Last Time Hogs Beat Alabama iPhones Were Still Year Away
Arkansas can beat Alabama in football this year.
It feels almost absurd to type those words out. I might as well have written that in honor of the Christmas spirit Congress will treat each other like loving family and start working together in the spirit of compromise and common sense.
It seems about as plausible.
But I’m not trying to throw out shock value. Arkansas has just enough talent and Alabama is just vulnerable enough for normal humans to consider it.
Throw in the looming glare of the Iron Bowl as Alabama’s perceived last legitimate stumbling block to the SEC championship and just enough ingredients are present for you to squint really hard and see a glimmer of hope in the far, far distance.
Now, I must tamp my gut feeling with a bit of a reality check. The last time Arkansas beat Alabama was in 2006. The Hogs squealed out a 24-23 win in double-overtime.
The following week Arkansas beat No. 2 Auburn as Houston Nutt’s team, led by Darren McFadden, Felix Jones, Peyton Hillis and Sam Olajabutu, went on to carry Arkansas to a 10-game winning streak and a close loss to No. 4 Florida in the SEC championship game.
If you’re like me, that all sounds a little unfamiliar.
Hog fans probably recall it better this way. Nutt had to make Gus Malzahn his offensive coordinator and throw in his soul in exchange for four of the coveted Springdale Five that year.
While the season was generally a success, the Razorbacks’ Top Five ranking and potential shot at a national championship fell to the drama that reportedly culminated in parents piling into athletics director Frank Broyles’ office to complain about how things were being handled.
The pressure from the locker room drama came to a head as the wheels fell off in the regular season finale against LSU at War Memorial and never got put back on as Arkansas lost three straight to Top 10 teams.
By the time an all-access book by Arkansas sports reporter Kurt Voight about the Springdale Five’s final high school season came out in December, it was all over.
Mitch Mustain, who had thrown the game-winning touchdown pass and apparently referred to Nutt as a dork in the book, left for USC.
Wide receiver Damien Williams also left to be a Trojan.
Tight end Ben Cleveland, who caught the winning touchdown, would generate only half the production of his freshman season over the next three years.
Malzahn, who called the winning play, left to be an offensive coordinator at Tulsa, and Nutt was well on his way to removing the “golden handcuffs” that were designed to keep him at Arkansas.
Reports at the time indicated Nutt was a Capital One Bowl win away from being heavily considered for the Alabama vacancy following Mike Shula’s firing as it was reported that Nick Saban, tops on their wish list, was nothing more than a pipe dream at the time because of how entrenched he was in his NFL gig with the Dolphins.
Seven men have held the title of Arkansas head football coach since that day in Fayetteville.
To put it in perspective how long that has been since that fateful September day, the first iPhone came out a year later, I-49 to Northwest Arkansas wouldn’t be completed for another six years, and Pixar’s “Cars” dominated the box office.
That’s how long it’s been since there’s been hope that mighty Alabama could be defeated.
Not even Bobby Petrino’s team that finished in the Top Five threatened the Crimson Tide.
That feeling of helplessness when Alabama pops up on the schedule is an inherited birthright of Arkansas fans born back in 1992 when Alabama welcomed the Hogs to the SEC with a 38-11 beatdown in Little Rock.
Alabama wanted everyone to know that the days of Arkansas winning conference championships in the weak Southwest Conference were in the past.
If my memory is correct, my father paid $25 to be able to watch that game on pay-per-view.
Arkansas would get one of its only eight wins against Alabama the following year. Never mind that the Hogs got trampled, 40-3, in their first SEC trip to Tuscaloosa.
Crimson Tide cornerback Antonio Langham spent some quality time with an agent, causing the NCAA to force Alabama to forfeit the game, giving Arkansas the unearned victory.
The 14-game losing streak includes six games where Arkansas lost by a total of 280-26. It’s been so bad that a 65-31 home loss by a Chad Morris led team is considered a high point.
But this has been a year of ending negative streaks.
The nine-game losing streak to Texas A&M is gone. The four-year streak of seasons without a bowl game is over.
The five-year streak of consecutive seasons with a losing record in conference play seems attainable. The embarrassing streak of five straight losses to Missouri should come to an end also.
Pardon the pun, but perhaps Pittman is the man to turn the tide in this series.
With Alabama struggling at times throughout the season, maybe it’s just possible to throw in ending that 14-game losing streak to Alabama for good measure.
The facilities staff might not want to key up a victory song on Pittman’s famed jukebox, but it might be okay for once to at least have it plugged in.
Just in case.
