FAYETTEVILLE — Texas Coach Mack Brown has something in common with the Arkansas Razorbacks and their fans.

Brown, whose Longhorns play Arkansas on Saturday at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, wishes the Razorbacks hadn’t lost to Alabama 49-14 to open SEC play last week.

“They’re going to come in here upset. We’d much rather they had won,” Brown said Monday. “They’ll come in here and play their best game ever. So we need to understand that and be ready for it.”

Brown said he’s not concerned the No. 7 Longhorns (3-0 ) might get overconfident when they see tape of a game in which the No. 8 Crimson Tide led the Razorbacks 42-7 less than a minute into the third quarter. “We’re really a young team, and we’re not near where we need to be,” Brown said. “Our guys have great respect for Arkansas.” There are no players left on either team from Arkansas’ 38-28 victory over No. 5 Texas in 2003 at Austin, but Brown said the current Longhorns are aware of it. “Enough of them remember the game here where Arkansas came in and just physically whipped us... and put the dagger right in our hearts,” Brown said. “We’ve got great respect for this team and the staff, and we’ll be ready to play.”

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1 The Longhorns, 27 / 2-point favorites against Arkansas, have been ready to play so far this season, beating Florida Atlantic 52-10, Texas El-Paso 42-13 and Rice 52-10.

“This team has done everything to this point that it could do and that we expected of them,” Brown said. “They’ve played three teams that, in looking back, we’re better than, and they’ve dominated all three.

“ We still have some question marks on where we go from here and the competition picks up quickly, because Arkansas is a much better team than the score indicated [against Alabama ].”

Brown noted the Crimson Tide scored three touchdowns resulting from interceptions thrown by Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick — two returned for scores and another that set up Alabama at the Razorbacks’ 34 — and had touchdown runs of 87 and 62 yards.

“It was big plays. That’s what scares you from our standpoint,” Brown said. “The stats of the game were not near as skewed as the score.”

Alabama outgained Arkansas 402 yards to 309 and averaged twice as many yards per play (8. 0 to 4. 0 ) as the Razorbacks, but Brown tried to put a positive spin on that.

“What I see is that they’ve got a great coaching staff,” Brown said, “and they’re going to go in and show [the players ] that take away those four or five plays and they have a chance to win.”

Texas junior quarterback Colt McCoy is ranked third nationally in pass efficiency and has completed 63 of 81 attempts (77. 8 percent ) for 833 yards and 11 touchdowns with 1 interception. He’s also the Longhorns’ leading rusher with 25 carries for 194 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Against Rice, McCoy had four touchdown passes to make him the career leader with 62.

He passed Major Applewhite, who is now a Texas assistant coach and had 60 career touchdown passes when he played for the Longhorns from 1998-2001.

“Major was the first to congratulate him on the sidelines,” Brown said.

McCoy completed 13 consecutive passes against Rice to tie his school record and finished 19 of 24. “He’s really taking care of the football and being a much more productive leader on the field,” Brown said. “I really think he feels comfortable. “ He knows it’s his team. He knows what we have to do. He’s so accurate. He’s throwing the ball as well as anyone in the country.” McCoy’s top targets are Quan Cosby (18 catches for 278 yards and 2 touchdowns ) and Jordan Shipley (12 catches for 238 yards and 4 touchdowns ). Texas’ defense is led by junior linebacker Roddick Muckelroy (27 tackles ) and senior end Brian

1 Orakpo (3 / 2 sacks ).

The Longhorns had 600 yards in total offense against Rice, including a 99-yard touchdown drive, and didn’t have to punt in a game for the first time since 2003.

Texas also had seven sacks and held the Owls to 2 of 14 on third-down conversions.

“You’d like to have it where your punter does not letter,” Brown said. “If you could keep him from having enough snaps to earn a letter jacket, that’d be a good thing.”