It will be wintry when Arkansas and LSU do battle inside Razorback Stadium on Saturday night.
High temperatures for Saturday in Fayetteville are expected to be below freezing with a chance of snow showers, and to get his players adjusted, Razorbacks head coach Bret Bielema has his team practicing outside this week.
“We’re going to embrace it,” Bielema told Arkansas News. “We went out [Sunday] night. We’ll go out Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, get out in the elements and embrace the chill. I looked at LSU and they don’t have that same weather, which could hopefully benefit us.
“But I also tell our fans we want a live, live crowd on Saturday night. So if you need to get out and walk around this week in some of that cold weather yourself to get used to it, get acclimated to show up and be rowdy, I’d love it.”
The last time Arkansas played in a game affected by snow was on Oct. 30, 1993 against Auburn. The Hogs are no stranger to freezing temperatures, however.
Bielema, who dealt with plenty of inclement weather during his tenure at Wisconsin, said his team has to be ready to brave the elements in order to play well.
“I jokingly told them ‘Listen, one of the reasons I came to Arkansas was for warm weather. It’s not working out too well,'” Bielema said. “But you’ve got to embrace it for what it is. I think that has certain value as far as in the game. We’ll have heaters available, we’ll make things available for them, whether it be hot packs in the things around their waists … where they put their hands. In their socks, whatever it is.
“But you can’t just sit there and concentrate on the weather. Concentrate on the game and understand you can only control the controllables.”
After living in Birmingham, Ala., Jordan left the ground zero of SEC Nation to head south to Florida to tell the unique stories of the renowned tradition of SEC football. In his free time, his mission is to find the best locales around.
