Arkansas early kick vs. No. 2 Georgia comes after late night loss at Utah

Arkansas has a tough enough task on its hands Saturday facing No. 2 Georgia football under any circumstances.

The Bulldogs have obliterated its first two overmatched opponents, Tennessee State and Western Kentucky, by an average of 55 points.

The Razorbacks are in rebuild mode under first-year coach Ryan Silverfield and looked like a team that could be headed for another 2-10 season or something close to that when it was pummeled at Utah 43-10 Saturday night.

Then there’s the whole travel thing that Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek railed against when the kickoff time for the Utah and Georgia games were announced during the SEC meetings in May.

Saturday’s game is an 11 a.m. CT kick, noon ET.

The Utah game kicked off at 9:15 p.m. CT and ended at 12:56 a.m. CT and the team landed back in Arkansas at approximately 6 a.m. CT, a team spokesman told the Athens Banner-Herald.

“I wouldn’t like it either," Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “It’s a tough situation to be in.”

Yurachek wrote on X after the game time was announced: “The assigned schedule will cost our student-athletes nearly a full day of rest and recovery. This is not simply a competitive disadvantage — it is a genuine welfare issue for the young men who represent our program and contribute greatly to the bottom line of our television partners.”

Smart, in his 11th season as Georgia's head coach, said of having to deal with travel and kickoff times that schools don't control depends on the program.

"To each his own in terms the way you manuever the week and how you manage the week from a standpoint of recovery," Smart said. "Everyone's going to play pretty much the same number of away games. Everybody's going to play the same number of home games for the most part within one or two. Yo have to navigate that. It's certainly challenging."

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said at the SEC meeting that the league communicated Arkansas’ ‘displeasure,’ with ESPN and he wasn’t “thrilled about,” the turnaround time, but the kickoff time remained.

Silverfield at least has a team that should be highly motivated simply by wanting to show it’s better than its last game.

“Guys in the locker room were frustrated, they’re pissed off,” he said Saturday night. “They’re angry and I said, ‘Those are feelings you’re supposed to have, but we have to find a way to quickly learn from this game and bounce back.’” 

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Arkansas early kick vs. No. 2 Georgia comes after late night loss at Utah