Tag: Darren McFadden

Arkansas’ one previous meeting with FIU was a rout

Arkansas has played Florida International one time previously, on Homecoming 2007 and won 58-10.

During the craziness that was the 2007 college football season, Arkansas’ late October meeting with Florida International was par for the course.

The Razorbacks drubbed FIU on Homecoming, 58-10, in front of 60,750 fans on a beautiful fall afternoon.

Arkansas led 31-10 at halftime and then shut out the visiting Panthers in the second half while forcing seven turnovers.

Nathan Emert actually got the majority of snaps at quarterback in this game in relief of Casey Dick, and threw a touchdown to Marcus Monk right before halftime.

Felix Jones had 17 carries for 89 yards and a touchdown, as Darren McFadden wasn’t asked to carry as much of a load with it being a nonconference game in preparation for the November run.

The Razorbacks ultimately went 3-1 that November, only losing on the road to eventual SEC East champion Tennessee in Neyland Stadium.

Houston Nutt’s final game would come on Black Friday in the upset of No. 1 LSU in three overtimes, 50-48.

Darren McFadden: Arkansas will respond to “a coach bringing great energy”

McFadden has been more vocal about Arkansas football, the staff and its fans this year.

Darren McFadden isn’t afraid of a little combat with the fans.

The Arkansas legend took to social media earlier this year when some Razorbacks fans were going what he deemed as too far in attacks against coach Sam Pittman, then-offensive coordinator Dan Enos and the program as a whole. On Thursday, McFadden gave his first public thoughts on Enos’ replacement, new OC Kenny Guiton.

“If a coach is bringing great energy out there, I think that just kind of trickles down on the players,” McFadden said. “When you’re around a coach that’s I guess more laid back, or not as intense about the game or however you want to call it, that trickles down on the players. I think a lot of that showed this year when you see the offense out there on the field.”

Pittman, who fired Enos the day after Arkansas lost to Mississippi State, 7-3, said one of the things that stood out to him was the lack of fire the roster had with Enos in command. He isn’t as much of a rah-rah guy, whereas Guiton is a bit more gregarious.

Little will matter, though, if Arkansas’ offense doesn’t actually improve. The staff hopes limiting the playbook and the return of preseason All-American running back Rocket Sanders will show concrete results against Florida on Saturday. Sanders is expected to play for the first time in almost a month and it will come in Guiton’s first game.

That may not be a coincidence.

“Coaches like that, you really want to go out there and play hard for them and put it on the line for them,” McFadden said. “I think the guys kind of feel that from Coach Guiton and I think that’ll be something great for them.”

Hog legend McFadden upset with personal jabs at Pittman, players

Darren McFadden stated his displeasure this week with fans’ personal attacks against his beloved Razorbacks.

In response to the resent backlash of fans, taking out their anger against head coach Sam Pittman and the Arkansas football program on social media following Saturday’s loss to BYU, football legend Darren McFadden has come to the coach’s defense.

After Pittman responded publicly this week, denouncing personal attacks against his players, McFadden took to Facebook on Thursday to state that it’s “Something I agree with coach on 100%.”

McFadden’s post continued, “It’s fine if u don’t like me AS a COACH or PLAYER but no need for personal insults. One of the reasons I don’t look into coaching. I could go from all American all everything Arkansan to who knows what names these social media warriors will come up with.”

He then ended the post with, “But as always GO HOGS #neveryield.”

Arkansas relinquished a two-possession, second-half lead in a 38-31 loss to the Cougars, incurring some self-inflicted, on-field errors, and 14 uncharacteristic penalties for 125 yards. It didn’t help matters, when BYU wideout Chase Roberts made a one-handed catch in the end zone, with eight minutes left, to give the Cougars the game-winning points.

In a statement Pittman made earlier this week, he admitted that he felt the fans’ frustration after the loss and understood the negative “opinions” that were offered. But he drew the line with the personal attacks against his players.

“It’s hard,” Pittman said in his statement. “It’s not my job, it’s my life. It’s what you do. Everybody don’t know you as a regular person. The kids are the same way. It’s hard because the addition of social media and the addition of, not opinions so much, but negative.

“It used to be like ‘You’ve got to do better’ not ‘You suck. You’re fat. You’re this,’ Now the comments really have nothing to do with what happened in the game.”

After relentless personal attacks earlier in the week, Pittman was forced to disable his Twitter profile.

Although many fans have remained in support of the program, there are those few that feel the need to unload all of life’s frustration on a football coach and players, who came to Arkansas to represent the university.

To put things in perspective, the program has struggled to overcome the backlash of former head coach Bobby Petrino’s unethical transgressions back in 2012. Pittman was hired in 2020 to take over for Chad Morris, who went 4-20 and could not win a single SEC game (0-18) in his two seasons at the helm.

Pittman has gone 21-18 in his first three-plus years in Fayetteville, including 10-16 in the SEC. He has also won both bowl games he has coached in, and has the program on much firmer footing than what it was when he took over.

He has also had to deal with the inner-workings of the transfer portal and overcome a coaching carousel. The Razorbacks have two new coordinators this season.

BYU appears to be a solid Power-5 team in the Big 12, and although Arkansas had many opportunities to defeat them, the loss doesn’t compare to Morris’ losses to Colorado State, North Texas and Western Kentucky. Pittman is 11-0 against non-Power 5 teams, not ranked in the Top 25.

 

Arkansas Football: The Razorbacks All-2000s Team

The 2000s: Drama, drama, drama. But oh, so full of highlight reel plays and seven overtime games.

The 2000s ushered Arkansas football into the new millennium.

Texas got a butt whooping in the Cotton Bowl to get the party started, and the Razorbacks closed the decade with turning the corner in the Bobby Petrino era by winning a frigid Liberty Bowl to conclude his second season.

There was a lot that happened in between then, but that’s a story for another day.

Some of the most decorated players in school history played during this decade, and we will document it here.

 

Doak Walker Semifinalists announced, Arkansas RB Rocket Sanders snubbed

With the announcement of this year’s Doak Walker Award semifinalists, the Arkansas disrespect is still alive and well.

Death, taxes and an Arkansas player being snubbed from an award. These are life’s only guarantees.

The Doak Walker Award is given out annually to the best running back in college football, and the semifinalists for this year’s award were announced this morning.

The list included some very talented and deserving running backs like Chase Brown (Illinois), who leads the nation in rushing, and freshman running back Quinshon Judkins (Ole Miss), who leads the SEC in rushing and just went for 214 yards against Arkansas.

When looking at the list of names, though, there’s one name missing, and his exclusion is baffling. That name is none other than Arkansas running back Raheim “Rocket” Sanders.

Sanders is currently second in rushing yards in the SEC, the toughest conference in the country, and eighth in the country overall with 1,379 rushing yards this season. That’s more rushing yards than Israel Abanikanda (Pitt), Zach Charbonnet (UCLA), Kendre Miller (TCU) and Deuce Vaughn (Kansas State) who all made the semifinalists list.

He’s also coming off of a career game where he had 232 yards rushing and three touchdowns against the 14th ranked team in the country.

The argument could be made that team success is a factor, but UAB’s Dewayne McBride made the cut, and the Blazers are only 5-6. Minnesota and Pittsburgh are both 7-4 on the year and had representatives, despite playing a much easier schedules than the Hogs.

One possible issue is that touchdowns might hold more weight than anything else. Sanders has 10 touchdowns this season, which is only more than Illinois’ Chase Brown (9) and Kansas State’s Deuce Vaughn (6).

Regardless, Sanders deserves the recognition and it’s a huge oversight to leave his name off. The one silver lining is that Sanders is only a sophomore, so he’ll have at least one more season at Arkansas to go after the award.

Darren McFadden is the only Razorback to win the Doak Walker Award, winning in 2006 and 2007, and is one of just three players to ever win the award more than once.

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WATCH: Rocket Sanders’ ridiculous 76-yard run sets up Rashod Dubinion’s TD

Rocket Sanders isn’t Darren McFadden. But Arkansas’ running back might be the best since.

Rocket Sanders was on pace to have the best season for an Arkansas running back since Darren McFadden even before the Auburn kickoff.

Through the end of the third quarter, Sanders had 171 yards on 16 carries. The showcase run came on Arkansas’ second touchdown drive of the frame when he took the ball from the Razorbacks’ own 6 to Auburn’s 18, a gain of 76 yards.

Five plays later, Arkansas scored on a direct snap to third-string back Rashod Dubinion as the freshman went into end zone from two yards to give Arkansas a 31-13 lead.

Sanders had 1,041 yards with one quarter and four regular-season games left to play. He became the first Arkansas back since Madre Hill to hit the 1,000-yard mark in game No. 7 with his day against Auburn.

A look back at Arkansas-South Carolina series history

This is the first meeting between the two since 2017.

Arkansas and South Carolina aren’t traditional SEC rivals. Some would say they aren’t rivals at all.

The two squads have only met 23 times, the first meeting coming in 1992. The Razorbacks and Gamecocks both entered the SEC in 1992, and the Razorbacks smashed the Gamecocks 45-7.

The annual inter-division battle lasted for 22 years before the SEC made an addition to the conference; not many noticed. The last game between the two came in 2017, South Carolina walking away with a 48-27 victory in Columbia.

Ironically, the series’ first and last games were in South Carolina. So this will be the first time game will be held in Razorback Stadium since 2013. Razorbacks walked away with a 52-7 victory, the largest margin of victory in the series.

Only five games in the series have been decided by one possession. The closest game was the second game of the series in 1992, South Carolina winning 18-17.

There haven’t been many classic games between the two, but there are a few classic moments.

Darren McFadden is still running after setting the SEC rushing record against the Gamecocks in 2007 with 323 yards on the ground. In 2011 the two teams met as top ten opponents. The Razorbacks scored double-digit points in each quarter on their way to a 44-28 victory.

The Gamecocks are on a three-game win streak in the series, while the Razorbacks own a 13-10 series lead.

Top Four Arkansas Rushing Performances of All-Time

A look back at the best single-game rushing performances in Arkansas football history.

Last season, the Razorbacks secured their spot as the best rushing team in Power 5.

It’s not surprising to see the Razorbacks with a potent rushing attack. Some have labeled the 2007 backfield of Darren McFadden and Felix Jones as the best backfield in SEC history. 

Five players in the history of the Razorbacks have rushed for over 3,000 yards in their careers. Even quarterback Matt Jones (2001-04) came close to the 3,000 career rushing yards.

Arkansas is no stranger to hard-nose, ground game football.

As we approach the opening weekend of the college football season, let’s take a look at some of the best Razorback ground game performances from over the years.

A look at Arkansas’ First Round picks since 2004

Treylon Burks became the 8th first-round pick from Arkansas since 2004 on Thursday. Who are the other seven?

[autotag]Treylon Burks[/autotag] became the 24th first-round pick in Arkansas football history during the 2022 NFL Draft, when he was taken 18th overall by the Tennessee Titans, following a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles that involved wide receiver, AJ Brown.

Since the turn of the millennium, Arkansas has had eight players selected in the first round. Burks was the first Razorback taken in the first round since Frank Ragnow was selected 20th overall by the Detroit Lions in 2018. Ragnow was the only former Razorback to be taken in the first round during the 2010s.

Who are the eight Razorbacks taken in the first round since 2004? Let’s explore.

Where Darren McFadden lands among the best running backs of the last 60 years

Darren McFadden is one of the most exciting players to ever wear the Arkansas uniform. Where does he fit among the game’s best running backs?

Arkansas enjoyed a fun run of football during the mid-2000s when Darren McFadden, one of the most prolific, and game-changing running backs to ever play the game graced the gridiron every Saturday for the Razorbacks.

ESPN’s Bill Connelly recently released his list of the 100 best running backs in the last 60 years, with Darren McFadden earning the No. 35 spot.

Here’s the small blurb from Connelly when describing McFadden:

One of the most sought-after Arkansas recruits of the century, McFadden stayed in-state and backed up all hype. Over his last two seasons, he rushed for 3,477 yards and 30 touchdowns, caught 32 passes and even threw seven touchdowns passes as a Wildcat QB.

Darren McFadden was the No. 1 player in the state of Arkansas, and the No. 7 running back in the nation for the Class of 2005, and immediately made an impact. In three seasons as a Razorback, McFadden rushed for 4,590 yards on 785 carries with 41 touchdowns from 2005-07. He finished runner-up for the Heisman in 2006 and 2007, finishing behind Ohio State’s Troy Smith and Florida’s Tim Tebow respectively.

McFadden would go on to play in the NFL for ten seasons for two different teams. Drafted No. 4 overall in the 2008 Draft by the Oakland Raiders, McFadden would spend his first seven years in the league with the Raiders before concluding his career in 2017, capping a three-year stint with the Dallas Cowboys. McFadden would rush for 5,421 yards and 28 touchdowns while playing a total of 103 games over his NFL career.

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