Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Texas-sized ‘redemption’
Hogs, overlooked recruit earned respect
FAYETTEVILLE — Growing up in Liberty, Texas, Tony Bua hoped to play football for the Texas Longhorns.
After Bua’s junior season at Liberty High School, he and his father — also named Tony — even got a meeting with Longhorns Coach Mack Brown in his office.
Bua, who played running back and linebacker along with other positions at Liberty, said the grandfather of a girl he dated at the time was a close friend of Brown’s and helped arrange the meeting.
“We showed Mack Brown a highlight tape, and the man watched it,” Bua said. “At the end, he looked at me and said, ‘Son, I think you’d be a better fit
for a Stephen F. Austin or a Sam Houston State.’
“I was crushed, because all I’d ever wanted to do my whole life was play big-time Division I football.
“As we got on the elevator after leaving Mack Brown’s office, my dad said, ‘That’s it.
“We’re moving. We’re going to get you some exposure.’ ”
Bua’s family moved to River Ridge, La., just outside of New Orleans, and he played his senior season at John Curtis High School, a much higher-profile program than Liberty.
The move helped Bua get noticed by the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville coaching staff, and he signed with the Razorbacks over SMU after helping John Curtis go 14-0 and win a state championship.
Bua made a school-record 408 tackles while playing outside linebacker and safety for Arkansas from 2000-2003, but the five he had in the Razorbacks’ 38-28 victory over No. 5 Texas on Sept. 13, 2003, at Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium carried some extra meaning.
“When I saw the year before that Texas was on our schedule, I couldn’t wait to play,” Bua said. “I really had a lot of incentive to play my best.”
It was an inspired effort by Bua and the Razorbacks as they shocked the heavily favored Longhorns.
Arkansas scored its most points ever at Texas, surpassing a 32-14 victory in 1956.
“I remember that game like it was yesterday,” said Bua, who now owns a roofing business in Lucas, Texas. “That’s one I can’t forget.”
Arkansas quarterback Matt Jones had an especially memorable game.
Jones rushed 12 times for 102 yards and one touchdown and completed 8-of-16 passes for 139 yards and one touchdown while eluding the Longhorns and directing an offense that gained 438 yards.
“We never stopped their quarterback,” Texas defensive coordinator Carl Reese said after the game. “He was the difference.
“If we had made the plays three or four times when we got our hands on him, it’s a different game. But we didn’t make the plays. He did.”
Jones’ biggest play came on a 60-yard run on thirdand-1 from the Arkansas 39 in the fourth quarter.
Cornerback Cedric Griffin knocked Jones out of bounds a foot short of the end zone, but the run set up a David Carlton field goal that put the Razorbacks ahead 38-28 with 5:08 to play.
It was an insurmountable deficit for Texas to overcome.
“They weren’t being very physical out there,” Arkansas linebacker Caleb Miller said after the game. “No offense to them, but I’m just saying it didn’t seem to us that they were playing very hard on offense.”
Jones’ play-making ability helped the Razorbacks go 10 of 18 on third-down conversions and hold the ball for 35:12.
“We tried zone blitzes, man blitzes, secondary blitzes,
all-out blitzes,” Reese said. “We tried everything to take care of him, and he just kept making plays.
“If you’re playing sandlot football, you’d want him on your team.”
The night before the game, Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt had former Razorbacks Jerry Jones and Jim Lindsey — who played on the 1964 team that finished 11-0 and shared the national championship with Alabama — address the players.
“Jerry Jones went first and did a great job going through the history of the Arkansas-Texas rivalry and what it meant to play in that game,” Nutt said. “Then Jim got up and talked about the Razorback spirit.
“Jerry was so fired up that he said, ‘Coach Nutt, can I have one more minute?’ So Jerry got up and gave another great talk.
“After the meeting, all of our assistant coaches said, ‘We’re ready.’
“There’s not a better feeling than when you know you’ve had a great week of practice and then the night before the game, less than 24 hours away, you feel like, ‘We are ready to go, man.’ ”
Bua didn’t need a pep talk to play the Longhorns and show Brown what he’d missed out on by not recruiting him.
“I sought out Mack Brown on the field after the game and I asked if he remembered me,” Bua said. “He said, ‘Yes, I remember you. You’ve had a great career at Arkansas. I messed up on that one.’
“That was probably one of the most fulfilling moments I had in my college career. The thing about the Texas game for me was redemption.”
Bua said the Razorbacks were out to earn respect against the Longhorns.
“The whole team felt like we weren’t getting our due,” he said. “Nobody was giving us a shot to beat the mighty Texas Longhorns.
“We rolled in there on a mission and just spanked them dudes up and down the field. It was amazing and awesome.”