Sweet home not so sweet lately for UA

BOB HOLT
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Arkansas hasn't just lost its last two SEC home games, the Razorbacks have lost them bad.
Georgia's 38-7 victory at Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Sept. 30 and Ole Miss' 38-24 victory on Saturday mean Arkansas lost its last two conference home games by 45 points.
Those are the most lopsided back-to-back home conference losses by Arkansas since 1976, when Athletic Director Frank Broyles was in his last season as coach and Razorbacks Coach Houston Nutt was a freshman quarterback.
Arkansas lost to Texas A&M 31-10 and Texas Tech 30-7 -- a combined 44 points -- in its last two home games in 1976, both at Little Rock.
Before the Georgia game, the Razorbacks were 15-0 in home games under Nutt.
"I hate it, no one hates it more than I and the players do, I promise you," Nutt said of the home losses. "But I really want to encourage our fans don't give up on this bunch now.
"There's still some football left and there's some good, good things coming that they can see if they have good vision."
With the injury problems the Razorbacks have suffered, including losing starting tailback Cedric Cobbs and starting quarterback Robby Hampton, fans may need to be able to see into next season for those good things.

SNOUTIN' OFF
BOWL HOPES DIM
Mathematically, Arkansas (4-4) remains in contention for its third consecutive bowl bid.
Realistically, though, those hopes likely ended with the Ole Miss loss.
"Right now our backs are against the wall," senior linebacker Quinton Caver said. "We've got to come out swinging."
Arkansas needs to win at least two more games to be bowl-eligible. That means the Razorbacks, who have lost eight consecutive SEC road games, need to win two out of three at either Tennessee or Mississippi State and LSU in Little Rock in the regular-season finale.
Tennessee has won 80 percent of its games at Neyland Stadium since 1921 and Mississippi State has the SEC's longest current home wining streak with 15 victories in a row at Scott Field.
"We still have a chance to go to a bowl, but boy, you've got to really buckle it up now," Coach Houston Nutt said. "You're playing three very, very good teams all in a row.
"But we're not old enough to look down the line. We're only old enough to take it one day at time ... one play at a time. That's all we can do."
Sophomore center Josh Melton said the Razorbacks "really have to look at our attitude right now, because your attitude is going to determine how the rest of the year finishes out.
"We've just got to really examine ourselves and dig down deep."

TOUGH TO WATCH
Robby Hampton, who was Arkansas' starting quarterback the first seven games this season, had to watch Saturday's game from the bench.
Hampton dressed out but didn't play because of a sprained right shoulder. He attempted some throws on the sideline but knew his shoulder injury wouldn't allow him to play effectively.
"I just couldn't put enough on the ball," Hampton said. "It just wasn't there.
"It's pretty tough to watch. You want to be out there, of course. But I also knew I just couldn't do much."

KOCH BACK ON CAMPUS
Greg Koch, who lettered as an offensive lineman at Arkansas from 1973-76 and played in the NFL for 12 seasons with Green Bay, Miami and Minnesota, was at Reynolds Razorback Stadium as a representative for the galleryfurniture.com Bowl.
It is a new bowl game that will be played on Dec. 27 in Houston, where Koch operates a law office.
The galleryfurniture.com Bowl has tie-ins with the Big 12 and Conference USA, but Koch was scouting the Arkansas-Ole Miss game because the bowl may have the opportunity to invite an SEC team.
"If Nebraska and Oklahoma both qualify for BCS bowls, the Big 12 won't have a team for us, so we can go out and get an at-large team," Koch said. "The top three teams we'd be looking at in that case would be Ole Miss, Arkansas and LSU, not necessarily in that order.
"Of course, Arkansas would be my primary choice."
The galleryfurniture.com Bowl, which pays $750,000 per team and will be televised by ESPN, is being held in the Astrodome the next two years, then will move to the new stadium being built by the NFL expansion Houston Texans.
Houston has been without a bowl game since the Bluebonnet Bowl ceased operations in 1987.

NOT SO HAPPY RETURNS
When Ole Miss sophomore Robert Williams returned a kickoff 97 yards to tie the score at 7-7 in the first quarter, it marked the second time Arkansas has allowed a kickoff return for a touchdown this season.
Boise State's David Mikell had a 98-yarder against the Razorbacks in the second game.
The Rebels' last kickoff return for a touchdown had been against Arkansas last season, when Deuce McAllister took the opening kickoff 100 yards to start Ole Miss on its way to a 38-16 victory.

FIRST FOR REBELS
It took 92 years and six tries, but Ole Miss finally got its first victory at Fayetteville.
Before beating the Razorbacks on Saturday, the Rebels had been 0-5 at Fayetteville, with their first loss coming in 1908. Ole Miss also had lost at Fayetteville in 1926, 1994, 1996 and 1998.

JUST SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE
Arkansas and Ole Miss can't agree on their series standing, which after Saturday's game is in the Razorbacks' favor 24-22-1 according to Arkansas, but tied at 23-23-1 according to Ole Miss.
In dispute is the 1914 game, which the Rebels won 13-7, but is counted as a forfeit victory by Arkansas because it claims Ole Miss used an ineligible player.
Why doesn't SEC Commissioner Roy Kramer arbitrate? Then the Razorbacks and Rebels could agree on the series at 23.5-22.5-1 in favor of Arkansas.

THE GOOD
Fred Talley. When Cedric Cobbs returns to practice in the spring, he'll have to fight to win back the starting tailback job.

THE BAD
Arkansas' lack of resiliency. After a good showing in a 21-19 loss at Auburn last week, the Razorbacks reverted to the bad form they had displayed in lopsided losses to Georgia and South Carolina.

This article was published on Sunday, November 5, 2000

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