Texas Football: What Longhorns Must Do to Prepare for Arkansas

Year one of Charlie Strong's career in Austin has not been an easy road traveled.

The head coach removed nine players from the program for violating his rules, faced a tough nonconference schedule—which ultimately led to Texas starting off the season with a losing record—and lost his starting quarterback, center and defensive tackle before the beginning of conference play.

But Texas fought through it all to become bowl-eligible and have the chance to end the season with a winning record.

However, the Longhorns received another blow when the AdvoCare Texas Bowl announced their opponent for the Dec. 29 game.

The Arkansas Razorbacks have a lot of talent throughout the two-deep, and their 6-6 record does not do the team justice.

Yes, the Razorbacks only won half of their games, and yes, the team only beat two conference opponents this season. But the Razorbacks significantly improved since their season-opening loss to Auburn, and it will take a tremendous effort from the Longhorns to leave Houston with a win.

Texas Defense: Prepare to Stop the Run, Weather the Storm

Arkansas' run game is the envy of most college football teams. The Razorbacks have two 1,000-yard rushers in Alex Collins and Jonathan Williams. The duo helped carry much of the offensive load this season and put up 23 combined touchdowns in 12 games.

But the success of the ground game is not only due to the talent of the running backs. In fact, a big reason for the run game's success is because of the offensive line.

The Razorbacks O-line is one of the largest in college football, and the unit's 6'6", 321-pound average size is largely to credit for Collins and Williams' success.

Strong and defensive coordinator Vance Bedford will be brutally tasked with coming up with a game plan to stop the Razorbacks ground game. Texas needs to be prepared to shut down the run and force quarterback Brandon Allen to throw the ball.

What Texas has working to its advantage is the fact that the Razorbacks have struggled to put up points late in the game. Arkansas has averaged 7.5 points in the second half against conference opponents. 

The Razorbacks have not been able to continue their first-half offensive performances throughout the season. The Texas defense needs to weather the storm and be prepared to stuff Arkansas' offense after halftime.

If the Longhorns are successful in these areas, the team has a chance to finish the season with seven wins.

Texas Offense: Prepare to Score Quickly and Target Arkansas' Pass Defense

The Razorbacks rank No. 22 in the nation against the run and have only allowed 10 rushing touchdowns all season. It wouldn't be fair to say Arkansas struggles against throwing quarterbacks, but its pass defense is likely to give up more scores than the run defense.

Where Arkansas tends to struggle is in games where its offense is forced to score quickly.

Texas needs to use this to its advantage.

The Longhorns have to get off to a fast start and force the Razorbacks to come from behind.

Some Longhorns fans may cringe at the thought of placing the offense's success in the hands of quarterback Tyrone Swoopes following his performance against TCU, but the quarterback needs to be on point on Dec. 29.

Swoopes has received a lot of criticism and blame this season. Some of it was probably warranted, and some may not have been, but that's what happens when you are the starting quarterback in Division I college football.

Swoopes has to protect the football and prove his worth in the Longhorns' bowl game. He doesn't have to put the whole team on his back and carry the load for Texas, but he does have to play well, which is something he did not do in the final game of the regular season.

Strong said Swoopes gets way too down on himself when he plays poorly. That cannot happen against this Arkansas team.

The Razorbacks defense will likely be salivating over Swoopes' performance against TCU, so the quarterback has to maintain his composure and not make mental errors.

Swoopes has shown talent and the ability to sling it this season. He needs to take what he did in the fourth quarter against Oklahoma and bring that mentality throughout his preparation for the AdvoCare Texas Bowl.

The Longhorns opened as five-point underdogs to the Razorbacks, according to Odds Shark. Texas will have the national spotlight on it when it faces Arkansas on Monday night and a chance to make up for its embarrassing regular-season finale with a win over an SEC team.

The Longhorns have been through a lot of turmoil in Strong's first season, but the head coach senses the program is beginning to make a turnaround, and a win against Arkansas could be just what the team needs to get the program back on track.

"You would like to go win more games and make sure that the program is headed in the right direction. A lot of times we judge that by the number of wins. I see that happening with this program. I see it turning," Strong said.

"We had a stretch there where we won games and then the last game, we didn’t play so well. We should have played a lot better than what we did. It’s coming, and we just know this. We just have to continue to work hard, and good things are going to happen."

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand.

Taylor Gaspar is Bleacher Report's featured columnist covering the Texas Longhorns. Follow Taylor on Twitter: @Taylor_Gaspar.