Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Hogs ‘just go fight’ in victory
OXFORD, Miss. — The state of Mississippi has been a good place for the Arkansas Razorbacks to visit.
The Razorbacks ended a seven-game losing streak against Power 5 conference opponents — including five in the SEC — by beating Ole Miss 38-37 on Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s last victory over a Power 5 team also had been in Mississippi, when the Razorbacks won 58-42 at Mississippi State last season.
“It was huge for us,” Arkansas guard Hjaltle Froholdt said of beating the Rebels. “It shows the guys that we know how to play football after some games we had where we didn’t perform up to par.”
Between the victories in Mississippi, the Razorbacks couldn’t hold halftime leads in losses to Missouri, Virginia Tech and Texas A&M and also fell to TCU, South Carolina, Alabama and Auburn.
Arkansas was outscored 189-57 after halftime in those seven losses to Power 5 teams.
With Ole Miss taking a 31-7 lead in the second quarter, the
Razorbacks looked headed for another demoralizing loss.
But Arkansas turned the game around by outscoring the Rebels 31-6 the final 32:44, capped by Connor Limpert’s 34-yard field goal with four seconds left.
Safety Santos Ramirez started the comeback by forcing and recovering a fumble by Ole Miss tight end Octavious Cooley.
“We had the dog today,” Ramirez said. “Just heart, man, to not give up. Just saying, ‘I’m tired of this,’ and going out and fight and fight and fight.
“Don’t worry about the score. Don’t worry about what’s going on. Just go fight. That’s what we did.”
Defensive back Kevin Richardson, whose 22-yard touchdown fumble return pulled Arkansas within 37-35, said the coaches and players stayed together despite the losses.
“We all talked about coming out and competing and winning in the second half, because that’s where we seem to fold,” Richardson said. “We ended up emphasizing that all week, and it showed.”
Beating Ole Miss the previous three seasons helped Arkansas qualify for a bowl game.
A victory over the Rebels enhanced the chances the Razorbacks (3-5, 1-4 SEC) can make a fourth consecutive bowl, though they have to win three of their four remaining games: Coastal Carolina (1-7) this Saturday in Fayetteville, followed by SEC games at No. 19 LSU (6-2) and at home against No. 21 Mississippi State (6-2) and Missouri (3-5).
“We’re still fighting and competing,” Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said. “But if you try to jump to the end of it, you’re never going to get there.
“We’ll go into our preparation for Coastal Carolina, and when we’re done with that, we’ll get a chance to play the game on Saturday and see where we’re at.”
Richardson said the Arkansas players are well aware of the speculation about Bielema’s job security in his fifth season at Arkansas, but that they didn’t let it become a distraction against Ole Miss.
“We never flinched,” Richardson said. “We had his back regardless of what was going on.
“We weren’t going to quit on the game and we weren’t going to quit on Coach. So we just came out and competed to the best of our ability and ended up winning the game.
“That was big. That’s what we needed to happen.”
The Razorbacks finally may have some momentum given the magnitude of their comeback Saturday.
“Going forward in the season, now we’ve just got to put a complete game together with the first and second half,” Ramirez said. “I believe if we do that, we can win out.”