FAYETTEVILLE — The action in the stands was as hot as it was on the field Saturday night as the final seconds counted down in Mississippi’s 23-21 victory over Arkansas.
Ole Miss kicker Justin Shene’s 28-yard field goal, which gave the Rebels a 23-14 lead with 1: 45 left in the game, triggered a wild celebration from the large contingent of Ole Miss fans who made the drive from Oxford.
The loud chant began almost as soon as the ball went through the uprights — “Houston Nutt, Houston Nutt.”
It was directed in equal parts at the Ole Miss sideline — where Nutt prowled, pranced, paced and pouted just as he had in this stadium for the previous 10 seasons — and at the Arkansas fans who were united in voicing their displeasure at their former coach.
So the game that began with the boisterous, exuberant booing of Nutt, the polarizing first-year Ole Miss head coach who spent 10 years on Arkansas’ sideline, was seemingly headed for just the opposite conclusion.
Then Arkansas scored 38 seconds later, and Razorbacks fans knew how to respond in kind.
“Bobby ! Bobby !”
In the end, it was Nutt and, more precisely, Ole Miss that won the final cheer and left Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino with another close loss.
“Our fans, they were really loud and I’m appreciative, but I didn’t hear [the chant ],” Nutt said.
“I was just a bit involved in the game at that point.”
All week long Nutt tried to sell the pump fake by saying he wasn’t placing more emphasis on this game than any other SEC game, and he told his players not to worry about what happened off the field.
They knew better.
“Everyone on the team realized this game meant a lot to him,” Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead said. “I love playing in an environment like this. We all wanted to give 100 percent for him.”
Nutt, victory in hand, finally opened up when asked if he felt relief that this game was over.
“Yes. Absolutely,” an exhausted, water cooler-soaked Nutt said. “I tried not to let on. I tried to hide it, but it was tough.”
Nutt’s first important coaching decision came well before the kickoff.
He assembled his new team just outside the southwest tunnel as the elaborate pregame introductions began. The Rebels, eager to take the field, locked arms and rocked back and forth in unison, but Nutt held them back.
The location of the tunnel was new geography for Nutt, but he had the timing of the introductions down to the second.
Nutt bounced on his toes as Arkansas highlights ran on the video board, but still held his team back. As the first Razorback broke out of the north end zone, Nutt raised his arm and ran onto the field.
Nutt’s idea was simple: mitigate the expected boos by bringing his team on the field at the same time the Razorbacks stormed the field to expected cheers.
It didn’t work.
A resounding boo sounded, easily the loudest in a season that has seen its share of booing from Arkansas fans.
Nutt said he expected the reaction.
“I did. I understand,” he said. “They’re fighting for their home team. Hey, I’ve been booed on the other sideline, too. I knew they were going to boo me. I knew that.”
From that point on, however, most of the boos from the crowd were reserved for the players in red.
The signs in the stands were reserved. A “Beat Nutt” or “Crack That Nutt” was seen, but once the game began the crowd’s attention was on the players.
It was just what Nutt wanted.
“I tell you, I’m just really happy for our team,” Nutt said. “This was a hard-fought victory. We told our players how hard [the Razorbacks ] were going to play. There’s a lot of good players on that other sideline.”
Nutt’s affection for the Arkansas players seemed genuine. After a brief handshake with Petrino after the game, Nutt spent 10 minutes hugging his former players, seeking out many of them.
A line formed of Razorbacks players trying to say hello to Nutt, many with smiles on their faces. Michael Smith, Malcolm Sheppard, Walner Leandre, Casey Dick, Jonathan Luigs and others tried to get some time with their former coach.
“It’s the relationships [that makes this game hard ],” Nutt said. “You’re close to them. You’ve been in their living room. This has been hard, harder than I thought.”
“It’s tough when you spend that much time with someone the last four years to just to cut off ties,” Luigs said. “So, obviously, it’s just common courtesy to go over there and say hi. He wished me the best of luck and told me if I needed him, he’s there for me.”
Nutt finally left his former players to rejoin his new team. A smile of contentment crossed his face as he ducked into the opposing team’s tunnel, with Arkansas fans continuing to boo the coach they once adored.
“Both teams played so hard,” Nutt said. “What a game to watch. What a game to watch. I just wanted to relax in the final minutes.”
After what he called a difficult week, Nutt finally had his chance to relax after the game — when he left Arkansas for the second time.
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