Tre Lamb and Tulsa have the upper hand against Arkansas

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Arkansas has eight SEC football games left on its schedule after this Saturday's last nonconference game of 2026 against Tulsa. Yet, the game versus the Golden Hurricane could be the most important one facing Ryan Silverfield and his wounded, flawed, very limited Razorbacks. This might be the best chance Arkansas has to win a second game this season. Falling short against Tulsa at home could lead UA to a 1-11 record, a supreme humiliation for the coaches and players.

The difficulty of beating Tulsa flows not only from all of Arkansas' own problems and deficiencies (which we talk about all the time here at Razorback Roundtable), but from what the Golden Hurricane specifically bring to the table. 

The past two weeks, we have seen Oklahoma State play the way a lot of people expected the Cowboys to play. Quarterback Drew Mestemaker put up video game numbers under coach Eric Morris at North Texas. He came to Oklahoma State with high expectations of doing something similar, and in the past two weeks against Oregon and then Murray State, Mestemaker has lived up to that standard. Oklahoma State has looked like a good team which can be dangerous in the 2026 Big 12.

Tulsa and Tre Lamb bottled up Drew Mestemaker and made him look bad in Week 1. Tulsa contained the Oklahoma State offense, controlled the line of scrimmage, and dictated the way that game was played, beating the Pokes in a display of defensive prowess.

It has to be said, and it's a very simple and obvious point: If Tulsa can do that to Drew Mestemaker, what will the Golden Hurricane do to KJ Jackson and AJ Hill, two quarterbacks who aren't even particularly close to Mestemaker in terms of overall talent?

Tulsa will enter this game rightly confident that its defense can completely put Jackson, Hill, and the full Arkansas offense under wraps. Tulsa should be able to control the line of scrimmage against an underperforming UA offensive front. Tulsa should generally be able to do what it wants on defense in this game. After all, Arkansas struggled on offense against North Alabama. Tulsa is a lot better than North Alabama. This is going to be a tough uphill climb for the Arkansas offense, which is unlikely to score at least 20 points in this game. If Arkansas is going to win this game, the Hogs will need to prevail in a very low-scoring grinder, probably 13-10 or 14-9.

The margins will be small. Tulsa has shown a lot more upside through Week 3 than Arkansas has. Unless that balance changes in a big way, Tulsa is more likely than not to beat the Hogs on the last Saturday of September.

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