It would be a surprise if Arkansas is anything other than a .500 team through its first four games.
Even though spring has just begun, the 2026 college football season will be here before you know it. Ryan Silverfield and the Arkansas Razorbacks have plenty of time and -- in another real sense -- no time at all to get ready for their first year together. Let’s consider the Razorbacks’ 2026 schedule in segments.
The Razorbacks open up with North Alabama, an FCS program that hasn’t had a winning season since 2018, and finished 2-10 last year. There is little doubt that Arkansas should win this game. In the past three seasons, North Alabama has had a combined total of eight wins.
The next game on the list is against Utah, a team ranked No. 25 in the preseason polls. While Utah has historically been a solid team, it just lost longtime head coach Kyle Whittingham to Michigan, and Morgan Scalley will be the new head coach. Scalley has been the defensive coordinator for the Utes since 2016 and has been with the team since 2007 as a coach. He played at Utah from 2001 to 2004. This is a winnable game for the Razorbacks, but the Utes finished 11-2 last year, and there’s a decent chance they’ll be more cohesive than Arkansas at this stage in the season. The Utes also get this one at home, where they tend to do really well.
The game after Utah doesn’t get any easier. Many would argue that it gets about two times harder. The Razorbacks begin conference play against Georgia, regularly a popular pick to win the national championship at the end of the year. The Bulldogs were SEC champions in 2025 and made the College Football Playoff quarterfinals before losing to Ole Miss. This is the toughest game on their schedule outside of - maybe - Texas at the end of November. This is probably another loss for Arkansas.
Fortunately for the Razorbacks, they play the Tulsa Golden Hurricane to end this four-game stretch. After back-to-back weeks of playing absolutely punishing defenses, Silverfield will get a Tulsa team that finished 2025 at 4-8. Like Arkansas, Tulsa is breaking in a new head coach after Kevin Wilson, hired by Tulsa following his ouster at Indiana in 2016, was fired after going a cumulative 7-16 in two seasons. This should be a win for the Razorbacks and bring them back to .500.
A 2-2 start would provide Silverfield and Arkansas a solid foundation before diving deep into SEC play. The following four-game stretch doesn’t get any easier with Texas A&M, Tennessee, and Vanderbilt before a week off. With A&M and Vandy on the road, those previous two wins could be the difference between going to a bowl and sitting home in January.