Revisiting 2004 Texas Game in Razorback Stadium
The last time the Texas Longhorns football team was in the Ozarks, Mack Brown was still the coach and they had not won a national title since 1970.
The hype surrounding that game was intense.
Not only was it on 9/11 (like Saturday's game will be), but the Hogs were coming off a 9-win season and returned senior quarterback Matt Jones along with a pair of highly touted in-state recruits in Conway's Peyton Hillis and Lepanto's Marcus Monk.
Arkansas had easily dispatched of New Mexico State in its opener, 63-13, while the Longhorns routed North Texas, 65-0.
75,675 fans found their way into DWRRS, then a record, and it also happened to be the 40th anniversary of the Hogs' only claim to a national title in 1964.
It started poorly for the Hogs. They took a safety just 18 seconds into the contest, then Vince Young found David Thomas for a 50-yard strike for a 9-0 lead just four minutes in.
The Hogs responded, though, with Hillis crashing his way in for a 8-yard score, making it 9-7.
The Longhorns got a touchdown from future NFL running back Cedric Benson later in the quarter and led 16-7 midway through the second quarter when the fireworks really got started.
Jones threw a backwards pass to Carlos Ousley and Ousley, a former quarterback, unleashed a brilliant 34-yard pass down the near sideline to DeCori Birmingham to pull the Hogs within two.
A Chris Balseiro field goal actually gave Arkansas a 17-16 halftime lead.
The only touchdown that occurred in the second half was a Young pass to Benson that made it 22-17.
Balseiro added a field goal with 10:07 remaining to make it 22-20.
What everyone remembers about this game happened with 2:54 remaining, however.
Jones, who had made countless plays throughout his Hog career when his protection crumbled or via a broken play, was trying to get his team into better field goal range and got stopped and was stripped of the ball.
Fast forward to about 2:10:00 in this video for the unfortunate miscue.
Texas recovered and tried to run out the clock, and was nearly successful until Young foolishly ran out of bounds with 55 seconds left on third down and gave Arkansas one more chance.
Ultimately, Jones was forced to throw a Hail Mary and was hit as he threw it and it was intercepted.
Texas eventually won the Rose Bowl later that year, finishing 11-1 with a last second victory over Michigan.
The Hogs sputtered to a 5-6 campaign under Houston Nutt, although reinforcements were coming in Darren McFadden and Felix Jones.
