Physical run game. Tough, adaptable defenses.

That’s the identity both Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema and Texas CEO Charlie Strong desire their teams have. Strong looks across at the pair of 1,000-yard rushers Arkansas has and looks to the day his backfield is as effective.

“If you can get that, you can win,” Strong told ESPN.com on Tuesday. “When you get the two 1,000-yard rushers, you know you’re a physical football team and you’re running the ball. It is all about ball control.”

The Razorbacks’ Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins have powered the SEC’s fourth-ranked rushing attack. While Bielema and Strong hold similarities, both insist on doing it their way. Bielema is building an old-school SEC game in Fayetteville, while Strong operates with somewhat of a “my way or the highway” mentality in Austin. Some around the Texas program feel his nine dismissals this season contributed to the 6-6 mark.

Still, both coaches had considerable reconstruction to undergo at their respective institutions. The past three years Arkansas can be referred to as “pre motorcycle accident” and “post motorcycle accident.” The contrasts have been that stark. Meanwhile at Texas, Strong inherited a program secretly run amuck from a legendary coach. It needed to be cleaned up, there’s no other way in which it can be described.

The similarities translate onto the field, too. Both teams suffered numerous close losses en route to their 6-6 records, and most of those losses were predicated upon an inability to run the football. Perhaps an eight or nine-win season was actually in reach for both the Razorbacks and Longhorns, if not for a decimating lack of experience.

Texas, it looks to losses against UCLA and Oklahoma. The Longhorns lost those two games by a combined eight points. Arkansas, it looks to losses against Texas A&M, Alabama, Mississippi State and Missouri. The Hogs lost those four games by a combined 22 points.

Both teams have shown a ignorant will to run the football, along with a physicality and chip-on-the-shoulder mentality on defense.

When the two teams square off in Houston on Monday night, it might be hard to tell which one is which.

Because Bielema and Strong are building two very similar programs.