Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

11/27/2010 at 7:57pm

Image by Mark Wagner

Arkansas players celebrate their 31-23 victory against LSU on Saturday. With the victory they clinched a 10-win regular season and the "Golden Boot."

As we write this, we've just returned from a happy Arkansas Razorback media room, where Coach Bobby Petrino confessed he felt exhausted but so very proud of the way his Hogs carried themselves through this season and through a complete defeat of LSU at War Memorial Stadium on Saturday afternoon, 31-23.

By the fourth quarter Saturday, Arkansas' offensive line was dominating up front and backs Knile Davis and Broderick Green were gouging the Tigers for huge chunks of yardage, covering 88 yards in 13 plays that ate up a crucial 6:02 of the clock.

When LSU got the ball back down 11 points, the Tigers had only 6:09 to work with. The Tigers, unlike Arkansas, did not possess the one-play-that-covers-the-distance type offense that the Hogs put on display Saturday as the first half ended, the 80-yard pass from Ryan Mallett to Cobi Hamilton that gave them the lead for good.

It took no Miracle on Markham this time for Arkansas to send LSU and its rowdy fans in the southeast corner of the stadium home in defeat. It required no crazy secondary breakdown for an unbelievable last-minute catch, the kind that provided the Razorbacks with a 21-20 win in 2002 and a 31-30 victory two years ago to give Petrino his fifth win in a trying first season.

Arkansas denied LSU its best chances to score touchdowns and take over in the third quarter with its scrappy, not-to-be-denied defense, and by the fourth quarter had taken over both lines of scrimmage.

By his third year, Petrino has molded a champion. No, there won't be any conference title trophy for this group, but they did bring the "golden" boot back over to the UA side. Yet this is a team that Arkansas fans, starved for success on a national scale, can appreciate for years to come.

Saturday's win summed up everything Petrino had been building for since arriving in December 2007: a pass-to-score and run-to-win offensive game and a defense that hit the quarterback hard and often. When the Hogs ran off that 6:02 of the fourth quarter, the Petrino Program had officially arrived.

It will take some mighty blind folks outside of Arkansas to deny this team a high national ranking now, where LSU had come in ranked No. 5 in the BCS standings. Sure, they'll give those one-loss Big Ten "powerhouses" at the top of that conference spots ahead of Arkansas and its two defeats. But they'll be doing it foolishly and they'll know it.

And, in what has to be the toughest division in the toughest football conference in the land, Arkansas can lay claim to No. 2 behind Auburn in the West. Quite a feat.

By downing LSU Saturday, Arkansas wrapped up a 10-win regular season, the second since 2006. You have to go back to 1988-89 when the Hogs had back-to-back 10-win seasons and Southwest Conference championships/Cotton Bowl appearances. The 2006 team had a chance for 11 wins if it beat LSU here in the regular season finale, or in the SEC Championship Game, or even still in the Cap One Bowl against Wisconsin, but finished 10-4.

Now, Arkansas watches the SEC Championship Game next Saturday intently, pulling for Auburn to take care of business and reach the BCS Championship Game. That will deliver Arkansas into the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Jan. 4.

What an experience it was to watch this team grow week after week. Arkansas is arguably as good as any team in the SEC today. Its two losses came to teams that were No. 1 in the country at some point this season. Arkansas led both of those games in the fourth quarter. It was interesting to hear the ESPN talking heads earlier Saturday talking up South Carolina for its fine finish of beating Florida and Troy the past two weeks as it preps for Auburn, apparently forgetting that Arkansas ran the Gamecocks off the field in Columbia, part of this six-game run for Bobby Petrino's squad.

Ryan Mallett wasn't perfect against LSU, but who can scoff at his nearly 30-yards-per-completion on his 13 connections. It helps when two go for 85 and 80 yards to Hamilton, who was the offensive star and then sealed it for Arkansas by recovering LSU's onside kick with just under 2 minutes to play.

Defensively, the heroes were many, from Jerico Nelson setting a tone on the game's first two snaps, to the all-out get after the quarterback attack from the defensive front to the excellent coverage from a young secondary. Coordinator Willy Robinson's game plan was magnificent.

The best, though, was seeing this defense of Robinson's that was so maligned for much of the past two seasons having its back against the wall with the kind of field position LSU enjoyed in the third quarter, and holding the Tigers to two field goals. Then, finishing it up, the UA defense galvanized at its own 7 and threw the Tigers back in the late minutes to force another field goal and put LSU in the "need a miracle" position.

Alas, Miracles on Markham are reserved for the Razorbacks.

Tagged: Willy Robinson, Southeastern Conference, LSU Tigers, Cobi Hamilton, Bobby Petrino, Jerico Nelson, Ryan Mallett