ARKANSAS 48, SOUTH CAROLINA 36 : What a rush!
Posted on Sunday, November 4, 2007
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ aces put together a show for the ages at the newly named Frank Broyles Field at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Darren McFadden trampled through the South Carolina defense for a SEC single-game record 323 yards, including a back-breaking 80-yard touchdown at crunch time, as the Razorbacks won 48-36 in front of a breathless crowd of 70, 742.
Arkansas (6-3 overall, 2-3 SEC ) scored on two gadget plays, McFadden running mate Felix Jones rushed for three touchdowns and 163 yards as part of a 650-yard bonanza, and the Razorbacks defense threw in two key fourth-quarter stops to slow the pulse-pounding fourth quarter.
“Have you ever seen a more beautiful, perfect football night in your life ?” Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt asked in his postgame news conference. “The stands were full, I saw a passionate crowd, and our players just gave it to them.”
Arkansas faced a fourth-quarter gutcheck, just as it had in all of its three conference losses, after South Carolina scored a safety then added a touchdown on Cory Boyd’s 1-yard run with 8: 15 remaining to slice the Hogs’ lead to 42-36.
On the next snap, McFadden bolted off right tackle, kicked it into another gear and outran the South Carolina secondary for an 80-yard score.
“[Finishing strong ] was something our coaches instilled in us,” McFadden said. “They always talk about winning in the fourth quarter. Tonight we took it to heart.”
Arkansas became bowl eligible and kept alive its faint hopes of tying for the SEC West crown by winning its first conference home game.
South Carolina (6-4, 3-4 ) fell off the pace in the SEC East and suffered its third consecutive loss, a rarity for a Steve Spurrier-coached team.
“OK, obviously it was a mismatch tonight,” Spurrier said. “[We ] looked like a Division III team trying to play an SEC team.... They ran right through us.”
The Razorbacks and Gamecocks combined for 1, 139 total yards, including 541 rushing yards by Arkansas, the most ever in a game involving two SEC teams.
“Our offensive line, they dominated,” Nutt said.
Arkansas threw 11 passes, and 3 went for touchdowns. In the madcap second half, the only pass attempted by the Razorbacks was McFadden’s halfback throw to Robert Johnson for a 23-yard touchdown.
Jones got cranked up early, with touchdown runs of 40 and 72 yards in the first quarter as Arkansas opened a 28-10 halftime lead. McFadden pounded away in the second half, rolling for 217 rushing yards.
“To have those tailbacks at the same place at the same time, it’s magic,” Arkansas running backs coach Tim Horton said.
The frantic scramble through the record books in the postgame nearly rivaled the game that preceded it. Arkansas’ 650 total yards were its most ever in an SEC game.
The teams swapped two touchdowns each in a frenzied stretch of 6: 20 in the third quarter.
South Carolina quarterback Blake Mitchell hit Jared Cook with a 21-yard touchdown pass at the 9: 07 mark to pull the Gamecocks within 28-20. That score came after Spurrier, the ol’ ball coach called for an onside kick, and South Carolina recovered, after Ryan Succop’s 30-yard field goal on the first possession of the second half.
Arkansas responded moments later on McFadden’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Johnson, who was flagged for throwing the ball into the foam bumpers that ring the field.
Mitchell, who completed 27 of 51 passes for 364 yards and 2 touchdowns, threw to Dion Lecorn, who ran a post route, for a 22-yard touchdown three plays later.
A second onside kick attempt by South Carolina backfired when Lucas Miller swatted it out of bounds. Jones circled into the end zone four plays later on a 7-yard carry on a WildHog handoff for a 42-27 Arkansas lead.
Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick completed 8 of 10 passes for 86 yards and 2 scores. He connected with Marcus Monk for a 4-yard touchdown to cap Arkansas’ first drive.
The Razorbacks got tricky midway through the second quarter after South Carolina had pulled within 21-10 on Mitchell’s 1-yard quarterback sneak.
From the WildHog formation, McFadden handed to Jones on the end around, and Jones gave it to Dick coming back to the middle of the field. Dick threw a strike to a wideopen Miller for a 35-yard score.
“That’s a play we’ve been working on for a long time,” Nutt said. “[Offensive coordinator ] David Lee called it at a good time. We ran the reverse and everybody’s playing Felix Jones and McFadden and that’s how Lucas got behind them.”
Any questions about McFadden’s health were answered by the best single-game performance in school history. McFadden had 357 all-purpose yards as he found seams, ran like a sprinter and bowled over Gamecocks all night long. Game sketch Arkansas’ explosiveness on the ground was on display. Darren McFadden ran for an SEC singlegame record 323 yards to jolt his Heisman Trophy campaign, and running mate Felix Jones added a personal-best 163 rushing yards. RECORDS South Carolina 6-4, 3-4 SEC; Arkansas 6-3, 2-3 STARS McFadden compiled a school-record 357 all-purpose yards. Jones had two breakaway scores and set the tempo in the first half with 134 rushing yards. TURNING POINT After Cory Boyd’s 1-yard touchdown cut Arkansas’ lead to 42-36 with 8: 15 remaining, McFadden went 80 yards on the next play. KEY STATS Arkansas’ 650 total yards, its 541 rushing yards and its 10 of 13 third-down conversions. UP NEXT Arkansas travels to Tennessee on Saturday for an 11: 30 a. m. game on Lincoln Financial Sports.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
