Goal-line stand lifts downtrodden Hogs

SCOTT CAIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Las Vegas pegged Arkansas as a 17-point underdog to 13th-ranked Mississippi State, but the truth is the Razorbacks' odds seemed much longer.
Sure, they'll win ... when Starkville freezes over.
Both of those improbable scenarios unfolded Saturday.
In a mix of snow, sleet and rain, Arkansas gutted out a 17-10 overtime victory before 40,010 at Scott Field that thrust the Razorbacks back into bowl contention and knocked the Bulldogs out of the SEC West race.
Winning seemed unlikely because Arkansas (5-5, 2-5 SEC) had lost five consecutive SEC games by an average of 21 points, nine consecutive conference road games and was coming off a 63-20 pounding at Tennessee, the most points Arkansas had allowed in 81 years. And injuries had decimated the team.
Mississippi State (7-3, 4-3) touted the SEC's best rushing game, the nation's second-ranked run defense and the nation's third-longest home winning streak at 16. Even mighty Florida fell hard here on Sept. 30.
"A lot of people had probably written our guys off," Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt said. "Playing a team like that, nobody gave them one chance to win and it just shows a lot of heart. You just keep asking for it and you keep working at it and you never give up. There are so many heroes today. So many heroes."
Using a more aggressive and unpredictable defensive scheme installed last week under co-coordinator John Thompson, the Razorbacks held the Bulldogs' offense to three points and choked its running game (68 yards), which had been averaging 207.9 yards.
The only touchdown Mississippi State managed was a 40-yard interception return by cornerback Shawn Byrdsong off a Zak Clark pass in the second quarter.
Linebacker Quinton Caver made 12 tackles, including stops on the last three plays of overtime at the 1-yard line.
True freshman tailback Brandon Holmes replaced an injured Fred Talley in the fourth quarter and rushed for 95 yards and two touchdowns, one to tie the game 10-10 with 1:02 left in regulation and the other in overtime.
Special teams, troubled throughout the season, delivered a blocked field goal and stellar kick coverage.
Mississippi State could have snatched the game back on the final play of regulation, but a bad snap led Scott Westerfield to drive his 22-yard field-goal attempt into the back of his blockers.
After Holmes scored his second touchdown and Caver and J.J. Jones sniffed out a sweep and steer-wrestled tailback Dontae Walker to the ground on fourth down, a season's worth of frustration melted into sheer jubilation.
Defensive line coach Bill Johnson kissed Holmes on the cheek as they hurried up the end zone ramp. The players sang and stomped so loudly that the locker room walls shook. Later outside near the buses, special teams coordinator James Shibest reached out to Talley, who was on crutches, and told him, "I love you, man."
"We've been telling them to hang in there and good things will happen," Shibest said. "But it's hard for them to believe it sometimes until it happens."
It happened because Arkansas won using Mississippi State's method of operation -- bare-knuckle football on both sides. A week after Tennessee players openly wondered what happened to the old head-knocking Razorbacks, the Hogs dispatched two of the Bulldogs' best defensive players -- safety Pig Prather and linebacker Mario Haggan -- to the sideline with injuries.
Keep in mind, MSU is a team with an attitude so nasty that its players scuffled with Ole Miss cheerleaders after last year's Egg Bowl.
Arkansas lost here two years ago 22-21 on a last-second field goal. But for the third time in four years, the Razorbacks have derailed Mississippi State's path to Atlanta. The Bulldogs had held division tiebreakers against LSU and Auburn.
"I just feel like Arkansas has some really good players and they just got the best of us this time," said safety George White, who replaced Prather in the second quarter. "This is a tough loss because I was really looking forward to a tie with Auburn and LSU and a trip to the SEC Championship [Game]."
Credit Arkansas' expanded defense for MSU's misery.
"Their defense created a lot of problems for us," Bulldogs Coach Jackie Sherrill said. "We didn't block an inside linebacker here, a defensive back there, and they did some things that we didn't see coming before the play started."
Defenders lined up in strange places and jumped around before the snap, making it difficult for the Bulldogs to find who they were supposed to block.
"As you can tell it went very well," Caver said.
Besides Caver's 12 tackles, he made two huge sacks.
The first one dropped Wayne Madkin for a 7-yard loss on a third down early in the fourth quarter. That turned a relative chip-shot field goal into a testy 39-yard adventure on soggy, sleet-peppered turf.
The second sack nailed Madkin for an 11-yard loss on MSU's first overtime play and set the tone.
"They never even saw him coming," Jones said.
Neither did the Bulldogs see Holmes coming.
Talley left with 12:30 to play and 91 yards rushing primarily on the zone play, where the linemen push the defensive front to one side and the back chooses his hole. The play suits Talley's speed.
With Holmes' 215-pound frame and straight-ahead running style, Arkansas shifted to the power run and did so at just the right time, as it turned out.
The Bulldogs had intercepted passes by quarterback Robby Hampton twice in the fourth quarter, but they also had been on the field most of the half and appeared to be tiring.
When Arkansas took over at its 45-yard line with 4:49 to play and trailing 10-3, Holmes started ripping off chunks ... 9 yards ... 13 ... 14 ... 12. Finally, at the 2-yard line, right tackle Gary Hobbs drove Haggan aside and Holmes lunged in.
Brennan O'Donohoe -- whose 38-yard field goal in the third quarter gave the Hogs life at 10-3 -- kicked the extra point to tie it with 1:02 left.
MSU moved into position to win the game in regulation on a 44-yard catch-and-run by Dicenzo Miller before botching the field goal.
In overtime, MSU won the toss and elected to play defense first.
Holmes churned for 8 yards, 2, 6, 2 and 7. Touchdown.
Haggan had left after the first play of overtime with a neck injury, and his replacement, true freshman Jason Clark, missed a shot at Holmes on the winning touchdown. So did end Steele Davis.
Caver, Jones and Co. finished off the victory by stopping four consecutive running plays inside the 5-yard line -- the last three at the 1.
"To be honest, I didn't think they were going to run the ball four straight plays," Caver said. "They did. That was to our advantage. Once we get down to the goal line, that's when our defense really steps up."
It would have been a chore last week to find many people who believed Arkansas would have had a chance to go anywhere near overtime, much less win.
"Nobody," Jones said. "Maybe some true, die-hard fans and the people on this team. I think people counted us out. They're No. 13. They've probably got one of the best defenses in the nation. But as long as we believe, it doesn't matter."

This article was published on Sunday, November 19, 2000

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