Texas players spent Monday tiptoeing around verbal landmines that could blow up at any time. Nobody wanted to say anything that could land on Arkansas’ bulletin board.

But since this is a full-blown rivalry, maybe the third-ranked Longhorns should break out those T-shirts from last season. The message was printed right across the chest: “Embrace the hate.”

“Yeah, I like those shirts,” safety Michael Taaffe said. “You come to Texas for games like this, Texas vs. Arkansas.”

Texas coach Steve Sarkisian, noted college football traditionalist, has been eager for this rivalry to restart and become an annual tradition. He’d also like to get the taste of that 40-21 beatdown from 2021 out of his mouth, too.

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“I don’t know what Darrell Royal did to Arkansas back in the day, but they absolutely hate our guts,” Sarkisian said.

Royal went 15-5 against the Razorbacks during his 20 years at Texas from 1957-76. That’s probably a good place to start. That includes the 15-14 victory in the 1969 “Game of the Century” with President Nixon in attendance.

Today’s Texas and Arkansas players weren’t even born when the Razorbacks left the Southwest Conference for the Southeastern Conference in 1992. Most of them simply don’t understand the deep-seeded feelings that graybeards from both states have.

There are only 11 Longhorns still on the roster who took part in the 2021 game, Sarkisian said. Nine of those have become starters. So they remember how Arkansas fans went wild, almost like it was a religious experience, while calling the Hogs that night in what was then a huge non-conference win.

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“Usually it kind of gets closer to the hotel when you see the Horns Down and things like that,” defensive back Jahdae Barron said. “I would probably say, I think as soon as we left the hotel, it was like there was on the side of the road and these farms, they all inside the road, like up until the entire way to the game.”

Senior linebacker David Gbenda said, “I wouldn’t say it was intimidating. It was exhilarating, it was fun.”

Center Jake Majors was making just his second start as a collegiate lineman. Saturday will be his 51st with the Longhorns.

“First of all, it was Sark’s first year, and we were still getting used to coach Sark, and not many people were too bought into what he had and were too focused on what was,” Majors said. “I think that's the biggest difference is, you know, we're, we're more of a team now than we were then.”

As for what he remembers about the game, Majors said with political correctness, “I remember not being greeted the nicest way, and I'm sure that's true with you know the rich history and this rivalry that I'm well aware of, and so we know what's ahead.”

Taaffe redshirted in 2021, but he said those who were there told him about the “walk of shame” afterward. Arkansas students stormed the field afterward.

“We know how important this game is,” Taaffe said. “Arkansas knows how important this game is. And so no matter if we were, you know, 1-8 right now or we were 8-1, this game means a lot to us.”