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Tennessee and Arkansas meet in 54th Cotton Bowl

By MIKE RABUN UPI Sports Writer

DALLAS -- Teams that could almost pass for twins -- except for the fact that one will wear red and the other orange -- meet Monday in the 54th Cotton Bowl.

In the only New Year's Day bowl this holiday season that will bring together two conference champions, the No. 9 Arkansas Razorbacks will take on the No. 8 Tennessee Volunteers to help kick off the annual orgy of college football that begins the new calendar.

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Kickoff is set for 12:30 p.m. CST. Temperatures were forecast to reach 50 degrees with partly clear conditions expected after a weekend of cold and rain.

'I think enough good things have happened to our two football programs over the past few years that neither one will be hurt by a loss,' said Arkansas Coach Ken Hatfield. 'But we both want to win real bad.'

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Hatfield, especially, wants a victory that would end his personal three-game bowl losing streak. The Razorbacks were humiliated in the Cotton Bowl last year by UCLA. Arkansas gained only 42 total yards against the Bruins.

Tennessee, meanwhile, has won three straight bowl games under Coach Johnny Majors, whose team has performed a remarkable turnaround after losing the first six contests of the 1988 season.

Both Southwest Conference champion Arkansas and Southeastern Conference tri-champion Tennessee are 10-1, but the resemblances do not stop there. Both teams favor the run, both have defenses with the reputation of bending, but not breaking, and both have excellent field goal kickers who could wind up deciding a close game.

And, although both have a large corps of talented players, neither possesses the kind of superstar who automatically draws the attention of coaches, fans and the media.

The closest thing to a top draw is Tennessee freshman running back Chuck Webb, who gained 1,257 yards in 10 games (missing the closing contest of the regular season with an ankle injury) and averaged 5.9 yards per carry.

While Webb does most of the ball carrying for the Volunteers, Arkansas relies on one wave of runners after another in its triple option attack directed by quarterback Quinn Grovey.

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'That's obviously the thing that concerns us the most,' said Tennessee defensive coordinator Doug Matthews. 'We know they are going to gain yards against us because we haven't seen an option attack like they have.

'We will have to adjust as the game goes along and see what we can do. What I hope is that they just don't rip us to death early.

'We've told our players that they have to be ready for extreme quickness from Arkansas. There is no way for us to judge quickness on film. You have to see it in person to understand it.'

Arkansas coaches are also confident their offense will make a sizeable dent in Tennessee's defense.

'I know they will make adjustments in their regular defense because they don't play option teams that often,' said Arkansas offensive coordinator Jack Crowe. 'I just wish I knew what those changes were going to be.'

The game also brings together a group of people whose careers have intermingled at the two schools.

Majors served as an assistant coach at Arkansas and Hatfield was an assistant at Tennessee.

'I guess if I had to describe Ken as a player,' Majors said, 'I would have to use the word, 'intense.' He led the country in punt returns when I was coaching him at Arkansas and you don't do that without having some intensity.'

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'The one word I would use for Coach Majors,' Hatfield said, 'is, 'confidence.' He gave us confidence that we were doing the right thing. And we shut out the last five opponents in my senior year.'

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