Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Until Saturday night’s shocking 34-31 overtime loss to Louisiana-Monroe at War Memorial Stadium, one would have to go back 41 years to find a more stunning loss for such a promising Arkansas Razorback team to an unranked nonconference opponent.

That particular Joe Ferguson-led Razorback squad let a 20-0 halftime lead get away and lost at the end to Drew Pearson, the future Dallas Cowboys star, and the Tulsa Golden Hurricane, 21-20.

Arkansas was ranked seventh nationally that day in 1971, playing a team that it usually whipped while tuning up for the Southwest Conference schedule. That Razorback team was also a weird one, stomping Texas on this very War Memorial Stadium field to take control of the SWC, then, two weeks later on the same field, managing to lose to a woeful Texas A&M team that was ushering Coach Gene Stallings out of Aggieland. The ’71 Hogs managed to blow the Cotton Bowl in November, and leadership was a big question, but we’d all soon learn the next year that the level of talent beyond the skill positions was vastly overrated.

So, Saturday night we found a Razorback team, which somehow moved UP to No. 8 after a middling showing against Football Championship Subdivision program Jacksonville State last week, holding a 28-7 lead over ULM. Ace quarterback Tyler Wilson was done for the night at halftime with an “injury above the shoulders.”

His replacement, redshirt freshman Brandon Allen, led a nice, 66-yard touchdown march to push the Hogs up by 21 early in the third quarter, but Allen and the offense would do little else.

Just as those 1971 Hogs probably thought 20 points was enough to beat Tulsa again, a 21-point edge over occasional whipping boy ULM should have held up.

However, Arkansas’ defense managed to make ULM junior Kolton Browning look like the best quarterback in the country for one night. There are no official stats for missed tackles, but the Hogs must have failed to hang onto Browning 20 times in the Warhawks' 100 snaps.

“He just made some great plays with his feet, that’s all I can say about it,” linebacker Tenarius Wright said.

On the game’s deciding play, the Hogs didn’t get even get a hand on Browning until he’d reached the right end zone pylon, scoring the winning points on a 16-yard run.

Arkansas’ defenders followed the flow to their right, Browning’s left, and the players applying pressure were stumbling on a fourth-and-1 play from the UA 16. Browning had clear sailing to his right.

It was just a portion of Browning’s 69 yards rushing, but it was a dagger these Hogs may not be able to shake with No. 1 Alabama coming into Fayetteville next week.

Browning passed for 412 yards, completing 42 of 67 passes with only one Ross Rasner interception — just ridiculous numbers for an Arkansas defense to surrender.