re: Does it feel like Arkansas is just a thorn in a side?

I wouldn't say "just". But Bret has made an Arkansas career out of taking on giants and giving them fits, or even beating them outright. I don't know how much longer the Arkansas fanbase will settle for that, but there's a certain reason for pride in being the team that favored teams worry about even when it looks like a mismatch on paper. That's as good a description of Akansas as any.

Same actually goes for UT, nowadays. I know UT won't sit on their hands for too long because too many of them long for the days when UT was one of the premiere programs in the nation.