Razorbacks Hope to Take Ole Miss Springboard Again

It's happened since 1954 and maybe Sam Pittman could do it again to halt skid

Author:
Andy Hodges
Publish date:
Oct 5, 2023 4:20 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — It's happened a few times since 1954. Arkansas has shocked a lot of people and beat a surging Ole Miss team to get a win, which then kick-started a finish to the season better than anybody suspected at some point. That's the scenario Sam Pittman would like to repeat.

That game in 1954 was the first time War Memorial Stadium became a big deal. There weren't lights for another decade, but Ole Miss wouldn't come to Fayetteville. They didn't put up those kind of demands when the game was in Mississippi. That thing was played in Jackson and Memphis in addition to Oxford.

When Bowden Wyatt's "25 Little Pigs" beat the Rebels with a couple of early defensive stands, it zapped the energy out of them. "They weren't ready to bleed for six points," Razorbacks defensive coordinator Dick Hitt said later. The Hogs were.

The game, as was the custom at the time, was a defensive slugfest. Finally, they called the "Powder River Play." The late Buddy Bob Benson, who wasn't even the starting tailback (essentially the quarterback in old single-wing offense), rolled to his left, pulled up and threw down the sideline to Preston Carpenter, who grabbed it and set sail down the left sideline for a 6-0 win.

That Ole Miss team came into the game ranked No. 5 in the country and the Hogs were seventh. But nobody was counting on anything yet. They went on to reach No. 4 in the country and ran out of gas against SMU and LSU at the end before going to Dallas for a Cotton Bowl where Frank Broyles discovered the Hogs.

Saturday night's game in Oxford, Miss., might not have those types of implications. You never know, but beating the Rebels have given the Hogs a boost to the rest of the season. Just look back at 2014, the miracle "Henry Heave" in 2015 and last year's win to give them momentum.

Pittman needs something good to happen for this team that coaches aren't in a panic over ... yet. Losing this road trip and going to Alabama next week might put this team into a 2-5 situation and all bets would be off. The heat around Sam Pittman would see flames. Considering the way Florida, Auburn and Missouri look now compared to what everyone projected in August has dimmed a lot of outlooks.

This would be a perfect chance for history to repeat itself. The Rebels are 11.5 favorites with an 82.1% chance of downing the Hogs. We'll see. The game starts 6:30 p.m. at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The game can be streamed on SEC Network and fuboTV .