Sporting Life Arkansas

Live with Jim Harris: LSU at Arkansas

  It’s game day: LSU at Arkansas. The forecast is for cold weather, but there’s no better time than tonight on ESPN 2 starting at 7:00 for the Hogs to grab their first SEC win of the Bret Bielema Era. Jim Harris will be posting his thoughts throughout the game here, so check this page often. (Scroll down about halfway and you’ll see the posts from Jim.) FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. –Versatile dual-threat quarterback Matt Jones will return to Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium to serve as the A Club honorary captain for the LSU game on Saturday, Nov.15. A four-year letterwinner from 2001-04, Jones passed for 5,857 yards in his career, good for fourth-most in program history, while rushing for 2,535 yards to rank eighth all-time. He also threw for 53 touchdown passes, placing him third all-time in program history, while running for 24 touchdowns, which is eighth all-time. He was a 2004 All-SEC second-team selection by the coaches. Jones led a memorable comeback against LSU in 2002. With the Razorbacks trailing by six and less than a minute to go, Jones led Arkansas on a 3-play, 81-yard drive capped by a 31-yard touchdown pass to WR DeCori Birmingham with nine seconds remaining. Arkansas took down the Tigers, 21-20. The Fort Smith, Ark. native served as team captain in 2004 and during his four years helped the Razorbacks compile a team record of 30-20 (.600), while appearing in three bowl games. Following his career at Arkansas, Jones was drafted in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars as a wide receiver. His statistics during his four-year NFL career include 2,153 yards and 15 touchdowns. The A Club honorary captain is recognized before each home game for their outstanding accomplishments on the field during their Razorback career. Before kickoff, they will be recognized and will accompany the captains to midfield for the coin toss. The Razorbacks will host the No. 20 LSU Tigers. LSU at Arkansas  
6:50 p.m. — just noticed that ESPN, showing LSU’s entrance into the south end of Reynolds Razorback Stadium, noted that Les Miles is 25-1 following a loss during his LSU coaching career. That loss, of course, game to Arkansas 31-30 in 2008 at War Memorial Stadium in Bobby Petrino’s first season, with Casey Dick throwing a 24-yard fade route to London Crawford on fourth-and-1 in the final seconds.
6:42 p.m. — Hello and welcome to another live blog of Arkansas Razorback football as the Hogs try to put an end to a 17-game losing streak in the SEC at home against the young but extremely talented LSU Tigers. This is the first time the teams have not met for the final regular-season game since Arkansas began playing football in the SEC in 1992. In fact. they used to play occasionally as season-finale opponents when they were in different conferences in the 1950s, and of course they met in two titanic Cotton Bowls, with Arkansas stunning the Tigers 0-0 in the ice bowl of 1947 while LSU stunned No. 2 Arkansas 14-7 in the 1966 Cotton Bowl and denied the Hogs a second-straight national championship. Arkansas is dressed in all red uniforms tonight from helmet to pants, outfitted this way for the first time this season. Ron Higgins of NOLA.com has already gotten a jump on the race to win Twitter tonight, commenting that LSU is in all-frozen for the first time this year. It will be a cold one, but the temperature isn’t expected to dip below freezing during the game. It rained in Fayetteville earlier today. You may already know the drill, but please feel free to join in the conversation here by commenting in the comments section, or you can email me at jim.harris@sportinglifearkansas.com with any comments or words of wisdom or critique or what have ya. And you can follow my 140-character comments and comment there @jimharris360 on Twitter. We’ll be here all night. AND, don’t forget to catch the “Hogzone” on KTHV, Channel 11, at about 10:30 when we’ll all recap the game with special guest Joe Adams, who had a pretty big play against LSU in an Arkansas victory in 2010, helping send the Hogs on to the Sugar Bowl against Ohio State. Follow the comments with most recent being on top of this blog post.