FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – On the hill northeast of Razorback Stadium, where Vietnam protesters once made a peace sign to prick President Nixon’s conscience during the Big Shootout, white awnings sheltered well-heeled Arkansas boosters reluctant to enter 45 years later come. As if they were nervous about witnessing a second public humiliation in the past two weeks.

Fortunately for the Razorbacks, third-ranked Texas looked nothing like Ole Miss, the ever-evolving SEC flavor of the week these days.

That leaves us with what to make of Texas in first place after a too-close-for-comfort 20-10 win over the Hogs, a .500 team that must have taken some comfort in Saturday’s outcome after should have conceded three times as many points to the rebels.

On the one hand, in the official revival of a conference rivalry, the Longhorns exacted revenge for the 40-21 blow delivered by the Razorbacks in Steve Sarkisian’s second game as Texas coach.

On the other hand, they should still be a long way from 2021.

Right, Sark?

“I really think we’re light years away from where we were,” he said.

There is no doubt that they are better defensively, a point they achieved on Saturday. Sacked Lewisville’s Taylen Green six times, held the Hogs to 82 yards rushing and forced two turnovers, the second on a strip by defensive lineman Alfred Collins that nullified Arkansas’ late bid for the upset.

Texas had just gone up by 10 on Quinn Ewers’ touchdown, after Arkansas cut the Longhorns’ lead to three, only to see the Razorbacks march right down their throats. Collins ended the drama at the Texas 27. The 6-5, 320-pounder, who redirected a few steps in Texas’ route through Florida, sniffed a pass underneath, retreated and stripped C.J. Brown.

“That’s leather band,” said edge Barryn Sorrell. “It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Unless, of course, you wanted to show film of Jahdae Barron, who led Texas with six solo tackles, a sack, two tackles for losses, a pass breakup and a pick.

Texas’ defense continues to play at a world-class level, a standard broken only by the loss to Georgia. Otherwise, the Longhorns have given up more than 17 points just once in their nine wins.

“Their stats show they have a very, very good defense,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said, “and they proved that on Saturday.”

Sarkisian can count on his defense to travel, as he put it. The problem is his offense, which occasionally shows up late.

Ewers was 20 of 32 for 176 yards and a pair of touchdown passes to Matthew Golden. Not bad, but not Jaxson Dart, who passed for 515 yards and six touchdowns against the Hogs in the 63-31 rout of Ole Miss here a few weeks ago. Because of that deluge, Arkansas went with three safeties on Saturday in an attempt to mitigate any explosive plays. On paper it worked beautifully.

But a bigger problem than the defensive scheme was Ewers’ inability to connect with anyone deep.

Or briefly, occasionally.

Gunnar Helm, normally a safety valve for Ewers, caught just three of the seven passes thrown his way. One of them was a drop. But at least there were a few bad passes in the red zone that resulted in a pair of Bert Auburn field goals instead of touchdowns.

The second miss in particular would have given Texas a first-place finish in the Arkansas 5.

“Bad ball,” was all Ewers said about the effort.

To be clear, he also took his share of responsibility for the offense’s struggles, especially in the first half. He had his moments as usual. His pump fake on a bubble screen in the first quarter set up Golden for a 20-yard touchdown catch. And after the Razorbacks cut Texas’ lead to three, he led a 75-yard drive, capped by a rollout strike in the front corner of the end zone, to Golden, whose toe tap produced nice points.

But those moments weren’t as plentiful Saturday as they will need to be, especially if Texas plans to go deep this postseason. To do that, Sarkisian said, “We have to be very good at all three phases.” At that point, he was 1-for-3 on Saturday. Even though Auburn went 2-for-2, Silas Bolden was an adventure in punt returns, and two special teams players managed to get a Michael Kern punt inside the 10 between them in the end zone.

Bottom line: The Longhorns still have some cleaning up to do, because if Ole Miss keeps this up, it has an outside shot at meeting Texas in the SEC title game. It’s just a guess, but these days someone will probably need more than 20 points to beat the Rebels.

On the other hand, beating Arkansas hasn’t been a given for the Longhorns for a while now. This century there are only .500. If you include the 2000 Cotton Bowl, it’s 3-4. Sarkisian is still troubled by memories of walking off the Fayetteville field in 2021 “while thousands of people were running around us.”

No such recurring visions Saturday. Most had left the building before it was over. Back to tailgate safety.

Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN

Find more Texas coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.