Cover contenders: Hypothetical stars for NCAA College Football’s 11-year hiatus
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David Hale, ESPN Staff WriterMay 16, 2024, 11:15 AM ET
Close- ACC reporter.
- Joined ESPN in 2012.
- Graduate of the University of Delaware.
After 11 lonely years, our long national nightmare is over.
EA Sports officially released a new cover of its famed NCAA football game this week, the first in the series since NCAA Football 2014 came out in 2013. Better yet, the rosters will be (mostly) complete with actual current college football players, thanks to the NCAA’s 2021 decision to allow name, image and likeness contracts.
Of course, the game’s return doesn’t make up for the time we spent without it — the legendary players we missed, the defining moments never to be captured in ones and zeroes, and the countless number of times you could’ve blown off a week of work to take UL-Monroe to a College Football Playoff National Championship.
While we can’t create a time machine to fix those missed opportunities, we can provide at least a little revisionist history, by working back through the past 11 years to determine who would have earned the honor of gracing the cover of each version.
First, a quick bit of context: During the game’s run (from 1993, first as “Bill Walsh College Football” through 2013), the cover image couldn’t include an active player. Typically, the new game sported a cover model who had flourished the prior season in college but had already left for the NFL — Denard Robinson, Robert Griffin III, Mark Ingram and Tim Tebow, to name a few — leaving them free to sell their images to EA. But here, we’re imagining a world where the NCAA allowed NIL starting in 2014, making all players eligible for the cover image, even if they still had eligibility remaining. This also means that players such as Joe Burrow who took his talents to the NFL after his breakout season, would not make the cut as a hypothetical cover athlete.
With that said, here are our picks for the cover of each of the 11 missing seasons of EA Sports NCAA Football.
NCAA Football 15
Expected release: Summer 2014
The contenders: Florida State QB Jameis Winston, Florida State WR Rashad Greene, Oregon QB Marcus Mariota, Wisconsin RB Melvin Gordon, Navy QB Keenan Reynolds, Clemson DE Vic Beasley
It’s a shame the game disappeared after the 2013 season, as NCAA Football 15 would’ve had its share of great options of incredibly popular first-year NFL players, from Aaron Donald to Jadeveon Clowney to Mike Evans to Kelvin Benjamin. The crop of returning players was a bit thinner, with some emerging stars like Gordon (1,609 yards, 12 TDs in 2013) and Reynolds (2,403 total yards, 39 total TDs) just ahead of their prime. Mariota would go on to win the 2014 Heisman Trophy, but he entered that season in the shadow of Winston, who would have been the obvious choice if not for a series of off-field issues, including a sexual assault allegation, that likely would have deterred EA from choosing him.
The cover: Greene. Let’s split the difference here. No Winston on the cover, but the honor instead can go to another member of the FSU national championship team. Greene was one of the true leaders of that 2013 squad, and he followed it up with an equally impressive 2014 in which he caught 99 passes for 1,365 yards and seven touchdowns.
NCAA Football 16
Expected release: Summer 2015
The contenders: Ohio State DE Joey Bosa, RB Ezekiel Elliott, QBs J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones, Arizona LB Scooby Wright, Florida State DB Jalen Ramsey, Mississippi State QB Dak Prescott, Alabama RB Derrick Henry
Mariota, Amari Cooper, Todd Gurley and Landon Collins all would’ve been in the mix before the NIL era began, but the 2015 class offered one of the most diverse and deep lists of returning players worthy of cover status. Ohio State won the national championship in the first College Football Playoff in 2014, and the litany of returning stars — Bosa, Elliott, Jones, Barrett, Braxton Miller, Von Bell — was incredible. Wright’s unique skill set made him an ideal cover model, while Ramsey might’ve been the most dynamic athlete in college football at the time. Prescott warrants consideration, too, for getting Mississippi State to the top of the first CFP rankings, and had the world known what a star he’d later become in the NFL, he’d probably be the obvious pick here.
The cover: Bosa. We love the idea of Jones, Miller and Barrett sharing the cover after Ohio State won a natty with its third-string QB, but we also envision Urban Meyer putting a stop to any additional media scrutiny — even in the lighthearted form of a video game cover — of his delicate QB situation entering the 2015 season. Instead, Bosa seems like the safe solution. He was dominant in the Buckeyes’ title run in 2014, racking up 13.5 sacks and 21 tackles for loss, and it was clear entering the 2015 campaign that he was destined to be an early NFL draft pick. Plus, it’s good to give the defensive guys some love.
NCAA Football 17
Expected release: Summer 2016
The contenders: Clemson QB Deshaun Watson, Oklahoma QB Baker Mayfield, LSU RB Leonard Fournette, Stanford RB Christian McCaffrey, Florida State RB Dalvin Cook
This was a rare season in which the talent returning far exceeded the names headed to the NFL, so EA surely would’ve been pleased to have NIL open the doors to a better cover option than (no offense) Jared Goff or Eli Apple. In any case, the college options were plentiful and all deserving. Mayfield had thrown for 3,700 yards. McCaffrey was an all-purpose Superman. Cook was as electric of a runner as there was in the sport. Fournette was a high school legend who finally seemed poised to live up to the recruiting hype. Watson had come within a hair of leading Clemson past the vaunted Alabama machine for a national title.
The cover: McCaffrey. It’s a tough call between the Stanford star and the emergent Watson, who’d go on to win a national title over Alabama at the end of the 2016 season. But at the time, there was no more remarkable talent in the sport than McCaffrey, who was a unanimous All-American after amassing 2,019 rushing yards, 645 receiving yards and 1,070 return yards for a truly astonishing tally of 3,864 all-purpose yards — 613 more than the previous record held by Barry Sanders.
NCAA Football 18
Expected release: Summer 2017
The contenders: Mayfield, Penn State RB Saquon Barkley, Louisville QB Lamar Jackson, Alabama S Minkah Fitzpatrick
Mayfield had just posted his second straight season as a Heisman finalist, throwing for 40 touchdowns. Barkley had rushed for nearly 1,500 yards and 18 TDs. Fitzpatrick was an emerging superstar on Alabama’s defense. There were good options. But there was only one obvious choice.
The cover: Jackson. His skill set would’ve put him among the pantheon of the greatest video game stars of all time, alongside Tecmo Bo Jackson, Jeremy Roenick in NHL 94, Bald Bull from “Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!” and former Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Jeff D’Amico, who we all once used to throw a perfect game against our college roommate in MLB ’99. Every play with NCAA Football Lamar Jackson would’ve been a deep ball or a scramble, and he’d finish a season with 20,000 yards because there would’ve been no answer for him.
NCAA Football 19
Expected release: Summer 2018
The contenders: Stanford RB Bryce Love, Houston DE Ed Oliver, Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa, Wisconsin RB Jonathan Taylor, FAU RB Devin Singletary, Arizona State WR N’Keal Harry, Clemson’s defensive line of Christian Wilkins, Clelin Ferrell, Austin Bryant and Dexter Lawrence
It seems like an oversight that Mayfield spent three seasons dominating the Big 12 without ever cracking our hypothetical NCAA Football cover, but alas, he’d moved on to doing insurance commercials in a Cleveland Browns uniform by now. Fitzpatrick, Jackson, Barkley, Derwin James and Rashaad Penny were all off to the NFL, too, though all would’ve been exceptional cover options under the old system. Instead, the battle for the cover starts with a number of elite backs. Love was fresh off rushing for 2,118 yards and 19 TDs. Singletary had a little Heisman hype, including a model race car mailed out to Heisman voters to push his campaign. Taylor had turned in the first of three straight seasons with more than 1,900 yards rushing in 2017. Oliver would’ve been a great option, too. He was a dominant force with his own Heisman campaign (a bobblehead on a horse). But the honor likely comes down to two options: The ascendant QB at Alabama or the dominant defensive front at Clemson, each member returning for one last ride that eventually ended with a national title.
The cover: Tagovailoa. As much fun as it would’ve been to see the Clemson D-linemen don their famous Power Rangers costumes on the game’s cover, the buzz in the summer of 2018 was all about Tagovailoa. He’d come off the bench at halftime to rescue Alabama from the abyss in the national championship game, making him a rare combination of genuine star power and unknown commodity. The only problem with the choice is the reaction it would’ve undoubtedly engendered from Nick Saban, who wasn’t entirely eager to stoke the flames of the supposed QB battle between Tagovailoa and Jalen Hurts that summer. Of course, if NIL rules were in place in 2018, does anyone think Hurts would’ve stuck around to ride the bench anyway?
NCAA Football 20
Expected release: Summer 2019
The contenders: Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence and RB Travis Etienne, Wisconsin RB Jonathan Taylor, Purdue WR Rondale Moore, Ohio State DE Chase Young, Oklahoma State WR Tylan Wallace, Alabama QB Tagovailoa and WR Jerry Jeudy, LSU DB Greedy Williams
Lawrence and Etienne made for a worthy tandem, both fresh off a national title with two years left at Clemson. Moore was a revelation as a freshman, electric as a receiver and a return man. Young was the second coming of Bosa, a force of nature at the line of scrimmage who racked up 9.5 sacks and 14.5 TFL, presaging an even bigger season in 2019. Tagovailoa and Jeudy had just been dismissed by Clemson in the title game, but there was still ample hype surrounding Alabama.
The cover: Lawrence. Not since Herschel Walker in 1980 had a freshman seemed so destined to win multiple championships as Lawrence at this point. He’d taken over as Clemson’s starter in Week 5 of the 2018 season, posted dominant numbers, then led the Tigers to a national title while annihilating the unstoppable force of the Alabama Crimson Tide. Alas, it was not to be, and by the end of 2019, Lawrence’s title team didn’t even seem nearly so dominant anymore after Joe Burrow & Co. set the standard in college football. Still, Lawrence was a bona fide star, and if there’s anything we’ve learned from lifestyle magazines over the years, it’s that hair as glorious as his belongs on the cover.
NCAA Football 21
Expected release: Summer 2020
The contenders: LSU CB Derek Stingley and WR JaMarr Chase, Alabama WR DeVonta Smith, Oregon OL Penei Sewell, Penn State LB Micah Parsons, Minnesota CB Antoine Winfield Jr., Ohio State QB Justin Fields
If scrubbing Lamar Jackson from the college football video game record books is the biggest loss from NCAA Football’s 11-year hiatus, the lack of a 2020 edition is a close second. It’s hard to overstate how many units would’ve sold at the height of the COVID-19 shutdown, when it looked for much of the summer as if no actual college football would be played. Instead of going for walks, starting home renovation projects or spending quality time with immediate family, we could’ve wasted away those long, tumultuous days challenging LSU’s supremacy with plucky upstart Grayson McCall and Coastal Carolina and built a dynasty. Alas, it was not meant to be.
This also might be the year when EA was most convinced to go back to the old process and select a player who starred in the prior college football season but was now off to the NFL, because Burrow absolutely deserved a cover after his 2019 campaign. If we’re sticking with our precedent of returning players, however, his LSU teammates Stingley and Chase made for exceptional consolation prizes. Stingley starred as a true freshman, anchoring that LSU defense, while Chase was the most dominant receiver on a team absolutely stacked with talent at the position. Parsons would’ve been a nice alternative after offensive players dominated the covers, and Sewell could’ve been a worthy hat tip to big men everywhere. Smith wasn’t exactly heralded as a genuine superstar entering the 2020 season, but he’d racked up 1,256 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns as a junior and, by year’s end, would become the first Heisman winner who wasn’t a QB or running back since Charles Woodson.
The cover: Stingley. There were lots of good options here, but Stingley had the recruiting hype, on-field performance, and post-national title glow to warrant a cover, and it’s nice to get away from the QBs and skill position guys on offense. That the rest of Stingley’s LSU career didn’t quite match the freshman hype — largely due to injuries — is unimportant here. LSU was the best team to grace a college football field in decades, and he had a strong argument to be considered its biggest returning star.
NCAA Football 22
Expected release: Summer 2021
The contenders: Clemson QB DJ Uiagalelei, Alabama QB Bryce Young, LSU’s Stingley, Oregon DE Kayvon Thibodeaux, Cincinnati CB Sauce Gardner, Iowa State RB Breece Hall
And so it is that we’ve reached the year in which actual NIL deals were happening around college football, even if EA would need another three years before it could take advantage of the rule change to release a new game. Still, NIL allowed players like Uiagalelei, Young and Stingley to become household names outside of just the college football world, enjoying national endorsement deals and a new level of prestige. But Dr Pepper is one thing. The cover of NCAA Football is another. Young hadn’t taken a meaningful snap yet at Alabama, but his star turn was all but assured. Gardner, fresh off leading Cincinnati to the first playoff berth for a Group of 5 school, might’ve been an intriguing choice, too. A retrospectively amusing option might’ve been J.T. Daniels, who looked poised to take over at QB at Georgia in the summer of 2021, only to lose his job to a former walk-on — who we’ll get to in a bit — a couple months later.
The cover: Uiagalelei. There’s not a clear front-runner among the contenders, but Uiagalelei was probably the biggest name at the time. He’d started two games in relief of Lawrence in 2020 and looked terrific in both. He was a former five-star recruit. He had a big personality, big arm and already had inked some very big endorsement deals. It’s almost hard to imagine now — knowing how it all turned out — but on the heels of Tajh Boyd, Watson and Lawrence excelling at Clemson, Uiagalelei seemed about as close to a surefire star as possible. But hey, maybe in 2023 at Florida State, he’ll actually become one.
NCAA Football 23
Expected release: Summer 2022
The contenders: Georgia DT Jalen Carter, TE Brock Bowers and QB Stetson Bennett, Alabama QB Young and OLB Will Anderson, Kansas State RB Deuce Vaughn, USC QB Caleb Williams and WR Jordan Addison, Ohio State QB CJ Stroud, Miami QB Tyler Van Dyke, Texas RB Bijan Robinson, past cover winners
Georgia’s run to a national title allows for plenty of options in Athens, with Bowers the clear headliner, Carter the defensive force, and Bennett the beloved underdog success story. Anderson was coming off one of the best seasons for a pass-rusher in recent memory, and Williams and Robinson had both flashed enough talent in the latter half of 2021 to be primed for even bigger things ahead. And then there’s Young. The prior two Heisman winners to return to school the following year — Winston and Jackson — were our selections to grace the cover, so ignoring Young’s win would be tough. In other words, this would’ve been among the deepest pools of cover candidates during the 11-year absence of the game, but it also would’ve marked the 20th edition of NCAA Football, and it’s entirely possible EA would want to celebrate the occasion with a retrospective, perhaps featuring some past cover models such as Tommie Frazier (from the game’s first cover), Woodson, Tebow or Reggie Bush.
The cover: Bowers, alongside the greats. This is the most elegant solution. Yes, EA should’ve celebrated its 20th installment by putting past stars on the cover, but the best way to blend the old with the new would be to add Bowers — soon to be the game’s most dynamic tight end — to the group.
NCAA Football 24
Expected release: Summer 2023
The contenders: USC’s Williams, Colorado WR/CB Travis Hunter, QB Shedeur Sanders and head coach Deion Sanders, Ohio State WR Marvin Harrison Jr., LSU LB Harold Perkins, UNC QB Drake Maye
Williams was the defending Heisman winner. Perkins looked like he’d be the biggest star in the sport after a show-stopping freshman campaign. Harrison was already a star with ample name recognition. The entire Colorado story was a cash cow for everyone involved.
The cover: Williams. And perhaps this is the one time we’re grateful for the game’s absence because, as much as we think Williams would’ve been the deserving honoree to grace the cover, there’s also a pretty strong chance the allure of a Coach Prime sales bump would be too hard to ignore, and frankly, Sanders didn’t need any more hype. On the other hand, there’s plenty of time for Prime to win the Big 12, watch as his son wins the Heisman, recruit a top-five class without leaving his office, and nab the cover of NCAA Football 26.
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Low and inside: O’s will again alter LF dimensions
Published
3 hours agoon
November 15, 2024By
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Associated Press
Nov 15, 2024, 06:30 PM ET
BALTIMORE — The Orioles are ready to adjust their wall in left field again.
The team moved the wall at Camden Yards back and made it significantly taller before the 2022 season. General manager Mike Elias said Friday the team “overcorrected” and will try to find a “happier medium” before the 2025 season.
The team sent out a rendering of changes showing the wall moved farther in — particularly in left-center field near the bullpens — and reduced in height.
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Dodgers’ Graterol (shoulder) to sit first half of ’25
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3 hours agoon
November 15, 2024By
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Associated Press
Nov 15, 2024, 05:19 PM ET
LOS ANGELES — Dodgers right-hander Brusdar Graterol will miss the first half of next season after having surgery to repair the labrum in his right shoulder.
The surgery was performed Thursday by Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the Dodgers announced Friday.
Graterol is expected to return in the second half of the 2025 season.
Graterol pitched in seven games during the regular season and three games in the World Series against the New York Yankees, which the Dodgers won in five games. He allowed three hits over 2⅓ scoreless innings in those World Series appearances.
The 26-year-old was slowed this season by shoulder inflammation and a hamstring injury.
Graterol, a hard-throwing Venezuelan, spent his first season in the majors with Minnesota in 2019, and the Twins traded him to the Dodgers before the 2020 season. For his career, he has a 2.78 ERA and 11 saves in 188 games.
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‘They absolutely hate our guts’: The weird, wonderful games that define Texas-Arkansas
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November 15, 2024By
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Bill Connelly, ESPN Staff WriterNov 15, 2024, 06:46 AM ET
Close- Bill Connelly is a staff writer for ESPN.com.
At SEC media days in July, Steve Sarkisian inadvertently described a good portion of college football in a single line. “I feel like when you go to Arkansas,” the Texas Longhorns coach said, “I almost at times feel like they hate Texas more than they like themselves. That’s a real rivalry.”
Later that week, Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman confirmed Sarkisian’s take. “We hadn’t played Texas for years,” he said, “and when we played them a couple of years back, it was the most excited our fan base has been in a while. So I would say he’s probably right.”
Houston Nutt can testify. Nutt grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas. He idolized legendary Arkansas coach Frank Broyles and watched him battle Darrell Royal and the Longhorns before playing for the Razorbacks himself.
“When Texas came to play Arkansas, it was this huge, huge thing,” he told ESPN in 2019. “I remember being taught at the age of 6 outside War Memorial Stadium [in Little Rock] how to do the Hook ‘Em Horns Down sign.”
Nutt beat the Horns as the Hogs’ coach, a 27-6 win in the 2000 Cotton Bowl, Arkansas’ first bowl win since 1985. He turned around, and threw the Horns Down to the Arkansas fans.
“It was a sea of red, and they were mostly doing the Hook ‘Em Horns Down,” Nutt said. “What did I do? I can’t help it. I’m right there with ’em.”
Conference realignment has broken countless rivalries through the years. There are no Oklahoma-Oklahoma State games on the schedule; Missouri and Kansas haven’t played since 2011; Cal has traded playing UCLA for playing NC State; Oregon-Oregon State and Washington-Washington State have been moved from the traditional bottom of the schedule to the top; Pitt and West Virginia play only sporadically, as do Oklahoma and Nebraska. But in the “thank God for small favors” department, this latest round of realignment at least reignited a few rivalries to replace the further ones we lost. Longtime Big 8 and Big 12 rivals Oklahoma and Missouri played this past Saturday for the first time in 13 years (and celebrated the occasion with a particularly wacky finish), and on Nov. 30 not only will we get our first Texas vs. Texas A&M game since 2011 but it also might have enormous College Football Playoff stakes.
While we wait for Aggies-Horns, however, we get a rivalry game that, for quite a while, outshined Texas-A&M and defined Southwest Conference football. On Saturday, Texas and Arkansas will play for just the fourth time in 20 years and will play as conference rivals for the first time in 33. Most rivalries fit into certain parameters — the dueling heavyweights that split the wins over time, the heavyweight against the aspirant that measures itself by how well it’s faring against the big dog, etc. — but over the course of a few decades, Arkansas-Texas fit into multiple categories. Arkansas was the aggrieved and aspirant underdog for much of the series, but for much of the 1960s, when Royal and Broyles were at the top of their respective games, this was the biggest game in college football. Whichever flavor it takes on at a given time, this game remains spicy.
Texas is 8-1 and listed as a favorite by more than two touchdowns Saturday, while Arkansas is 5-4, having handed Tennessee its only loss of the season but suffered two blowout losses in its past four games. The Razorbacks are volatile underdogs; the Longhorns are SEC title favorites; and, for at least a little while Saturday, Razorback Stadium will be an absolute cauldron. To prepare ourselves, let’s look back at 10 of the most noteworthy games in this revived rivalry’s history.
No. 3 Texas 20, No. 14 Arkansas 0 (1946)
“Steers Trounce Tough Porkers For 5th Victory” was the headline in the Austin American. At 3-0-1, Arkansas was off to its best start in 13 years, and for the first time these teams met as mutually ranked foes. But Texas, also unbeaten and the winner of three of the past four Southwest Conference (SWC) crowns, handled both the moment and the muggy conditions better. Future pro and college football Hall of Famer Bobby Layne threw a pair of touchdown passes — one to Hub Bechtol for 50 yards, one to Jim Canady for 47 — and the Longhorns had scored all their points by halftime. This was a pretty common result: Aside from a mid-1930s run in which Texas lost its way as a program and Arkansas won five of six games between them, UT dominated the early stages of this rivalry, winning 29 of the first 35 battles. It’s been a lot closer since then.
This was the high-water mark for the “Steers,” by the way, as they would fall via road upset to both Rice and TCU, handing Arkansas only its second SWC title. The Razorbacks would head to Dallas, where they endured a 0-0 tie with LSU in the Cotton Bowl.
No. 3 Texas 13, No. 12 Arkansas 12 (1959)
After falling apart under Edwin Price in the mid-1950s, Texas righted the ship by hiring Royal, a former Oklahoma Sooner, to lead the program in 1957. In 1959 the Longhorns embarked on a run of nine top-10 finishes and two national titles in 14 years. Royal won his first two games against Arkansas by a combined 41-6, but second-year head coach Broyles also had things up and running by 1959. The Razorbacks would enjoy eight top-10 finishes in 11 years from 1959 to 1969; in this tight loss, they served notice as to what was coming.
As with much of 1950s college football, this game was decided by disasters. Both teams lost four fumbles; Arkansas recovered a loose ball to set up its first touchdown, but with Texas trailing 12-7 in the third quarter, another future Hall of Famer, Lance Alworth, muffed a punt, which set up a winning touchdown pass from Bart Shirley to Jack Collins. Between 1959 and 1969, eight of 11 Steers-Porkers games would be decided by five or fewer points.
No. 8 Arkansas 14, No. 1 Texas 13 (1964)
Texas won its first national title under Royal in 1963; the Longhorns shined in big games that season, beating No. 1 Oklahoma and No. 2 Navy by a combined 56-13, but they managed only a 17-13 win over Arkansas in Fayetteville. They advanced their winning streak to 15 games early in 1964, but Broyles was building a title-worthy squad of his own by then.
For the third time in four years, this was a matchup of top-10 teams. The most famous members of the 1964 Razorbacks were future Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and future college and NFL title winner Jimmy Johnson, but future Arkansas coach Ken Hatfield made the difference in this one. His 81-yard punt return gave Arkansas a 7-0 halftime lead, and after Texas tied the score in the fourth quarter, Fred Marshall found Bobby Crockett for a 34-yard touchdown to put Arkansas ahead once more. With about a minute left, Ernie Koy scored on a 1-yard plunge; Royal, entirely uninterested in a tie, elected to go for two points and the win, but a pass attempt came up short. Texas’ winning streak was over, and Arkansas would go on to finish 11-0 and score a share of its first national title.
No. 3 Arkansas 27, No. 1 Texas 24 (1965)
By October 1965, Arkansas had extended its winning streak to 16 games, winning its first four games of 1965 by a combined 114-33. But Texas had leapfrogged the Razorbacks to get back to No. 1, thanks in part to a 19-0 win over Oklahoma. That put the chip firmly back on Arkansas’ shoulder.
With the extra dose of motivation — plus, perhaps, some divine intervention: Fayetteville’s First Baptist Church famously posted, “Football is only a game, eternal things are spiritual. Nevertheless, beat Texas” that week — Arkansas raced to an early lead thanks to a pair of Phil Harris fumbles. Martine Bercher recovered the first one in the end zone, then Tommy Trantham took another one 77 yards for a score.
Arkansas went up 20-0 after a Jon Brittenum-to-Bobby Crockett touchdown, but Texas charged back. It was 20-11 by halftime, and David Conway’s 34-yard field goal made it 24-20 Longhorns with just five minutes left. Brittenum scored from a yard out with 1:32 remaining, though, and Arkansas had its second of three straight wins in the series.
The Hogs would run their overall winning streak to 22 before falling to LSU 14-7 in the Cotton Bowl.
No. 1 Texas 15, No. 2 Arkansas 14 (1969)
Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? Texas usually played Oklahoma and Arkansas back-to-back in early October, but Roone Arledge, the innovative head of ABC Sports, had an idea in the offseason. Texas had finished 1968 as the hottest team in the country, winning its last nine games and averaging 37 points per game with offensive coordinator Emory Bellard’s innovative wishbone scheme. Arkansas, meanwhile, finished 10-1 with only a 39-29 loss at Texas. The Longhorns and Razorbacks finished third and sixth, respectively, in the AP poll and headed into 1969, college football’s centennial season, as obvious national title contenders.
According to Terry Frei’s “Horns, Hogs, and Nixon’s Coming,” ABC publicist (and future ESPN analyst) Beano Cook pored over the schedules and determined that Arkansas, Texas and Penn State all had good chances of going unbeaten. “My recommendation involved Penn State and Arkansas finishing the regular season with perfect records and then playing for the national title,” Cook told Frei. “I said we should move Texas-Arkansas to December 6, because I thought Texas might be undefeated then, too.” Arledge told the coaches that former Oklahoma coach and politician Bud Wilkinson could make sure that new President Richard Nixon was likely to attend the game as well. It was going to be a spectacle unlike anything college football had seen.
Sure enough, the Longhorns and Razorbacks both reached December unbeaten (as did Penn State), and Nixon was there in the stands for a game that somehow lived up to all expectations.
With Texas’ offense discombobulated early — the Horns turned the ball over on their first two drives — Arkansas scored on a short Bill Burnett run and, early in the third quarter, a 29-yard catch by star receiver Chuck Dicus. Texas quarterback James Street scored on the first play of the fourth quarter, then scored on a 2-point conversion as well. (Royal decided before the game that he once again wanted to avoid a tie at all costs.)
With the score 14-8, Arkansas drove the length of the field and was on the verge of putting the game away until Danny Lester picked off a Bill Montgomery pass in the end zone. Then came “Right 53 Veer Pass”: On a fourth-and-3 near midfield, Street threw a bomb to Randy Peschel for 44 yards.
#TBT – 1969: Texas defeats Arkansas 15-14.#ThisIsTexas #HookEm pic.twitter.com/xoqn5cbhFm
— Texas Football (@TexasFootball) October 17, 2019
Two plays later, Texas went ahead with a short Jim Bertelsen touchdown. Arkansas drove near field goal range in the final seconds, but Tom Campbell picked off Montgomery to ice the game, and Nixon declared Texas the national champion in the locker room after the game. (This rather annoyed Penn State’s Joe Paterno, whose team was also unbeaten.)
College football’s explosion as a television product can be ascribed to countless things, but ABC’s innovative approach to broadcasting, followed by a couple of all-time classics — this and 1971 Oklahoma-Nebraska, to name two — in short succession certainly didn’t hurt.
No. 1 Texas 42, No. 4 Arkansas 7 (1970)
The sequel often fails to live up to the billing. Almost exactly a year after the 1969 classic, Texas was riding a 29-game winning streak, while 9-1 Arkansas was ranked fourth in the AP poll and looking for revenge on national television. It didn’t quite work out.
Texas rushed for 464 yards — Bertelsen and Steve Worster combined for 315 on their own, with five of the Longhorns’ six touchdowns — and picked off Montgomery three times. After a goal-line stand by the Longhorns’ defense prevented Arkansas from tying the score early on, the floodgates opened.
The tide had again turned in the rivalry. Arkansas would finally get some measure of revenge the next year with a win in Little Rock, but after winning four of seven over the Horns between 1960-66, the Hogs won only once between 1966-79.
No. 8 Texas 28, No. 3 Arkansas 21 (1978)
A generation ended when both Royal and Broyles retired after matching 5-5-1 seasons in 1976. They both ended up hiring their younger replacements — 38-year old Fred Akers at UT, 40-year old Lou Holtz at Arkansas — as their schools’ respective athletic directors.
Both led immediate rebounds. Holtz won 30 games, Akers won 29, and both schools finished in the AP top 12 each year from 1977 to 1979. In 1978, Akers’ Longhorns played a unique role, too: spoiler. They welcomed unbeaten Arkansas to Austin and ended the Hogs’ 11-game winning streak. Two Randy McEachern touchdown passes in the final minute of the first half turned a tie into a 20-7 Texas lead, and when Arkansas charged back to take the lead, Johnny “Lam” Jones caught McEachern’s third TD pass, and Johnnie Johnson picked off one pass and broke up another on a fourth down to seal the win. This was the first of four straight upsets in the series, with the lower-ranked team winning every year from 1978 to 1981. My favorite rivalries are the ones that make no sense.
Arkansas 42, No. 1 Texas 11 (1981)
And now for maybe the most shocking result in the history of the rivalry. Akers’ Longhorns entered the 1981 game No. 1 in the country, having just blown out Barry Switzer’s Oklahoma 34-14 to move to 4-0. Arkansas, meanwhile, had fallen out of the AP rankings two weeks earlier after a road loss to an awful TCU team that would finish 2-7-2. Surely a blowout was in store, right?
This was indeed a blowout, but not the one anyone expected. Two fumbles and a safety from an airmailed punt snap gave Arkansas a quick 15-0 lead, and the Longhorns never got closer. The Hogs led 25-3 at halftime and 39-3 after three quarters; Texas actually outgained the home team 421-323, but seven turnovers sabotaged all efforts. A turnaround in the series? Not so much. The last two Akers-Holtz battles ended up a combined 64-10 in favor of the team in burnt orange. But this one was an awfully big thumb in the eye, and it would prevent the Horns from winning a national title — they ended up second in the polls behind Clemson.
Arkansas 14, Texas 13 (1991)
“Ain’t no rematch. Best thing of all, ain’t gonna be no rematch.” That’s Arkansas head coach Jack Crowe, celebrating a Hogs win in the final SWC matchup between the two rivals. He had just weathered one of the silliest games in the series to secure permanent (well, permanent-ish) bragging rights. Arkansas led 14-0 at halftime after touchdowns from Ron Dickerson Jr. and Kerwin Price, but a 14-yard Phil Brown touchdown made it 14-7 heading into the fourth quarter, and a 55-yard burst from Brown tied the score. Or at least, it should have: The Longhorns missed the PAT, then missed a 39-yard field goal attempt with 3:45 left.
The teams weren’t particularly memorable, even if the game was. Crowe’s Razorbacks went 6-6 in their last season in the SWC, while David McWilliams’ fifth and final Texas team went 5-6. The teams had weathered ups and downs, splitting the previous six meetings and producing zero top-10 finishes from 1984 to 1991 as the SWC wobbled through controversies and discontent. In 1990, the SEC announced it was adding Arkansas as part of an expansion to 10 teams; the plan had originally included adding not only the Hogs but also Texas and Texas A&M, but the state legislature intervened, and only Arkansas was on its way out the door. So was Crowe: Broyles fired him (and then tried to get away with announcing he’d resigned) after Arkansas began its SEC tenure with a 10-3 loss to The Citadel.
No. 7 Texas 22, Arkansas 20 (2004)
Since 1991, this has basically been a series of pent-up aggression: Whichever rival takes an early lead when they meet just keeps wailing away for a while. Arkansas won two bowl meetings (the 2000 Cotton Bowl and the 2014 Texas Bowl) by a combined 58-13, Texas won a home game in Austin 52-10 in 2008, and Arkansas won a home game in Fayetteville, Steve Sarkisian’s second game in charge at Texas, by a score of 40-21 in 2021.
A 2003-04 home-and-home series produced some drama, though. Arkansas upset No. 6 Texas by a 38-28 margin in 2003, using an early 21-0 run to build some space, getting 217 combined rushing yards from Cedric Cobbs and quarterback Matt Jones and scoring every time it needed to down the stretch.
But with a young quarterback by the name of Vince Young taking over for UT in 2004, the Longhorns got some revenge. Texas built a quick 9-0 advantage with a safety from a bombed punt snap and a 49-yard TD from Young to David Thomas. And from there, it was the Cedric Benson show: The star running back produced 201 yards from scrimmage and scored via both ground and air. Texas held a 22-17 lead into the fourth quarter, and after forcing an Arkansas field goal with 9:58 left, the Longhorns’ defense forced three consecutive turnovers to ice the win. Arkansas would stumble to a disappointing 5-6 record, while Mack Brown’s Longhorns would finish 11-1 before winning the national title a year later.
The most recent Hogs-Horns game might turn out to have been pretty useful. “I don’t know what Darrell Royal did to Arkansas back in the day,” Sarkisian joked with reporters this week, “but they absolutely hate our guts. And I think we learned that the first time around when we went there.”
Texas knows what it’s walking into, at least. They know to expect a Horns Down or two, though we’ll have to wait and see if Sam Pittman gets in on the act.
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