Stanley Cup Final Game 7 mega-preview: What’s at stake, key players to watch, picks
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adminIt has all come down to this. After the Florida Panthers opened up a 3-0 lead on the Edmonton Oilers in the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, many believed the series to be all but over.
Then Connor McDavid and his friends outscored the Panthers by a combined score of 18-5 en route to tying the series up at three games apiece, becoming just the third team in NHL history to do so in the Stanley Cup Final.
Will the Oilers pull off the historic reverse sweep? Can the Panthers avoid ignominy? Here’s everything you need to know before puck drop tonight, including what’s at stake for each team, key players to watch and advanced matchup metrics from ESPN Stats & Information.
Jump ahead: What’s at stake?
Players to watch, picks
Key stats for Game 7
What’s at stake for the Panthers?
Reputation. And we’re not talking (underrated) Taylor Swift albums.
The Panthers had been afterthoughts for most of the franchise’s history. Florida lost in the 1996 Stanley Cup Final and then made just four playoff appearances — without winning a round — through the next 23 years. It was a team players aspired to join at the end of their careers, when it was more about the temperate climate and less about potential to win. And the Panthers were used to an arena filled with opposing fans capitalizing on their cheap tickets in a sunny locale not readily available in most hockey markets. A nice perk perhaps, but hardly a foundation upon which to build a thriving culture.
That’s what Florida has now, though. GM Bill Zito has methodically crafted the Panthers into a true top-tier contender. He turned Florida into a President’s Trophy winner and, when that didn’t translate to postseason success, had the courage to trade his club’s best player (Jonathan Huberdeau) for Matthew Tkachuk in a blockbuster swap that might have ended horribly for Florida. But it didn’t. Zito grabbed low-risk, high-reward players such as Gustav Forsling (off waivers) and Oliver Ekman-Larsson (post-buyout) who have played key roles for them in this dominant season. If last year’s run to the Final was a fluke, this year’s berth was anything but. Florida was supposed to be this good. The Panthers were meant to be at this pinnacle and provide it repeatedly with their play throughout the playoffs.
If they let this opportunity to be Cup champions slip away after holding a 3-0 lead in this series, that’s a dagger in more ways than one. Florida can write a chapter on its history now that even five years ago might have seemed like a pipe dream. The only question for the Panthers now is: Are you ready for it?
What’s at stake for the Oilers?
In a word, legacy. Edmonton is one of those places where winning just isn’t enough. There must be something additional about the way the team won.
The Oilers haven’t just won five Stanley Cups. They won five Stanley Cups in seven seasons. They didn’t simply have great players. They had some of the greatest players of all time, with one of them being the greatest to ever play hockey. Winning this particular Stanley Cup not only adds to their legacy, but enhances it even more. A franchise that has gone from being the standard to being in the cellar is now a win away from returning to the pinnacle; it’s a chance to pull off what would become the greatest comeback in NHL history, and maybe the greatest comeback in North American professional sports.
The more sobering truth is that this could be the Oilers’ best and/or possibly only chance to win a Stanley Cup with Leon Draisaitl and McDavid, because there is no guarantee they can get back to this position. Edmonton has gone through front office, coaching, personnel and philosophical changes to do everything possible to win with a pair of generational talents. Winning Game 7 and the Stanley Cup would prove all those decisions correct. Not that losing Game 7 and the Stanley Cup would condemn every aspect of the franchise’s path. But it would lead to more questions at a time in which Draisaitl is heading into the final year of his contract as he and McDavid enter their late 20s.
Winning Game 7 would give the Oilers an opportunity to say they won it regardless what happens going forward. Losing Game 7 would only make the path forward slightly more painful to navigate knowing they were this close. — Ryan S. Clark
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Who is the one key player you’ll be watching for the Panthers?
Ryan S. Clark, NHL reporter: Sergei Bobrovsky. He went from being a win away from capturing his first Stanley Cup and a Conn Smythe, to now facing questions about what has gone wrong with both him and his teammates. Losing Game 7 and the Stanley Cup as a whole would not be entirely on Bobrovsky. The Panthers have struggled to defend their zone and haven’t provided the level of offensive support needed to help any goaltender. That said, Bobrovsky has also had his challenges that have compounded the Panthers’ problems. It all amounts to the fact that Bobrovsky, a two-time Vezina Trophy winner, would be one of the faces of a team that went from having a chance to sweep the Stanley Cup Final only to be on the other end of what would be one of the biggest collapses in sports history.
Victoria Matiash, NHL analyst: Carter Verhaeghe. Minus-11 through the past four games, he has one lonely assist since the series opener. Not so good. The top-line winger now has one contest remaining to save his team from suffering a legendary collapse and his own reputation as a clutch playoff performer. No one will remember the inferior numbers leading in if Verhaeghe manages to tangibly turn it around when it matters most.
Arda Öcal, NHL broadcaster: Gustav Forsling. As the Panthers have gone, so has Forsling. He was plus-4 in Games 1-3, minus-5 in Games 4-6. Will he be able to play that shutdown role in Game 7? Can he contain McDavid like he did in the first three games? Forsling will certainly get his flowers from hockey fans, even if his contributions might not receive the big headlines, but they certainly are important and critical to Florida’s success in Game 7 and ultimately raising the Stanley Cup.
Kristen Shilton, NHL reporter: Sam Reinhart. Reinhart has been noticeably missing in this Cup Final. One goal and two assists through six games — and zero points total in the past three when Florida had a chance to put Edmonton away? That’s shocking output from a skater who put up 57 goals in the regular season and produced 12 points in 17 postseason games prior to the Panthers facing the Oilers. Whatever has gone wrong for Reinhart so far, he’d better put it behind him in a hurry. Florida needs its best players to match what Edmonton has going from its stars in this series.
Greg Wyshynski, NHL reporter: Matthew Tkachuk. Welp, here we are. The chance for a superstar to have a superstar moment. Tkachuk tied with Aleksander Barkov for the team lead in scoring (22 points), but you can count on one hand the number of games in which Tkachuk was a driving force for Florida. We caught a glimpse of that player in the Panthers’ Game 5 loss: Throwing the body, defending brilliantly and factoring on two goals. That was sandwiched by two minus-3 efforts, including Game 6, when his line with Sam Bennett and Evan Rodrigues was a major dud. A playoff run that has been more compilation than clutch will be immediately rewritten by an impactful Stanley Cup Final Game 7. A broken sternum cost him this kind of chance in 2023 against Vegas. This is his moment.
Who is the one key player you’ll be watching for the Oilers?
Clark: Connor McDavid. The fact he didn’t have a single shot on goal in Game 6 is wild, given that he’s the game’s best and most dominant player. But it also speaks to how the Oilers can win even if he doesn’t record a shot or a point. We’ve seen the Oilers rely on their entire roster to force a Game 7. If they can get another multipoint performance from McDavid in addition to the secondary and tertiary offense they produced in Game 6, it could prove too overwhelming en route to winning their first Stanley Cup in more than 30 years.
Matiash: Leon Draisaitl. It would seem a bit bizarre to watch the Oilers hoist the Cup following a seven-gamer in which Draisaitl, even badly hobbled, didn’t score a single goal. Especially considering his postseason history and the handful of recent quality chances. One of his own past Panthers goaltender Bobrovsky, along with a helper similar to Friday’s perfect pass to Warren Foegele to open the scoring in Game 6, would go a long way to sealing the deal for Edmonton.
Öcal: The obvious answer here is McDavid, but I’ll go with Draisaitl. He has three assists this series, which is surprising by his lofty standards. The Oilers won their first game without McDavid registering a point or a shot in Game 6, but the Oilers also pushed this to Game 7 without Draisaitl being the second-best player on the team, which he usually is. He had flashes of his usual self Friday; what if Monday is “The Draisaitl Game”?
Shilton: Zach Hyman. We can’t say Hyman is underrated, per se. But he has 16 goals in the playoffs (the most by any active player in a single postseason), and he tends to light the lamp in a timely fashion to boot. That’s going to be key for Edmonton in Game 7. Florida will be zeroed in on containing McDavid and Draisaitl, which should continue to give Hyman opportunity to do his thing. If the Oilers need a consistent performance in any facet of the game, they can count on Hyman to deliver. And he’s just fun to watch.
Wyshynski: Stuart Skinner. Were it not for McDavid rewriting the record books, Skinner would have a legitimate claim to the Conn Smythe Trophy for his late-series mastery in every round. Skinner has a 10-0 record, a 1.50 goals-against average and a .940 save percentage in Games 4-7 in the postseason. He’s 5-0 when facing elimination this postseason, only the eighth goalie to win five elimination games in a single postseason. In Edmonton’s past three wins, he has a 1.67 GAA and a .942 save percentage. Heck of a Mario Kart player, too.
Zach Hyman credits Oilers ‘unshakeable belief’ after Game 6 win
Zach Hyman praises the Oilers’ resilience throughout the season that prepared them for the high stakes playoff moments.
The final score will be _____.
Clark: 4-3 Oilers. For one, that score line depicts the amount of games won by each team in the Cup Final. Even with that prediction, there are questions. The Oilers have averaged six goals over their past three games against the Panthers. Can they have another offensive outburst, or will the Panthers have finally found an answer? Then there’s another question facing the Panthers with this scenario: Can they create the sort of consistency that allows them to keep pace with the Oilers, or could they be forced to climb out of what would be another sizable deficit in Game 7?
Matiash: 4-2 Oilers. After picking the Panthers to win Games 5 and 6, I’m still marveling that we’re even in the position to prognosticate scores for the final-for-sure game of the season. But give Kris Knoblauch’s crew full credit for fully figuring out how to chisel its way back into this thing. The optimistic chatter flowing out of Florida’s camp — “feeling positive” and “feeling excited” were phrases uttered to the media — isn’t sounding as convincing as earlier. Understandably so, as the Panthers have been outscored 18-5 since taking a 3-0 series lead.
Öcal: 3-2 Oilers, in overtime. Because that’s what this series needs. It has been a surreal journey to get here. The cherry on top would be one goal to award the Cup.
Shilton: 4-3 Panthers, in overtime. Listen, it would not surprise me in the least if Edmonton pounds its way to a historic Cup victory here (and more power to them if that’s the case; what a ride it has been). After all, I thought (and predicted) the Panthers would close this thing out two games ago. But here we are in Florida’s building, where the Cup won’t be leaving this time until it’s cradled in the arms of a player who just won it. When you talk about big moments — of the career- or franchise-defining type — this is it. The Panthers have no excuse. For one last time I’m betting that gives Florida a whisper-thin edge over Edmonton.
Wyshynski: 5-2 Oilers. I thought the Panthers would close out this series in Game 6 because they thrive when being counted out and getting to play the underdog. So there’s always a chance they channel that at home in Game 7. But that would also require a reversal of fortune for 90% of their roster that has been outplayed by the Oilers for the majority of the series. This feels like Edmonton’s moment. This feels like Canada’s moment. The Oilers just sent this thing to a seventh game without needing McDavid to carry them there — that should scare the whiskers off the Panthers. Edmonton wins the Cup, makes sports history and bestows shame upon this Florida team.
Notes from ESPN Stats & Information
Game 7 fast facts:
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Monday will be the 18th Game 7 in Stanley Cup Final history, and the first since 2019 (St. Louis Blues defeated the Bruins in Boston)
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Road teams have won three straight Game 7s in the Stanley Cup Final; home teams are 12-5 all time.
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The Oilers will play in their third Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final (defeated Philadelphia Flyers in 1987, lost to Carolina Hurricanes in 2006).
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Edmonton will be playing in its 13th playoff Game 7 in franchise history, and second this postseason (defeated the Vancouver Canucks 3-2 in Game 7 in the second round). The Oilers are 8-4 overall in playoff Game 7s.
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The Panthers will be playing in the fourth Game 7 in franchise history (2-0 on road, 0-1 at home). The home loss was to the New Jersey Devils in the 2012 conference quarterfinals.
Past teams to come from down 0-3 to tie a series 3-3
More on the Oilers
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Edmonton scored 18 goals over the past three games to even up the series, tied for the second-most goals in a three-game span in a Stanley Cup Final. The Oilers held the Panthers to five goals during that span, giving them a plus-13 goal differential in Games 4-6, tied with 1984 Oilers (plus-13 vs Islanders in Games 3-5 to close out the series) for the largest goal differential in a three-game span in Stanley Cup Final history.
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The Oilers improved to 5-0 this postseason when facing elimination, the most such wins in a single postseason in franchise history and tied for the fourth most by any team in a single postseason. Only the 2014 Kings — who went 7-0 when facing elimination — have more wins without a loss in that situation a single postseason.
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The Oilers have recent history across sports on their side. The last home win in Game 7 in the championship series for MLB, the NBA or the NHL was by the Miami Heat in 2013. That is six straight Game 7 wins by the road team (2019 World Series, 2019 Cup Final, 2017 World Series, 2016 World Series, 2016 NBA Finals, 2014 World Series). The current six-game losing streak in Game 7s across the World Series, NBA Finals and Cup Final by home teams is the longest ever. The previous long was four straight between May 1974 (Bucks lost to Celtics) and October 1979 (Orioles lost to Pirates). This is also the longest gap in terms of time. Game 7 on Monday will be 4,022 days since the Heat won at home in June 2013. The previous long gap was 3,286 days between Oct. 21, 1973 (Oakland Athletics beat New York Mets), and Oct. 20, 1982 (St. Louis Cardinals beat Milwaukee Brewers).
More on the Panthers
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The Panthers are going for their first Stanley Cup title in their third attempt (lost in 1996 and 2023) and are one of 11 active franchises to not have won the Stanley Cup. They can become the fourth expansion team over the past 40 seasons to win the Stanley Cup, joining the Lightning (2004, 2020-21), Ducks (2007), and Golden Knights (2023).
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With a win, Florida becomes the third team in the expansion era (post-1967) to win the Cup the year after losing in the Final, along with the 2009 Penguins and 1984 Oilers. Last season, the Panthers lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games, including a 9-3 blowout in the Cup clincher.
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Overall, it’s the 18th Game 7 in Stanley Cup Final history, with the home team owning a record of 12-5. The past three have been won by the road team, with the Penguins winning at Detroit in 2009, the Bruins topping Vancouver in 2011 and the Blues beating Boston in 2019. Don’t expect a high-scoring contest. The most goals any team has scored in Game 7 of the Cup Final is four, done on five occasions, most recently by the Blues in 2019. The most combined goals in Game 7 of a Stanley Cup Final is seven in 1950 (Detroit 4, Rangers 3).
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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.
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Dodgers’ Graterol (shoulder) to sit first half of ’25
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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.
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The 26-year-old was slowed this season by shoulder inflammation and a hamstring injury.
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‘They absolutely hate our guts’: The weird, wonderful games that define Texas-Arkansas
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3 hours agoon
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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