Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

1/7/2012 at 9:54am

Image by Mark Wagner

Arkansas' Joe Adams returns a punt 51 yards for the Razorbacks' first touchdown and a 10-0 lead.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Jerico Nelson stood on the edge of Arkansas’ postgame celebration in Cowboys Stadium with a grin on his face and a sledgehammer in his right hand.

His smile, of course, expressed the joy the senior linebacker and his teammates felt in the moments following a 29-16 Cotton Bowl victory.

And the sledgehammer? It signified all the work the Razorbacks had put into clinching just the third 11-win season in school history and potentially the highest ranking in more than three decades.

Nelson has carried the tool from the locker room onto the field before games throughout his four seasons at Arkansas (11-2). Printed on one side is the word “Grind” and the other side bears the mantra “the dream is free, but the journey is not.”

What a journey it has been for the 17 Razorback seniors. They took plenty of lumps during a 5-7 campaign as freshmen and redshirt freshmen in 2008. They ended 34-16, including 21-5 over the final two seasons. That’s a 80-percent winning clip the last two years if you’re scoring at home.

By beating the Wildcats (10-3) the Razorbacks very likely secured a Top 5 ranking to end the year, something they haven't done since 1977. Arkansas joined the 1964 national champs and 1977 team on the rare 11-victory plateau.

Coach Bobby Petrino lauded the seniors for their contributions against the Wildcats. Veterans made veteran plays in all three phases of the game and Petrino appreciated the way they set the tone to begin bowl preparation.

“I'm proud of our seniors, a group of young men that have really set the standards for how we're going to work and operate here at the University of Arkansas,” Petrino said.

Those guys also set the standard for how to make plays. They showed it again against the Wildcats, jumping out to a 19-0 lead and then withstanding a late Kansas State rally.

Nelson’s interception in the closing seconds put a punctuation on the victory. It was the final of a string of significant plays by guys who have laid quite a foundation for Petrino and the Razorbacks.

Magician Joe Adams — that’s what we should call the guy because labeling him as a punt returner or wide receiver doesn’t do him justice — returned a punt 51 yards for a touchdown early in the game. On a night it took until the 12:13 mark of the second quarter for the offense to record a first down, Adams provided a boost with the team’s first touchdown.

“I wanted to give the guys something to remember,” Adams said of his SEC record-tying fourth punt return touchdown this season.

There will be plenty to remember about the class and the way it closed things out. Adams was far from the only one to come up with big plays and aid the process of, as he put it, “leaving the program in better shape than we found it.”

Senior Jarius Wright’s 45-yard touchdown catch in the first half pulled him into first place for Razorback receiving yards. Wright led the team with 88 receiving yards, while classmate and former high school teammate Greg Childs led the way with five catches for 48 yards.

Defensive end Jake Bequette was the game’s defensive MVP, finishing with four tackles, including two sacks in his final game. Bequette and the team's defensive line were key in keeping Kansas State’s Collin Klein in check with only 42 rushing yards on 24 carries. Klein was sacked six times and the Wildcats finished with only 87 yards rushing.

Linebacker Jerry Franklin finished with a team-high eight tackles. He ends as the Razorbacks’ leading tackler for a fourth consecutive season and he leaves a believer in what Arkansas is capable of under Petrino.

“We could barely understand the vision Coach Petrino had for the program,” Franklin said. “We just kept growing together, started to buy into what coach was preaching to us. We got it turned around and won 11 games this season.”

Even without Bequette, Adams, Franklin, Wright, etc., Arkansas should be good in 2012. Columnist Dan Wolken of The Daily has already declared the Razorbacks as the favorite to bring the SEC a seventh consecutive national title.

So while those guys leave, barring anything unexpected the Razorbacks return seven players that started the Cotton Bowl on offense and six on defense. There’s a chance they get All-SEC running back Knile Davis on the field again as well.

Armed with that knowledge and the very likely chance the team starts 2012 in the Top 5, the celebration was a bit bittersweet for Bequette. He walked into a postgame interview with Athletic Director Jeff Long, lamenting the fact he had played his final game.

“I’m jealous,” Bequette could be heard telling Long as the two shook hands. “They’re going to be pretty good again next year.”

Arkansas finishes the year with losses only to LSU and Alabama, the participants in Monday's BCS title game. There is a chance the Razorbacks finish only behind those two teams in the final polls, though somewhere in the Top 5 seems most likely. Arkansas will join the Tigers and Crimson Tide as preseason favorites.

Nelson, who had the sledgehammer propped up in the corner of the interview room, shook his head as he recalled where the program was when he started and where it seems to be headed. Things have changed significantly since 2008.

“We were an unranked team. We were small. We had 17 freshmen starting,” Nelson said. “Now, to do something that hasn’t been done in awhile and lead the team the way we did this year, it feels great.”

Tagged: Kansas State Wildcats, Greg Childs, Jerry Franklin, Jarius Wright, Joe Adams, Bobby Petrino, Arkansas Razorbacks