2011 was a pretty fun year to be a Hog fan, but the Hogs dropped 4 spots in the polls due to a week 4 whipping by Alabama in Tuscaloosa. They entered the last non-conference game (for the foreseeable future) against Texas A&M as the #18 team in the country.
It was Bobby Petrino's last year in Fayetteville and Mike Sherman's last year in College Station, though neither knew it at the time. Petrino held a 3-0 record in the Southwest Classic, though when the 2011 game got started, it looked like Alabama was going to beat Arkansas for a 2nd straight week.