&M defense. The defense has been the strength of the Aggie team, but a lot of that is in the passing game. Arkansas’ strength is in the run, averaging over 280 yards a game on the ground whine A&M gives up 162.
Simply put: Arkansas must win the battle in the trenches. They need to get to Calzada on defense while opening holes for the run game on offense. If one of those things happen, Texas A&M needs to be very nervous. If both of those happen? Arkansas might just send a message to the SEC at Texas A&M’s expense.