MLB Power Rankings: Who are the top teams one week into the season?
We’re one week into the 2024 MLB season, and after the Brewers and Pirates each suffered their first loss of the season on Wednesday, we have one team still undefeated through seven days of play — the Tigers?!
We’ve seen hot starts across the league from not only a few surprising teams but also typical ones, such as the Yankees, whose new slugger, Juan Soto, has shined in his debut for the team. Mookie Betts has also bashed 5 home runs for his Dodgers, who also boast superstars in Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman.
Is your favorite team off to a dominant start — and more importantly, will it last? Or are you hoping the first week’s returns aren’t a glimpse of the future?
Our expert panel has gotten together to rank every team in baseball based on a combination of what we’ve seen so far and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB experts David Schoenfield, Bradford Doolittle, Jesse Rogers, Alden Gonzalez and Jorge Castillo to weigh in with an observation for all 30 teams.
Record: 3-2
Previous ranking: 1
The new additions to the rotation had positive results in their initial starts. Pitching against the Phillies, Chris Sale allowed two runs in 5⅓ innings, striking out seven. He did serve up a leadoff home run to Kyle Schwarber, who jumped on an 0-1 fastball down the middle, but settled in after that and recorded five of his seven strikeouts on his fastball, which touched 96 mph. Reynaldo Lopez had an easier matchup against the hapless White Sox on a cold night in Chicago, but he allowed just one run in six innings, throwing an efficient 82 pitches — a key for a guy who didn’t have great control even as a reliever. “This start meant a lot to me,” Lopez said after the game. — Schoenfield
Record: 7-2
Previous ranking: 2
There was so much hype around everything that was new about the 2024 Dodgers that we seemingly forgot one really important thing: Betts is incredible. No worries — he has been kind enough to remind us. He began the spring transitioning full time to second base, then moved over to shortstop to cover Gavin Lux‘s throwing issues, a spot where he will now spend the majority of his time. And despite all the defensive turmoil, Betts has been the sport’s best offensive performer thus far. In 42 plate appearances, he has 16 hits, including a major league-best five home runs, and nine walks. His OPS is 1.686. Not bad. — Gonzalez
Record: 6-1
Previous ranking: 7
Soto’s first week in a Yankees uniform couldn’t have gone any better. The superstar outfielder went 9-for-17 in New York’s season-opening four-game sweep of nemesis Houston on the road, a performance that earned him American League Player of the Week. He drove in the Yankees’ first run of the season. He concluded his debut by throwing out the tying run at home in the ninth inning. He provided the go-ahead home run two nights later. He’s been an exhaustive at-bat for pitchers every night, setting the tone for an offense that prides itself on grinding opponents down. Soto is locked in for his platform season. That’s scary for the rest of the AL East. — Castillo
Record: 4-2
Previous ranking: 4
Jackson Holliday, to just about everyone’s surprise, was left off Baltimore’s Opening Day roster. The official reason, according to Orioles general manager Mike Elias, was that the club wants Holliday, the consensus top prospect in baseball, to face more left-handed pitching in Triple-A. In response, Holliday homered in his first at-bat of the season — off a left-handed pitcher. It’s only a matter of (very little) time before the 20-year-old infielder bulldozes his way to the majors. When he does, the Orioles, a team already loaded with young position player talent, will become that much more explosive as they seek their second straight AL East title. — Castillo
Record: 4-2
Previous ranking: 6
It’s too early to tout anyone for awards honors, but at the very least, we can say that Wyatt Langford did not look overmatched during his first few big league games. Langford was in the Rangers’ Opening Day lineup less than a year after being drafted No. 4 overall in 2023 out of Florida. He even became just the 44th player to be intentionally walked in his debut, though he had worked a 3-0 count before the free pass was issued. Still, Langford leads a deep Rangers lineup in hard-hit balls during the first week even as he acclimates to frequent DH duties, something he never did at Florida or in the minors. — Doolittle
Record: 4-3
Previous ranking: 9
The D-backs doubled down after an unlikely trip to the World Series last fall, signing Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery to bolster their rotation and Joc Pederson to provide more punch to their lineup. But the core group in Phoenix is really good on its own. And nobody represents that better than ace Zac Gallen, who showed out on Tuesday, throwing six scoreless innings to hand the Yankees their first loss of the season. Gallen, in his second-to-last season before free agency, has allowed just one run in 11 innings thus far, having also stifled the Rockies. — Gonzalez
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 5
After a rough first two games against the Braves to start the season — the bullpen imploded to allow nine runs after Zack Wheeler had tossed six scoreless innings in the opener, and then Aaron Nola allowed a career-worst 12 hits the next day — the Phillies salvaged the series finale with three runs in the seventh as Alec Bohm delivered the go-ahead hit.
Bryce Harper broke out of an 0-for-11 start to the season on Tuesday with three home runs and six RBIs against the Reds, including a grand slam. Two of the home runs were blasts of 107 and 108 mph — and he almost went 4-for-4 but was robbed of an extra-base hit by a diving catch in center field. And how about this: Following a six-hour drive from Rochester, New York, Ricardo Pinto, back in the majors for the first time since 2019, arrived in the fourth inning and then pitched the final four innings of the game for his first career save. — Schoenfield
Record: 2-5
Previous ranking: 3
The Astros’ early bullpen problems and four straight season-opening losses to the Yankees aren’t forgotten, but their opening week was still dominated by the no-hitter thrown by Ronel Blanco. To say the gem was unexpected is a massive understatement. For one thing, it was the earliest — by date — no-hitter in MLB history, coming at a time of the season when starters seldom work deep. Also, for the 30-year-old righty, the no-no gave him just his third career MLB victory. Blanco hasn’t even been a starter for the most part, with just 34 of his 202 career minor league outings coming in that role. And yet, Blanco authored the 305th single-pitcher no-hitter in history. Go figure. — Doolittle
Record: 3-4
Previous ranking: 10
Perhaps the Mariners’ splashiest offseason pickup was the addition of former All-Star infielder Jorge Polanco, acquired in a trade with Minnesota. The early returns were … not great. Polanco’s Seattle career started in ice-cold fashion as he managed just three singles and a walk over his first six games for the Mariners while striking out more than 40% of the time. It’s only six games, of course, but it would be better if Polanco started hitting sooner rather than later, as these numbers are either an acceleration or an exaggeration of trends that appeared to crop up last year for him with the Twins. Perhaps the worst part about it is that in each of Seattle’s first six games, manager Scott Servais penciled Polanco into the 3-hole as protection for Julio Rodriguez at No. 2. — Doolittle
Record: 3-4
Previous ranking: 8
Wander Franco‘s future as a major leaguer remains unclear. The All-Star shortstop was placed on paid administrative leave through June 1 before the start of the season as a potential criminal case remains unresolved in the Dominican Republic. Prosecutors allege the 23-year-old Franco broke sexual exploitation and money-laundering laws, but he hasn’t been formally charged yet. His status with MLB could change based on developments in the case. Without Franco, the Rays have turned to Jose Caballero at shortstop to start the season. The 27-year-old Panamanian made his major league debut last season with the Mariners. — Castillo
Record: 4-1
Previous ranking: 21
Longtime bench coach Pat Murphy got his managerial career off on the right foot as Milwaukee won its first four games. Meanwhile, first baseman Rhys Hoskins endeared himself to his new team, ticking off the Mets with a hard slide which led to the benches clearing and Hoskins getting thrown at. It’s the kind of spark the Brewers need as they begin a new chapter without former manager Craig Counsell, Brandon Woodruff (for now — he’s out for the entire 2024 season) and Corbin Burnes. Their first week could not have gone better. — Rogers
Record: 3-4
Previous ranking: 11
Offense was the Blue Jays’ projected weakness entering the season, and the first week was evidence of that. They were held to two or fewer runs in four of their first six games and were no-hit by Blanco, a 30-year-old right-hander, in his eighth career start Monday. Toronto’s pitching, meanwhile, has limited opponents to five or fewer runs in four of the six games behind two dominant outings from starter Jose Berrios. The Blue Jays will jockey for a playoff spot if the offense can provide consistent support for the strong pitching staff. Justin Turner is off to a strong start, but it’ll come down to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette carrying the load. — Castillo
Record: 5-2
Previous ranking: 19
New uniform, same Opening Day results for Tyler O’Neill. The former Cardinal homered in his Red Sox debut, becoming the first player in MLB history to hit a home run on five consecutive Opening Days in the team’s win over the Mariners. Red Sox fans were disappointed with Boston’s inactive offseason after they were promised a “full-throttle” effort to improve the last-place club. All they got was a whimper, but O’Neill, one of the team’s few free agent additions, delivered in Game 1 once again. Next up: Frank Robinson’s record eight career Opening Day home runs. — Castillo
Record: 4-0
Previous ranking: 22
Detroit began its season with a three-game sweep of the White Sox. Yeah, the White Sox aren’t expected to be any good this season, but it was monumental nonetheless. The Tigers began 3-0 for the first time since 2016, their most recent winning season. They did so by way of three consecutive one-run victories for the first time in their history. The most encouraging of those wins came on Opening Day, when Tarik Skubal, who many expect to elevate to one of the game’s best pitchers, fired six scoreless innings. Said Javier Baez: “I think he can win a Cy Young if he’s got a good plan, which we do.” — Gonzalez
Record: 4-2
Previous ranking: 14
Justin Steele‘s injury, which will keep him out at least one month, is a big one. Even before he strained his hamstring fielding a ground ball on Opening Day, the Cubs weren’t top-heavy in their rotation. It means when they go up against another team’s ace, they’ll be behind the eight ball from the get-go. However, Japanese starter Shota Imanaga pitched well in his debut, striking out nine. As long as the wind is blowing in at Wrigley — like it was on Monday — the fly ball pitcher can match another team’s ace. But navigating April, which includes a West Coast trip, without Steele is going to be difficult. — Rogers
Record: 5-1
Previous ranking: 25
The Pirates are at it again. After getting off to a good start — and then fading — last season, they have won their first five games to start this one. Their production has been spread out — 12 different players drove in at least one run in their first five games while the bullpen was 4-0 with a 1.85 ERA in that time frame. Shortstop Oneil Cruz carried over his hot bat from the spring to start the season 6-for-23. He’s key to the Pirates’ success, as is center fielder Bryan Reynolds, who drove in eight runs in the first week. — Rogers
Record: 3-2
Previous ranking: 12
Significant injuries have already surfaced in Minnesota. Anthony DeSclafani, signed to take Sonny Gray’s rotation spot, was lost for the season before it started. Three innings into Opening Day, Royce Lewis pulled up lame running the bases after starting the season 2-for-2 with a home run. Lewis, whose career has been marred by injuries, will miss at least two months with a strained quad. Those are two major setbacks for the Twins, who spent just $7.7 million in free agency figuring they were the favorites to win the AL Central anyway. But the division has improved. The Guardians, Tigers and Royals will challenge them — so the margin for error to reach the postseason has already shrunk. — Castillo
Record: 4-5
Previous ranking: 13
New Padres manager Mike Shildt made the rather surprising decision to slot Jake Cronenworth into the No. 3 spot of his lineup — between franchise pillars Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado — and Cronenworth has delivered early on, slashing .286/.333/.429 through his first 39 plate appearances. He signed a seven-year, $80 million extension last April and turned in a brutal 2023 season, finishing with an adjusted OPS of just 92. If Cronenworth can get back to producing like he did from 2021 to 2022, when his adjusted OPS was 115, it will be a major boost for a Padres team that traded away Soto and still has major holes in left field and at designated hitter. — Gonzalez
Record: 2-5
Previous ranking: 15
We can’t quite know yet whether the Giants’ flurry of offseason moves will vault them back into the playoffs, but it seems pretty clear early on that San Francisco fans are going to love Jung Hoo Lee. The Giants gave Lee a whopping six-year, $113 million contract, a record for an Asian-born hitter. But he looks like he fits in nicely as a major league center fielder and leadoff man, with six hits and three walks in his first 24 plate appearances. He didn’t have a great series against the Dodgers, but the 25-year-old left-handed hitter had just two whiffs on his first 31 swings this season. He also has a great personality, which is already starting to come through. — Gonzalez
Record: 4-2
Previous ranking: 16
Journeyman Nick Martini was the hero of the first week for Cincinnati, which already has had to tap into its depth after spring injuries and a suspension reared its head. Martini was 4-for-8 with three extra-base hits in his first three games, giving the Reds a boost from the bench they’ll need this season. Meanwhile, starter Frankie Montas‘ debut for the team could not have gone better as he threw six shutout innings against the Nationals. Cincinnati is counting on him to be really good as the veteran at the top of the rotation. — Rogers
Record: 5-2
Previous ranking: 20
The best sign a week into the season: Shane Bieber has thrown two gems, allowing no runs in 12 innings with 20 strikeouts and just one walk. He had 18 swinging strikes in his first start and 10 in his second, so he’s showing swing-and-miss stuff. His velocity is up a tick to 92.0 mph on his four-seamer — up from 91.3 last year, although still below the 94 he averaged in 2020, when he won the Cy Young. Granted, those starts came against the A’s and the Mariners in Seattle (a tough place to hit early in the season), but zero runs are zero runs. — Schoenfield
Record: 3-4
Previous ranking: 17
Shortstop Masyn Winn looks like he belongs after starting the season 5-for-14 while playing flawless defense. The 2020 second-round pick got his feet wet last year, though his production was nothing to write home about. However, that time in the majors might have set him up for this season. The newly 22-year-old looks more comfortable at the plate and doesn’t have that same wide-eyed look about him that he sported last season. So perhaps something came of the Cardinals’ awful showing last year: experience for their new man up the middle. — Rogers
Record: 2-4
Previous ranking: 26
Small sample caveats apply but it sure looks like Bobby Witt Jr. is even better after his second-half breakout in 2023. Witt’s average exit velocity (102.1 mph, based on his first 13 batted ball events) is the best in the majors over the first week, as was his barrel rate (38.5%). Witt is still seeing an average percentage of pitches in the strike zone and his approach remains aggressive: if in doubt, swing. It will be interesting to see how Witt adapts if that strike percentage begins to plummet as pitchers start to treat him with even more deference. — Doolittle
Record: 0-4
Previous ranking: 18
You can argue that no team had a more disappointing/embarrassing/awful first week than the Mets. Let’s see here: (1) Jeff McNeil whining about a tough — but legal — slide from Hoskins; (2) Yohan Ramirez responding by throwing behind Hoskins and getting suspended (manager Carlos Mendoza had to serve one game as well); (3) Luis Severino getting roughed up in his Mets debut; (4) Tylor Megill landing on the IL with a shoulder strain; (5) losing a game in extra innings due to a couple of defensive misplays; (6) Mendoza needing just three games to reshuffle the batting order, moving Francisco Alvarez up to the cleanup spot. Not the start the Mets needed. — Schoenfield
Record: 4-2
Previous ranking: 24
Even though Mike Trout hit about five miles’ worth of homers over the first week, perhaps the most encouraging development for the Halos during those games was that Nolan Schanuel went deep. Schanuel has elite on-base skills, but after he hit just a lone dinger during his 132 plate appearances in 2023, questions remained if he was going to hit for enough power as a corner player. One homer is just one homer, but it’s a start. Schanuel is the kind of hitter who doesn’t need to hit 30 bombs to be a plus offensive player — 15 to 20 will do. Well, that’s less than one per week over a full season, so he’s ahead of pace so far in 2024. — Doolittle
Record: 0-7
Previous ranking: 23
This has not gone well. With Eury Perez, Braxton Garrett and Edward Cabrera all starting the season on the IL after injuries in spring training, these opening weeks were all about just keeping things together until the rotation got healthy. Instead, the Marlins started 0-7, lost two games in extra innings and were outscored 51 to 24, allowing at least six runs in six of their seven games. A.J. Puk had a great spring as he moved from the bullpen to the rotation — and then walked six batters in his first start. The lineup hasn’t hit either, and the early returns on the Tim Anderson signing don’t look good. — Schoenfield
Record: 2-3
Previous ranking: 27
I hate to pick on the Nationals one week into the season but can’t ignore what is going on here with an outfield of Jesse Winker in left field and Eddie Rosario in center. Winker is a notoriously bad outfielder — one of the worst in the game — and while he had a great season for the Reds in 2021 (.949 OPS), he struggled with the Mariners and Brewers the past two seasons as he battled injuries (hitting .199 last season). I could maybe see taking a flier on him as a DH, but not as a left fielder. Rosario is 32 years old and has spent the vast majority of his career in left field (just 39 career starts in center before this season). Why not help your pitchers and at least give them some good defense? — Schoenfield
Record: 1-4
Previous ranking: 28
The White Sox might lose more games this season than the 101 they lost in 2023. They’re debuting an entirely new pitching staff outside of Michael Kopech and now Mike Clevinger. Add two new catchers to the mix and it’s going to take a while for any chemistry to develop. The lone bright spot might be Garrett Crochet, their Opening Day pitcher. He threw well in his first two career starts this week — though Chicago lost the first game. Baby steps. — Rogers
Record: 1-6
Previous ranking: 29
It’s probably going to be another long year for the Rockies, who have been outscored 58-24 through their first seven games and already suffered two blowouts. But it has been nice to see Charlie Blackmon get going. While the Rockies are starting to incorporate some of their younger guys, Blackmon is by far their longest-tenured player, as a 37-year-old outfielder navigating through his 14th season in Colorado. He has been a bright spot thus far, slashing .417/.440/.625. He recorded both the first stolen base and the first outfield assist of the Rockies’ season, and he even gave them their first lead. — Gonzalez
Record: 1-6
Previous ranking: 30
The Athletics’ decision to demote speedster Esteury Ruiz, who stole 67 bases last season, led to some head-scratching. For an explanation, maybe you need to look no further than the guy occupying Ruiz’s position in center field, J.J. Bleday. It’s very early but Bleday was the fourth overall draft pick by Miami in 2019. He entered the season with that baseline talent — and still had just a .190 career average. However, Bleday started 2024 on fire, enjoying perhaps his best week as a big leaguer with 15 total bases over Oakland’s first six games. We need to see much, much more of this to buy in, but on a team that needs all the good news it can get, Bleday’s early play is a reason to smile. — Doolittle
LOS ANGELES — Dodgers right-hander Brusdar Graterol will miss the first half of next season after having surgery to repair the labrum in his right shoulder.
The surgery was performed Thursday by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the Dodgers announced Friday.
Graterol is expected to return in the second half of the 2025 season.
Graterol pitched in seven games during the regular season and three games in the World Series against the New York Yankees, which the Dodgers won in five games. He allowed three hits over 2⅓ scoreless innings in those World Series appearances.
The 26-year-old was slowed this season by shoulder inflammation and a hamstring injury.
Graterol, a hard-throwing Venezuelan, spent his first season in the majors with Minnesota in 2019, and the Twins traded him to the Dodgers before the 2020 season. For his career, he has a 2.78 ERA and 11 saves in 188 games.
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Bill Connelly, ESPN Staff Writer
At SEC media days in July, Steve Sarkisian inadvertently described a good portion of college football in a single line. “I feel like when you go to Arkansas,” the Texas Longhorns coach said, “I almost at times feel like they hate Texas more than they like themselves. That’s a real rivalry.”
Later that week, Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman confirmed Sarkisian’s take. “We hadn’t played Texas for years,” he said, “and when we played them a couple of years back, it was the most excited our fan base has been in a while. So I would say he’s probably right.”
Houston Nutt can testify. Nutt grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. He idolized legendary Arkansas coach Frank Broyles and watched him battle Darrell Royal and the Longhorns before playing for the Razorbacks himself.
“When Texas came to play Arkansas, it was this huge, huge thing,” he told ESPN in 2019. “I remember being taught at the age of 6 outside War Memorial Stadium [in Little Rock] how to do the Hook ‘Em Horns Down sign.”
Nutt beat the Horns as the Hogs’ coach, a 27-6 win in the 2000 Cotton Bowl, Arkansas’ first bowl win since 1985. He turned around, and threw the Horns Down to the Arkansas fans.
“It was a sea of red, and they were mostly doing the Hook ‘Em Horns Down,” Nutt said. “What did I do? I can’t help it. I’m right there with ’em.”
Conference realignment has broken countless rivalries through the years. There are no Oklahoma-Oklahoma State games on the schedule; Missouri and Kansas haven’t played since 2011; Cal has traded playing UCLA for playing NC State; Oregon-Oregon State and Washington-Washington State have been moved from the traditional bottom of the schedule to the top; Pitt and West Virginia play only sporadically, as do Oklahoma and Nebraska. But in the “thank God for small favors” department, this latest round of realignment at least reignited a few rivalries to replace the further ones we lost. Longtime Big 8 and Big 12 rivals Oklahoma and Missouri played this past Saturday for the first time in 13 years (and celebrated the occasion with a particularly wacky finish), and on Nov. 30 not only will we get our first Texas vs. Texas A&M game since 2011 but it also might have enormous College Football Playoff stakes.
While we wait for Aggies-Horns, however, we get a rivalry game that, for quite a while, outshined Texas-A&M and defined Southwest Conference football. On Saturday, Texas and Arkansas will play for just the fourth time in 20 years and will play as conference rivals for the first time in 33. Most rivalries fit into certain parameters — the dueling heavyweights that split the wins over time, the heavyweight against the aspirant that measures itself by how well it’s faring against the big dog, etc. — but over the course of a few decades, Arkansas-Texas fit into multiple categories. Arkansas was the aggrieved and aspirant underdog for much of the series, but for much of the 1960s, when Royal and Broyles were at the top of their respective games, this was the biggest game in college football. Whichever flavor it takes on at a given time, this game remains spicy.
Texas is 8-1 and listed as a favorite by more than two touchdowns Saturday, while Arkansas is 5-4, having handed Tennessee its only loss of the season but suffered two blowout losses in its past four games. The Razorbacks are volatile underdogs; the Longhorns are SEC title favorites; and, for at least a little while Saturday, Razorback Stadium will be an absolute cauldron. To prepare ourselves, let’s look back at 10 of the most noteworthy games in this revived rivalry’s history.
No. 3 Texas 20, No. 14 Arkansas 0 (1946)
“Steers Trounce Tough Porkers For 5th Victory” was the headline in the Austin American. At 3-0-1, Arkansas was off to its best start in 13 years, and for the first time these teams met as mutually ranked foes. But Texas, also unbeaten and the winner of three of the past four Southwest Conference (SWC) crowns, handled both the moment and the muggy conditions better. Future pro and college football Hall of Famer Bobby Layne threw a pair of touchdown passes — one to Hub Bechtol for 50 yards, one to Jim Canady for 47 — and the Longhorns had scored all their points by halftime. This was a pretty common result: Aside from a mid-1930s run in which Texas lost its way as a program and Arkansas won five of six games between them, UT dominated the early stages of this rivalry, winning 29 of the first 35 battles. It’s been a lot closer since then.
This was the high-water mark for the “Steers,” by the way, as they would fall via road upset to both Rice and TCU, handing Arkansas only its second SWC title. The Razorbacks would head to Dallas, where they endured a 0-0 tie with LSU in the Cotton Bowl.
No. 3 Texas 13, No. 12 Arkansas 12 (1959)
After falling apart under Edwin Price in the mid-1950s, Texas righted the ship by hiring Royal, a former Oklahoma Sooner, to lead the program in 1957. In 1959 the Longhorns embarked on a run of nine top-10 finishes and two national titles in 14 years. Royal won his first two games against Arkansas by a combined 41-6, but second-year head coach Broyles also had things up and running by 1959. The Razorbacks would enjoy eight top-10 finishes in 11 years from 1959 to 1969; in this tight loss, they served notice as to what was coming.
As with much of 1950s college football, this game was decided by disasters. Both teams lost four fumbles; Arkansas recovered a loose ball to set up its first touchdown, but with Texas trailing 12-7 in the third quarter, another future Hall of Famer, Lance Alworth, muffed a punt, which set up a winning touchdown pass from Bart Shirley to Jack Collins. Between 1959 and 1969, eight of 11 Steers-Porkers games would be decided by five or fewer points.
No. 8 Arkansas 14, No. 1 Texas 13 (1964)
Texas won its first national title under Royal in 1963; the Longhorns shined in big games that season, beating No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 Navy by a combined 56-13, but they managed only a 17-13 win over Arkansas in Fayetteville. They advanced their winning streak to 15 games early in 1964, but Broyles was building a title-worthy squad of his own by then.
For the third time in four years, this was a matchup of top-10 teams. The most famous members of the 1964 Razorbacks were future Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and future college and NFL title winner Jimmy Johnson, but future Arkansas coach Ken Hatfield made the difference in this one. His 81-yard punt return gave Arkansas a 7-0 halftime lead, and after Texas tied the score in the fourth quarter, Fred Marshall found Bobby Crockett for a 34-yard touchdown to put Arkansas ahead once more. With about a minute left, Ernie Koy scored on a 1-yard plunge; Royal, entirely uninterested in a tie, elected to go for two points and the win, but a pass attempt came up short. Texas’ winning streak was over, and Arkansas would go on to finish 11-0 and score a share of its first national title.
No. 3 Arkansas 27, No. 1 Texas 24 (1965)
By October 1965, Arkansas had extended its winning streak to 16 games, winning its first four games of 1965 by a combined 114-33. But Texas had leapfrogged the Razorbacks to get back to No. 1, thanks in part to a 19-0 win over Oklahoma. That put the chip firmly back on Arkansas’ shoulder.
With the extra dose of motivation — plus, perhaps, some divine intervention: Fayetteville’s First Baptist Church famously posted, “Football is only a game, eternal things are spiritual. Nevertheless, beat Texas” that week — Arkansas raced to an early lead thanks to a pair of Phil Harris fumbles. Martine Bercher recovered the first one in the end zone, then Tommy Trantham took another one 77 yards for a score.
Arkansas went up 20-0 after a Jon Brittenum-to-Bobby Crockett touchdown, but Texas charged back. It was 20-11 by halftime, and David Conway’s 34-yard field goal made it 24-20 Longhorns with just five minutes left. Brittenum scored from a yard out with 1:32 remaining, though, and Arkansas had its second of three straight wins in the series.
The Hogs would run their overall winning streak to 22 before falling to LSU 14-7 in the Cotton Bowl.
No. 1 Texas 15, No. 2 Arkansas 14 (1969)
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? Texas usually played Oklahoma and Arkansas back-to-back in early October, but Roone Arledge, the innovative head of ABC Sports, had an idea in the offseason. Texas had finished 1968 as the hottest team in the country, winning its last nine games and averaging 37 points per game with offensive coordinator Emory Bellard’s innovative wishbone scheme. Arkansas, meanwhile, finished 10-1 with only a 39-29 loss at Texas. The Longhorns and Razorbacks finished third and sixth, respectively, in the AP poll and headed into 1969, college football’s centennial season, as obvious national title contenders.
According to Terry Frei’s “Horns, Hogs, and Nixon’s Coming,” ABC publicist (and future ESPN analyst) Beano Cook pored over the schedules and determined that Arkansas, Texas and Penn State all had good chances of going unbeaten. “My recommendation involved Penn State and Arkansas finishing the regular season with perfect records and then playing for the national title,” Cook told Frei. “I said we should move Texas-Arkansas to December 6, because I thought Texas might be undefeated then, too.” Arledge told the coaches that former Oklahoma coach and politician Bud Wilkinson could make sure that new President Richard Nixon was likely to attend the game as well. It was going to be a spectacle unlike anything college football had seen.
Sure enough, the Longhorns and Razorbacks both reached December unbeaten (as did Penn State), and Nixon was there in the stands for a game that somehow lived up to all expectations.
With Texas’ offense discombobulated early — the Horns turned the ball over on their first two drives — Arkansas scored on a short Bill Burnett run and, early in the third quarter, a 29-yard catch by star receiver Chuck Dicus. Texas quarterback James Street scored on the first play of the fourth quarter, then scored on a 2-point conversion as well. (Royal decided before the game that he once again wanted to avoid a tie at all costs.)
With the score 14-8, Arkansas drove the length of the field and was on the verge of putting the game away until Danny Lester picked off a Bill Montgomery pass in the end zone. Then came “Right 53 Veer Pass”: On a fourth-and-3 near midfield, Street threw a bomb to Randy Peschel for 44 yards.
#TBT – 1969: Texas defeats Arkansas 15-14.#ThisIsTexas #HookEm pic.twitter.com/xoqn5cbhFm
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) October 17, 2019
Two plays later, Texas went ahead with a short Jim Bertelsen touchdown. Arkansas drove near field goal range in the final seconds, but Tom Campbell picked off Montgomery to ice the game, and Nixon declared Texas the national champion in the locker room after the game. (This rather annoyed Penn State’s Joe Paterno, whose team was also unbeaten.)
College football’s explosion as a television product can be ascribed to countless things, but ABC’s innovative approach to broadcasting, followed by a couple of all-time classics — this and 1971 Oklahoma-Nebraska, to name two — in short succession certainly didn’t hurt.
No. 1 Texas 42, No. 4 Arkansas 7 (1970)
The sequel often fails to live up to the billing. Almost exactly a year after the 1969 classic, Texas was riding a 29-game winning streak, while 9-1 Arkansas was ranked fourth in the AP poll and looking for revenge on national television. It didn’t quite work out.
Texas rushed for 464 yards — Bertelsen and Steve Worster combined for 315 on their own, with five of the Longhorns’ six touchdowns — and picked off Montgomery three times. After a goal-line stand by the Longhorns’ defense prevented Arkansas from tying the score early on, the floodgates opened.
The tide had again turned in the rivalry. Arkansas would finally get some measure of revenge the next year with a win in Little Rock, but after winning four of seven over the Horns between 1960-66, the Hogs won only once between 1966-79.
No. 8 Texas 28, No. 3 Arkansas 21 (1978)
A generation ended when both Royal and Broyles retired after matching 5-5-1 seasons in 1976. They both ended up hiring their younger replacements — 38-year old Fred Akers at UT, 40-year old Lou Holtz at Arkansas — as their schools’ respective athletic directors.
Both led immediate rebounds. Holtz won 30 games, Akers won 29, and both schools finished in the AP top 12 each year from 1977 to 1979. In 1978, Akers’ Longhorns played a unique role, too: spoiler. They welcomed unbeaten Arkansas to Austin and ended the Hogs’ 11-game winning streak. Two Randy McEachern touchdown passes in the final minute of the first half turned a tie into a 20-7 Texas lead, and when Arkansas charged back to take the lead, Johnny “Lam” Jones caught McEachern’s third TD pass, and Johnnie Johnson picked off one pass and broke up another on a fourth down to seal the win. This was the first of four straight upsets in the series, with the lower-ranked team winning every year from 1978 to 1981. My favorite rivalries are the ones that make no sense.
Arkansas 42, No. 1 Texas 11 (1981)
And now for maybe the most shocking result in the history of the rivalry. Akers’ Longhorns entered the 1981 game No. 1 in the country, having just blown out Barry Switzer’s Oklahoma 34-14 to move to 4-0. Arkansas, meanwhile, had fallen out of the AP rankings two weeks earlier after a road loss to an awful TCU team that would finish 2-7-2. Surely a blowout was in store, right?
This was indeed a blowout, but not the one anyone expected. Two fumbles and a safety from an airmailed punt snap gave Arkansas a quick 15-0 lead, and the Longhorns never got closer. The Hogs led 25-3 at halftime and 39-3 after three quarters; Texas actually outgained the home team 421-323, but seven turnovers sabotaged all efforts. A turnaround in the series? Not so much. The last two Akers-Holtz battles ended up a combined 64-10 in favor of the team in burnt orange. But this one was an awfully big thumb in the eye, and it would prevent the Horns from winning a national title — they ended up second in the polls behind Clemson.
Arkansas 14, Texas 13 (1991)
“Ain’t no rematch. Best thing of all, ain’t gonna be no rematch.” That’s Arkansas head coach Jack Crowe, celebrating a Hogs win in the final SWC matchup between the two rivals. He had just weathered one of the silliest games in the series to secure permanent (well, permanent-ish) bragging rights. Arkansas led 14-0 at halftime after touchdowns from Ron Dickerson Jr. and Kerwin Price, but a 14-yard Phil Brown touchdown made it 14-7 heading into the fourth quarter, and a 55-yard burst from Brown tied the score. Or at least, it should have: The Longhorns missed the PAT, then missed a 39-yard field goal attempt with 3:45 left.
The teams weren’t particularly memorable, even if the game was. Crowe’s Razorbacks went 6-6 in their last season in the SWC, while David McWilliams’ fifth and final Texas team went 5-6. The teams had weathered ups and downs, splitting the previous six meetings and producing zero top-10 finishes from 1984 to 1991 as the SWC wobbled through controversies and discontent. In 1990, the SEC announced it was adding Arkansas as part of an expansion to 10 teams; the plan had originally included adding not only the Hogs but also Texas and Texas A&M, but the state legislature intervened, and only Arkansas was on its way out the door. So was Crowe: Broyles fired him (and then tried to get away with announcing he’d resigned) after Arkansas began its SEC tenure with a 10-3 loss to The Citadel.
No. 7 Texas 22, Arkansas 20 (2004)
Since 1991, this has basically been a series of pent-up aggression: Whichever rival takes an early lead when they meet just keeps wailing away for a while. Arkansas won two bowl meetings (the 2000 Cotton Bowl and the 2014 Texas Bowl) by a combined 58-13, Texas won a home game in Austin 52-10 in 2008, and Arkansas won a home game in Fayetteville, Steve Sarkisian’s second game in charge at Texas, by a score of 40-21 in 2021.
A 2003-04 home-and-home series produced some drama, though. Arkansas upset No. 6 Texas by a 38-28 margin in 2003, using an early 21-0 run to build some space, getting 217 combined rushing yards from Cedric Cobbs and quarterback Matt Jones and scoring every time it needed to down the stretch.
But with a young quarterback by the name of Vince Young taking over for UT in 2004, the Longhorns got some revenge. Texas built a quick 9-0 advantage with a safety from a bombed punt snap and a 49-yard TD from Young to David Thomas. And from there, it was the Cedric Benson show: The star running back produced 201 yards from scrimmage and scored via both ground and air. Texas held a 22-17 lead into the fourth quarter, and after forcing an Arkansas field goal with 9:58 left, the Longhorns’ defense forced three consecutive turnovers to ice the win. Arkansas would stumble to a disappointing 5-6 record, while Mack Brown’s Longhorns would finish 11-1 before winning the national title a year later.
The most recent Hogs-Horns game might turn out to have been pretty useful. “I don’t know what Darrell Royal did to Arkansas back in the day,” Sarkisian joked with reporters this week, “but they absolutely hate our guts. And I think we learned that the first time around when we went there.”
Texas knows what it’s walking into, at least. They know to expect a Horns Down or two, though we’ll have to wait and see if Sam Pittman gets in on the act.
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