The wonderfully wild football history between Mizzou and Arkansas

Nov 29, 2024 | Uncategorized

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NCAA Football: Arkansas at Missouri
Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

The Tigers and Razorbacks have only met 15 times, but the wild nature of most contests between them could fill a century’s worth of clashes.

For Mizzou, there will never be a more loathed rival than Kansas.

Unless there’s another Civil War that pits American states against one another for some reason, the animosity towards the Jayhawks will remain in its own stratosphere. The fiery feelings that date back to the 1850’s have been stoked almost every year since, even if the teams haven’t faced each other on the gridiron since 2011 (they’ll play in Columbia next year, though).

The next tier of rivals is muddied with regional foes – MU has lengthy (and memorable) histories with Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas State and Iowa State. Mizzou and Illinois have played for Braggin’ Rights many times across many different sports, and in the SEC, South Carolina seems to have emerged as MU’s biggest rival considering how exciting football contests have been since the two began playing each other regularly in 2012.

Then, there’s Arkansas, who has some of the ingredients to be a legitimate rival of Mizzou’s (border state, cool trophy for whoever wins the football game between the two teams whose origins date back to the Civil War). But for whatever reason, there hasn’t seemed to be the same rivalrous relationship that some may have wanted to cultivate when MU joined the SEC in 2012.

However, what may be lacking in tradition has been made up for with staggering, heart-stopping football contests that have thrown normalcy into the wind. Mizzou is 11-4 against Arkansas, and several of its victories have been memorable in one way or another. Here are its five best moments in the Battle Line Rivalry, with the good times dating back to the first time MU and UA butted heads in 1906.

Honorable mention 1B: The inaugural clash (11/10/1906)

I know, I’ve totally cheated already. But I believe it’ll be worth the extra time.

The first meeting between these two teams featured people and circumstances that were so early-20th century. Leading the Razorbacks on the sidelines was first-year head coach Frank Chandler Longman, better known as “Shorty” – that would make for an actual person named Shorty Longman.

The Michigan native who also looked like an ancestor of Daniel Jones had made a name for himself in a far less comical and more prestigious way, however; he was a star fullback at Michigan from 1903-05, a major cog for Fielding Yost’s “Point-a-Minute” Michigan teams that went 33-1-1 and outscored opponents 1,627-20 in Longman’s tenure with the Wolverines (lol). Their only loss in that span? A 2-0 clunker in the 1905 season finale to Chicago, once a Midwest football powerhouse that disbanded in 1939 because the team not only stunk, but then-UC president Robert M. Hutchings, who gained enough trustee support to abolish the sport at the university, believed college football was an “infernal nuisance”. The Maroons were revived as a club team in 1963 and have played at the Division III level since 1969.

Back to Mr. Shorty Longman. After coaching for two seasons at Arkansas, he moved on to Division III University of Wooster (now College of Wooster) in Ohio, where the Fighting Scots would go 3-5. Longman then became the head coach at Notre Dame, where the Irish went 11-1-2 in 1909 and 1910; seven of their wins were against teams that no longer play Division I football, and their only three blemishes were two ties against Marquette (discontinued football in 1960) and a 17-0 loss to Michigan Agricultural College, which eventually became Michigan State University. Longman would retire after the 1910 campaign and died of tuberculosis in 1945.

The Tigers were led by W.J. Monilaw, who’d coached for two years at Drake (the Bulldogs went 10-7 in that timespan) before taking the same position at MU, where he would also become a founding member of the Missouri Valley Conference. Monilaw, who worked with his father as a carpenter upon graduating Washington High School (Iowa) in 1892, entered Drake as a student in 1897. By the time he completed undergraduate school in 1901, he’d coached Physical Education, Track and Football, became the school’s Athletic Director, proposed and located the first football stadium at DU while also earning a license to practice medicine.

He took the Mizzou head coaching job in 1906, succeeding John McLean. During his time at Mizzou, the former Olympic track athlete who starred for Michigan football from 1897-99, had paid MU fullback Akerson, a professional, $250 out of his own pocket to play for the Tigers. He’d also gotten several alumni from Kansas City to share the expenses, but they never ended up doing so. When McLean wrote to the alumni asking them to pay up, they snitched to MU AD Clark Hetherington, and McLean was dismissed in what was dubbed “the biggest scandal in the history of Missouri athletics” by the Lincoln Evening News in Nebraska. Some even pined for the abolition of football at MU. This was also definitely the last and only time Mizzou would be negatively affected by an ineligible fullback (it wasn’t).

Entering the contest, Mizzou was 4-1 with wins against Kirksville Normal College (now Truman State), Warrensburg Teachers College, Missouri Mines (now Missouri S&T) and Drury, who now plays Division II football. Its lone loss was a 26-4 defeat to Iowa; a college football team hasn’t scored exactly four points in a game since 2004, when Penn State lost to Iowa 6-4. Arkansas was 1-3-1 with losses to Chilocco Indian School (Oklahoma), Kansas and Texas.

Exhale. There you have it. This game was surrounded by funny names, silly game scores, former football stars, teams that haven’t played at the Division I level for decades, individuals who bore way too much responsibility within athletic departments, Americans who hated American football, future deaths that would’ve been easily preventable today and a really, really dumb scandal.

The actual game wasn’t very exciting, as Mizzou won 11-0 behind two second-half touchdowns from Tillman (touchdowns wouldn’t be worth six points until 1912). The Tigers would finish the season 5-2-1, their best season since 1899, when they went 9-2. The Cardinals (not the Razorbacks, as UA wouldn’t go by that nickname until 1909) would finish 2-4-2.

Honorable mention 1A: Onward to the New Year’s Six! (11/24/2023)

After the Tigers saved their New Year’s Six bowl hopes with an epic 33-31 victory over Florida the week prior, all that stood in the way of that reality were the 4-7 Razorbacks.

Unlike the previous contest with major postseason implications for Mizzou, the game wasn’t particularly close, as MU literally ran Arkansas off of its own field. Quarterback KJ Jefferson injured his knee on a lost fumble less than halfway through the first quarter, and it all went downhill for the home team after that.

Brady Cook was far from spectacular, completing just 12 of his 20 passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns. But his down evening was almost null because everything else around him was up. Mizzou’s outside zone rushing attack that’d torched defenses all season did so in Fayetteville, as Cody Schrader ran for 217 yards on 27 carries. MU’s defense turned the Razorbacks into bacon, registering five sacks, 13 tackles for loss and a fumble return touchdown that put Mizzou up 41-0 late in the third quarter. Earlier in the frame, Brett Norfleet scored two touchdowns in 11 seconds of game action, which didn’t seem humanly possible until he caught what was likely the easiest 16-yard touchdown of his life, watched MU recover a fumble on the ensuing kickoff that smacked UA kick returner Isaiah Sategna in the face, then scored an even easier touchdown from 11 yards out on the next play.

On the other side, Arkansas lost five fumbles and ran a whopping two plays in MU territory, both of which came with under two minutes left in the third quarter. After the game, Luther Burden III went on Instagram Live, during which UA freshman wide receiver Davion Dozier commented “spots open?” (he returned to Arkansas). In the postgame press conference, Sam Pittman responded to a question about how he’d generate momentum going into the offseason with a simple “I don’t know” before immediately asking for another question.

Mizzou would go on to play in the Cotton Bowl and defeat Ohio State 14-3, clinching just its second 11-win season ever and capping off one of the most legendary campaigns in program history.

#5: Boiling Broyles (9/28/1963)

When head coach Frank Broyles left Mizzou for Arkansas after just one season in 1957 (the Tigers went 5-4-1), he’d left a bitter taste in the mouth of MU. Broyles was “very, very happy” in Columbia and wanted to retire there, but a massive pay raise at UA was enough for him to go on the other side of the Missouri-Arkansas border.

Upon his arrival, Arkansas had won eight games in a season just once (1927). The Razorbacks then accomplished the feat in consecutive years from 1960-62, officially establishing themselves as a southern powerhouse. The Hogs had high expectations entering 1963, ranked No. 8 in the AP Poll. They opened the season with a 21-0 shutout of Oklahoma State before battling Mizzou in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Tigers had done just fine in the wake of Broyles’ unexpected departure; his successor, Dan Devine, had led MU to consecutive Orange Bowl appearances in 1959 and 1960, the latter of which saw the Tigers one win away from a national championship before losing a controversial game to Kansas 23-7. They won seven games in 1961 and eight in 1962, including a Bluebonnet Bowl victory over Broyles’ alma mater, Georgia Tech, in 1962.

Mizzou didn’t start 1963 on a positive note, falling 23-12 to No. 6 Northwestern. But in front of over 40,000 spectators in Little Rock, the Tigers thumped the Razorbacks behind a stifling defensive effort. Arkansas jumped out to an early 6-0 lead, but the Hogs became stuck in the mud from that point forward in large part due to the efforts of mammoth defensive end George Seals. On the other side of the ball, quarterback Gary Lane helped engineer a lengthy third quarter drive that was capped off by a two-yard rushing touchdown by Gus Otto. The extra point by Bill Leistritz was good, and that’s all the Tigers would need to pull off the upset against the head coach that’d deserted them over a half-decade prior.

Devine put together a pretty epic performance from an entertainment standpoint. After the Arkansas chain gang didn’t follow an official ruling for a first down, Devine moved the sticks himself and had to be escorted back to the sidelines by six Arkansas state police officers. He’d also thrown a clipboard to the ground; when MU returned home, Devine was given a gold clipboard as a replacement.

Mizzou would go on a five-game winning streak before ending the season 2-2 and weren’t invited to a bowl game. Arkansas went into a tailspin, finishing 1963 at 5-5. But the Razorbacks would rebound in just about the biggest way possible the following season, going 11-0 and winning the national championship. I think they’d rather have that than the ‘63 contest against Mizzou.

#4: They can’t stop scoring! (11/24/2017)

The stakes weren’t very high in this one – Mizzou was 6-5, and Arkansas was 4-7. But man, this game was unbelievable.

Entering the contest, Mizzou had lost five straight games after beating Missouri State 72-43 in the season-opener, then won five straight games to miraculously save bowl eligibility. During its streak, MU averaged a mind-boggling 52 points per game. Its opponents, however, weren’t very good; the wins came against Idaho (4-8), UConn (3-9), Florida (4-7), Tennessee (4-8) and Vanderbilt (5-7). The Tigers lucked into a slate featuring two mediocre mid-majors and the four worst teams in the SEC, and they took advantage.

Luckily for them, they’d face an Arkansas squad with one of the worst scoring defenses in the country. In games against FBS opponents where Arkansas scored at least 38 points (a.k.a. a point total that’s usually conducive to winning), UA had a point differential of +13. Yikes!

Essentially, fireworks were expected, and that’s exactly what happened. Mizzou led 31-28 at halftime, and neither team punted from the seven-minute mark of the third quarter on. The lead changed hands five times in the second half alone, but it was Tucker McCann who’d have the last laugh, converting a 19-yard field goal as time expired to give his team a bonkers 48-45 victory.

Emanuel Hall made just two catches, but both of them were long touchdowns on vertical routes where he torched future pro Kamren Curl. The Tigers recorded nearly 700 yards of offense, with Drew Lock throwing for 448 yards and Ish Witter running for 170 more. A year after Mizzou had come back from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to take down Arkansas, the Tigers won yet another wild edition of the Battle Line Rivalry.

#3: They can’t stop scoring (part two) (12/5/2020)

2020 was odd for numerous reasons, one being that defending national champion LSU went 5-5, and Florida lost out on a spot in the College Football Playoff partially because of defensive back Marco Wilson throwing a shoe really far. Oh, and there was a global pandemic, too.

For two of those reasons, Eli Drinwkitz’s first year at Mizzou was quite up-and-down. Mizzou had knocked off LSU 45-41 in Week 3, but the Tigers entered the Arkansas game at 4-3. The Razorbacks also turned in an unispring campaign, entering the contest sitting at 3-5.

However, as proven numerous times already, it doesn’t seem to matter what the records of either team are entering the Battle Line rivalry; wonk will likely reign supreme, and it did once again this time. In front of a quiet Faurot Field crowd, some of whom were sitting in social distancing squares on the hill in the north end zone, the Tigers and Razorbacks lit up the gridiron once more.

Each team punted just once in the first half, with Arkansas leading 27-20 at halftime. Treylon Burks and Keke Chism were putting on contested-catch masterclasses, Larry Rountree III, Tyler Badie and Trelon Smith were doing whatever they wanted on the ground, and neither team could really stop the other. Drinkwitz, the still the offensive play-caller, was going deep in his bag of tricks, which included a Wildcat run, flea flicker, triple option and touchdown out of the T-formation to tie the game at 40.

With MU leading 47-40 and under a minute remaining in regulation, Arkansas scored to pull within one and decided to go for two. KJ Jefferson rolled to his left and threw up a prayer into the back of the end zone; Jamal Brooks looked to have an easy interception, only for the ball to go through his hands, bounce off of his chest and into the waiting arms of Mike Woods to put Arkansas ahead.

However, on the ensuing drive, Connor Bazelak led his troops right into field goal range, and Harrison Mevis kicked the game-winning 32-yard field goal at the buzzer. The two teams combined for over 1,200 yards of total offense and zero turnovers.

Mizzou would ultimately get an invitation to the Music City Bowl against Iowa, but the game never ended up happening due to COVID-19.

#2: Off to Atlanta … with a touch of hardship (11/28/2014)

Despite Mizzou entering this game against Arkansas at a rock-solid 9-2, there wasn’t nearly as much to play for like there was at this time the year prior. With a bad 31-27 loss to Indiana (who’d finish 4-8), a 34-0 blowout at the hands of Georgia and none of its 11 wins coming against a team ranked in the present edition of the College Football Playoff rankings, only a spot in the SEC Championship game seemed to be at stake for the Tigers.

Mizzou sat at 6-1 with its only SEC loss being the big loss to UGA, who’d already played all of its conference games and finished 6-2. The stage was simple: if the Tigers beat the 6-5 Razorbacks, they’d be headed back to Atlanta for the second straight year. If they lost, it’d be the Bulldogs facing top-ranked Alabama in the SEC title game.

What played out was a lower-scoring version of Mizzou’s 2023 contest against Florida. With major postseason implications on the line, the Tigers were unexpectedly competitive with a seemingly inferior team, although UA had one of the best scoring defenses in 2014, as it’d allow more than 20 points just five times that season. MU’s first five offensive drives went punt-field goal-punt-punt-interception, with the INT coming on the first play after Mizzou recovered a fumble just shy of midfield. Even as Andrew Baggett drilled a 50-yard kick at the halftime buzzer to cut Arkansas’ lead to eight, momentum seemed light for the home team.

Even as the offense began to move a little better to start the second half, it still couldn’t come away with points. A 16-play, 73-yard drive ended up being for naught, as a 35-yard field goal attempt by Baggett was blocked by Dan Skipper, who’d go on to play offensive line in the NFL. The next drive featured a nice catch-and-run by Bud Sasser, only for him to lose a fumble. Even as Mizzou’s defense forced a punt, the kick was downed at the MU two-yard line.

It was then that the metaphorical tides turned. On third-and-seven from the Tiger 19-yard line, Maty Mauk delivered a deep strike in the direction of Jimmie Hunt despite taking a huge hit. Hunt, who already had two drops on the day, made a juggling catch for a 44-yard gain. Later in the drive, Mauk looked for Hunt on a goal-line fade, and Hunt dunked on the defensive back like a basketball center to complete the 98-yard scoring drive. On the ensuing two-point conversion, Sasser, who already possessed a positive reputation for throwing passes, found a wide-open Darius White on a reverse to tie the game at 14.

After forcing a punt, the Tigers marched again, but they did so to a different tune. They rode the backs of Russell Hansbrough and Marcus Murphy 85 yards down the field, with Murphy scoring the go-ahead touchdown with 4:38 left in regulation.

Hansbrough and Murphy picked up all but six of the 85 yards on the 12-play drive, and on the ensuing Arkansas possession, the Tiger defense recovered an Alex Collins fumble to seal their trip to The Peach State. The home crowd rushed the field, and the seniors were carried off through a sea of elated Tiger faithful.

Mizzou would fall 42-13 to Alabama in the SEC Championship, but rebounded with a 33-17 win over Minnesota in the Citrus Bowl to clinch consecutive 11-win seasons for the first time ever.

#1: The last act (1/1/2008)

Earlier in the season, I’d mentioned how postseason games were similar to weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs in that they’re hopeful celebrations of what’s made certain people so great over an extended period of time.

However, Mizzou’s 2007 season was like a wedding that was supposed to happen in Greece having to be relocated to Alaska; the destination is still awesome, but it wasn’t what some may have wanted. Just like 1960, the Tigers held the top spot in AP Poll after a dream 2007 season, this time needing a win over No. 8 Oklahoma in the Big 12 Championship game to clinch a spot in the national title game. But once again, Mizzou fell short, as the Sooners boomed in the second half to deny their border rivals a shot at unprecedented glory.

Mizzou had defeated Kansas 36-28 at Arrowhead Stadium on Nov. 28. But the Orange Bowl officials saw the simple fact that the Tigers had two losses and the Jayhawks had just one, even if MU was ranked two spots higher in the BCS standings plus the fact that its second loss was only possible because it beat KU. That logic, albeit flawed, sent Kansas to south Florida against Virginia Tech, while Mizzou would go to Dallas in a Cotton Bowl clash with Arkansas.

The Razorbacks finished 8-4, but they’d beaten No. 1 (and eventual national champion) LSU 50-48 in their final regular season game. They also featured a lethal All-American backfield duo of Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, who combined for almost 3,000 rushing yards, although the honor of future Madden cover athlete would go to the RB3, Peyton Hillis.

But Mizzou had its own running superstar of its own, Tony Temple. The Kansas City native who’d received over 50 collegiate offers after his freshman year at Rockhurst High School had starred for the Tigers during his junior and senior seasons, which included 194 rushing yards in the 2006 Sun Bowl against Oregon State. Entering the Cotton Bowl, he was 242 rushing yards away from 1,000 on the season.

That number seemed nearly insurmountable for a couple of reasons. One was that there were only four instances of a Tiger rushing for at least 242 yards in a single game up until that point (two from Brad Smith, two from Devin West). The other reason was that Temple was very close to not playing in this game altogether. He told Rock M’s Chad Moller on “The Mo Show” in August that he felt “tapped out” at that point, as he’d been dealing with injuries for most of the season. Temple also said that he asked to go home the day before the game and missed the regularly-scheduled “night before” team meeting. Almost always, he said, players that missed that meeting didn’t play the next day, but for some reason, he was given the opportunity to play, and he conjured up enough energy to suit up one last time for his home state.

With Arkansas’ defense so focused on stopping Mizzou’s elite aerial attack, that opened up the ground game immensely; while Danile struggled, going just 12/29 for 136 yards on the day, Temple cooked the Hogs all game long, starting with a 22-yard rushing touchdown late in the first quarter that he said woke him up. The rest of the contest would be a slow death of Arkansas. Temple kept chugging along, scoring twice more before a William Moore pick-six made it 28-0 Mizzou about midway through the third quarter.

However, even with all the good that surrounded MU at this point, Temple was in a lot of pain. However, Pinkel yelled at him that he was 40 yards away from the Cotton Bowl record and asked if he wanted to go back in the game. If he did, he best not hurt the team; instead, Temple hurt himself, wrecking his hamstring on the UA 15-yard line soon after. But the good news for Mizzou was that it was part of a 40-yard touchdown run that saw Temple break multiple tackles and score despite clearly injuring himself mid-run; he’d literally left it all out on the field.

Mizzou claimed a 38-7 victory, and Temple finished the game with 281 rushing yards, a Cotton Bowl record that still stands today. It marked the first 12-win season in program history, establishing Mizzou as a legitimate national title contender for the following season. While the aspirations of 2007 and 2008 never came to fruition, the Cotton Bowl proved to be the cherry on top of a historically sweet season.

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