How crossover between Arkansas football and Missouri is fanning Battle Line Rivalry flames

Dominique Johnson stood up at the cloth-covered folding table in the gym at Crowley High School in Texas. It was signing day, and he was about to ink his national letter of intent to play football at Missouri.

All 6-foot-1 of him rose, black Missouri cap on his head, to tell the gathered friends and family of his decision. He had been committed to Missouri since June, and now, in December, it was going to be official.

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"I'm Dominique Johnson, class of 2020 running back," he began. "And today, I'll by signing to, uh ... "

In a flash, Johnson whipped the hat off his head and onto the gym floor in front of him and unzipped his black puffer jacket to reveal his true intent.

"... the University of Arkansas."

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Johnson's flip is just one of the numerous connections between the rosters and coaching staffs of Arkansas (7-4, 3-5 SEC) and Missouri (6-5, 3-4). Those connections are helping fuel the infant rivalry more than any trash talking ever has. That, and the fact that No. 22 Arkansas has only won one matchup since the Battle Line Rivalry was made official in 2014.

Johnson, now Arkansas' starting running back and its leader in rushing touchdowns (7), later credited coach Barry Odom as the main reason for his change of heart. Odom had been the coach at Missouri for almost all of Johnson's recruitment until he was fired at the end of the 2019 season.

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A little more than two weeks later, Arkansas coach Sam Pittman hired Odom as his defensive coordinator. Johnson went with him.

Odom's Missouri ties are the most obvious. He was a linebacker at Missouri from 1996 to 1999, and being named coach at his alma mater was a storybook happy ending. Until it wasn't. Missouri's 6-6 season wasn't enough, and he was fired the day after a win over 2-9 Arkansas.

A number of Odom's players voiced their discontent with the decision to let him go on social media. He was a well-liked coach among the team, and the same seems to be true at Arkansas in 2019.

"He's the same guy every single day," senior linebacker Hayden Henry said Tuesday. "He's kind of the tone-setter. He's kind of the spear of our defense; he's the tip of the spear. I would go to war for him any day."

A pair of former Missouri players, Markell Utsey and Tre Williams, transferred to Arkansas after Odom joined the staff. Both are now starting on defense for the Razorbacks. Their former Missouri teammate, Jake Trump, is a quality control coach with Arkansas.

But the connections go the other direction, too, stretching from Fayetteville to Columbia. Fayetteville natives Barrett Banister and Akial Byers, who were on the state champion Bulldogs teams of 2016 and 2017, are redshirt seniors with the Tigers. They've been a large part of the Battle Line Rivalry narrative for years, having not been offered by their hometown team.

Banister has logged season-high receiving yards against Arkansas in each of the past two seasons.

"This game is definitely personal for me," he said this week. "I don't know if it's anything inherently different than I try and do in this game, but coaches have put me in great positions to be successful.... I'm thankful that I've played well against them, but it's nothing that I've inherently tried to do."

Coaches connect back to Arkansas, too. Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz grew up in Arkansas and was the offensive coordinator at Springdale High School under Gus Malzahn. Missouri's newly minted defensive line coach, Al Davis, was a lineman for the Razorbacks from 2009 to 2012. He was a captain his senior year and later a graduate assistant for two years.

The game, not-so-affectionately called the "borderline rivalry" by some fans, might not have the same passion that, say, a game against LSU does. But with the amount of crossover between the two programs and Arkansas looking for its first win against Missouri since 2015, that could be changing.

"I like the fact that we’re trying to get this to be a rivalry game," Pittman said. "Missouri has beaten us several years in a row, so it’s probably a little bit more of rival for us since we haven’t been able to beat them."

Christina Long covers the Arkansas Razorbacks. You can email her at clong@swtimes.com or follow her on Twitter @christinalong00.

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: Crossover between Arkansas and Missouri fans Battle Line Rivalry flames