RAZORBACKS
Hogs travel to Kentucky as Wildcats honor Lorenzen
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Reminders of the phenomena that was Jared Lorenzen will be all over Kroger Field tonight.
The Kentucky Wildcats will honor the memory of one of the most unique quarterbacks — a 270-pound left-hander with a litany of nicknames such as the Pillsbury Throw Boy and J-Load — college football has ever known.
It is also homecoming for the Wildcats (2-3, 0-2 Southeastern Conference), who are coming off an open date.
In a very rare Lexington appearance by the University of Arkansas (also 2-3, 0-2), these are the trappings awaiting the Razorbacks, who have lost two games in a row, and second-year coach Chad Morris.
Kentucky is coming off a three-game losing streak and injury issues at quarterback that might force skill ace Lynn Bowden Jr., the SEC leader in all-purpose yardage, into a long stint as a literal Wildcat quarterback.
Lorenzen was the lovable losing quarterback in an epic seven-overtime battle between the Razorbacks and Wildcats played here on Nov. 1, 2003. Arkansas won 71-63 when Tony Bua recovered a Lorenzen fumble, forced by Vickiel Vaughn, at the Hogs’ 1-yard line on fourth down to end the game.
Lorenzen, who passed away this summer from heart and kidney problems, accounted for 365 yards and five touchdowns in the game. He also famously shouted at Wildcat fans leaving the stadium at halftime, “You’re going to miss one hell of a game!” Boy, was he right.
Strangely, Arkansas has played just once at the ‘Cats home since then, a 21-20 loss on Oct. 18, 2008.
The Wildcats stand as Arkansas’ least-played SEC opponent with only seven games in the record books. Kentucky leads the series by a 4-3 margin.
Arkansas tight ends coach Barry Lunney Jr. has never faced the Wildcats in 11 seasons as a quarterback (1992-95) and full-time assistant (2013-2019) with the Razorbacks.
“Talking to coach Lunney and some of these other guys about going up there and playing, I mean, some of these guys don’t recall doing that,” Morris said.
Seventh-year Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said he and his staff have made sure the Wildcats know about Lorenzen’s legacy and how he performed against the Razorbacks in 2003.
“Jared was exceptional in that game,” Stoops said on Wednesday. “We’ve definitely seen the highlights and actually showed it to our team yesterday. Showed them highlights of Jared and talked about Jared and how we’re honoring him. I wanted our players to be familiar with that and certainly showed them many of the highlights from the 2003 game.”
The Razorbacks seem excited to play a team they’ve never faced.
“It’s nice,” senior defensive tackle McTelvin Agim said. “You usually don’t get SEC East opponents, so we finally get another one.
“We always get Missouri, but we get another one. It’s always exciting when you look at the schedule, like what SEC East opponent are you going to get? We’re excited to go to Kentucky and play our hearts out.”
Among the Arkansas players, only quarterback Nick Starkel has seen the Wildcats in action. He was No. 16 Texas A&M’s backup quarterback for a 20-14 overtime victory against the No. 12 Wildcats last season in College Station, Texas.
“Honestly I think it’s fun that we’re going to play at a team’s place that we’ve never played at,” Starkel said. “They’re going to have a lot of their fans there. We travel well, but they’re gonna have home field
advantage. We take that as we’ve got to bring our own energy. We’ve got to create our own plays.”
Arkansas offensive coordinator Joe Craddock, a quarterback at Middle Tennessee State, played at Kentucky in 2008, the same season the Razorbacks were last in Lexington.
“Almost beat them,” Craddock said. “They tackled us on the 2-yard line on the last play of the game.”
According to an Associated Press account of the game, Middle Tennessee’s Eldred King was actually tackled at the 1-yard line at the end of a Hail Mary heave from Craddock to preserve Kentucky’s 20-14 win on the final play of the game.
Among Arkansas staff members, defensive coordinator John Chavis and defensive ends coach Steve Caldwell have coached in the most games at Kentucky as former long-time assistant coaches at Tennessee. Those Vols teams from 1989-2009 went 20-0 during a 26-game winning streak against the Wildcats, including 10-0 in Lexington, Ky.
“Any time I’ve been there it’s been a great venue,” Chavis said. “They’ve done a lot to improve their facilities. They’ve got great facilities.
“I’ve never been up there when their fans didn’t support their program, even some times when they weren’t as good as they are right now. Their fans do a great job supporting them and that’s what you expect to see in the SEC.”
Arkansas won the first game in the fledgling “rivalry,” 27-20 on Oct. 3, 1998, in Little Rock. And the Hogs won the last, a weather-shortened 49-7 victory on Oct. 13, 2012, at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
In between, the seven-overtime thriller won by Arkansas is sandwiched in the middle of a pair of two-game winning streaks for the Wildcats.
Arkansas fans who make the trip might hardly recognize the Cats’ stadium, which has undergone two renovations since their last visit. And two name changes, from Commonwealth Stadium to The New Commonwealth Stadium to Kroger Field.
Arkansas’ last visit to Kentucky ranks as perhaps the most winnable game during the Bobby Petrino era that the Razorbacks let slip away, along with the inability to scoop and score in the
2011 Sugar Bowl against Ohio State.
The Razorbacks blew a 20-7 lead in the final
4:47 in its last visit to Kentucky. Arkansas threw an interception in Kentucky territory on its first drive, lost a fumble at the Kentucky 1 later in the first quarter and had to settle for field goals from the Wildcats’ 2 and 6 yard lines in the second half. Randall Cobb caught touchdown passes of
32 and 21 yards from Mike Hartline in the final
4:15 to lead Kentucky’s comeback.
But it is the 2003 seven-overtime thriller that most fans recall when they think of Arkansas-Kentucky games of the past.
“I remember a great atmosphere,” said Houston Nutt, the former 10-year Arkansas head coach and the only man to win two seven-overtime games. “Jared Lorenzen, their great quarterback, was on one side, and Matt Jones was on the other.
“If you didn’t have this guy Lorenzen, if his left arm was free, and I don’t care how many people were around his legs, knees, whatever, he could find a way to get that ball out. He could improvise. And as big as he was, he could still move just well enough.”
DeCori Birmingham ran for 196 yards and two touchdowns for the Razorbacks, while Jones added 112 rushing yards and one touchdown and passed for 260 yards and three touchdowns.
“There was no moment too big for him,” Nutt said of Jones. “Just as cool as you can be. And when you’re 6-foot-6 and can run and escape, and you talk about improvising. There’s another guy that when something broke down he could make it happen. He and DeCori Birmingham, that’s what sticks out in my mind. They had good games, especially in the overtime periods.”
George Wilson, who would become a well-regarded safety for the Buffalo Bills, had nine catches for a game-high 172 yards, plus a touchdown and a 2-point conversion catch for the Razorbacks.
Also, Jason Peters a heavy tight end for Arkansas and a 16-year pro and nine-time Pro Bowler who is still active for the Philadelphia Eagles, caught a 7-yard touchdown pass on his only reception of the game and scored the final points on a 2-point conversion catch in the seventh overtime.