Rebel rerun rains on Hogs

SCOTT CAIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- Kenny Sandlin had just thrown a block on Fred Talley's cross-country touchdown run and came off the field delivering a message of the loud-and-clear variety to his teammates.
Never mind that less than six minutes remained in the game and Arkansas trailed Ole Miss by 21 points. Sandlin wasn't giving in.
"This isn't over," Sandlin yelled. "This is not over."
In reality, the game was over the moment Ole Miss sophomore Robert Williams returned a first-quarter kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown. It only tied the score 7-7, but it landed an emotional haymaker from which Arkansas never recovered in a 38-24 loss Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Arkansas (4-4, 1-4 SEC) watched its bowl chances take a severe hit. Needing two victories to qualify, the Razorbacks now play at Tennessee, at Mississippi State and against LSU in Little Rock and have lost eight consecutive conference road games.
If the Razorbacks fail to make a bowl, they'll have a load of misfortune and mistakes they can look back on and blame. Williams' kickoff return will be prominent among them.
"That took the momentum away from us," Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt said. "They have a lot of seniors and experience, and that's where youth vs. experience will get you."
Arkansas rushed for 212 yards, outgained Ole Miss 393-303 and seized the momentum early with an inspiring 85-yard touchdown drive led mostly by quarterback John Rutledge, a former walk-on who'd been recruited from the intramural field last week.
Sophomore tailback Fred Talley rushed 29 times for 214 yards and 2 touchdowns, the fifth-best rushing performance in school history.
True freshman quarterback Zak Clark, who made his first college start, threw for 164 yards and led two fourth-quarter touchdown drives.
It didn't matter. It all came too late.
Williams staggered the Razorbacks with his return right through the heart of the kickoff coverage unit, and then the Rebels' offense rolled through the Arkansas defense for the next two quarters.
Ole Miss (6-2, 3-2), which moved within a half game of first-place Auburn in the Western Division, scored two touchdowns and a field goal on three of its four possessions after the kickoff return. It also scored on the opening drive of the third quarter to lead 31-10.
"It's like a gunshot," defensive lineman Jermaine Brooks said. "When you get the wind knocked out of you, you can't really do anything. That seemed like how it was. We tried to recover at the end. We still played hard."
So did the Rebels, who benefited from the return of tailback Deuce McAllister. He'd missed most of the past two games with an ankle sprain but rushed 20 times for 131 yards and 2 touchdowns Saturday. His 57-yard touchdown run midway through the fourth quarter extended the lead to 38-10.
Rebels senior quarterback Romaro Miller only hit 10 of 25 passes for 109 yards. But Miller burned the Hogs with 9- and 27-yard touchdown passes and used his arm and feet to convert 7 of 16 third downs.
Clark, who started because sophomore Robby Hampton has a sprained shoulder, completed 14 of 29 passes for 164 yards, 2 interceptions and 1 touchdown. His first interception came on the second series, and he aggravated a sprained ankle on the third series and had to leave.
That's when Rutledge entered and finished the 85-yard drive, converting a fourth-and-5 to set up Talley's 30-yard touchdown run.
Clark returned to finish the half, was replaced by Rutledge late in the third quarter and then played most of the fourth quarter.
"That interception didn't affect me," Clark said of the first one. "I settled down after that and felt better, felt like all day something good is just right around the corner."
There was no storybook ending for either player.
Miller led the Rebels to the Arkansas 9 early in the second quarter, prompting the Razorbacks to call a timeout to try to regroup defensively. Assistant coach Bill Johnson gave the players an animated lecture before they returned to the field. Miller then threw his 9-yard touchdown pass to tight end Doug Zeigler on the next play for a 14-7 lead.
Clark threw an interception on the next play and free safety Syniker Taylor returned it to the UA 35. Ole Miss scored three plays later with McAllister stepping over fallen defenders for an easy 8-yard touchdown. The Rebels led 21-7 and added their field goal two possessions later.
The collapse was reminiscent of how Arkansas had played in a 38-7 home loss to Georgia on Sept. 30 and in most of its road games the past two seasons. The exception was last week when the Hogs showed a resilient streak in a 21-19 loss at Auburn.
"To tell you the truth, I don't know what happened to us," defensive lineman Sacha Lancaster said. "For a second there, I was like, 'D***, it's going to be the same scenario it was last year when they ran that kickoff back.' Just looking around, it looked like it took the air from us."
The kickoff return was the same blunt instrument the Rebels used to subdue the Razorbacks last year, when McAllister took the opening kick 100 yards to deflate the Hogs in a 38-16 victory.
"It was like deja vu all over again," McAllister said. "It just wasn't the first kick of the game."
Knowing how fragile the team's confidence has been, Arkansas coaches tried to reassure their players, but the damage was done.
"It was a little bit of stunned feeling," cornerback D'Andre Berry said. "Man, this just happened last year. They took one back on us last year. That's what I thought. It's about coming back from adversity but we just couldn't get it going.
"They were just running stuff from different schemes and different points that the guys couldn't pick. We thought that they would pass a lot more than they did. They just tried to drive the ball on us [running]."
At the same time Arkansas lost its emotional steam, its defensive scheme appeared to change personality, too. The Razorbacks had been blitzing frequently with success in the first quarter but looked bland in the second quarter.
"I really don't know," Brooks said. "Coaches call that. We should be able to play base [defense] on anybody and just beat them anyway."
Miller said he couldn't tell if Arkansas changed its approach but added, "I think our team got confident in some of the looks they gave us."
Meanwhile, confidence kept draining from Arkansas.

This article was published on Sunday, November 5, 2000

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