1969 Texas vs Arkansas Football Question?

[Phil C]

That year Texas beat Arkansas 15 to 14 in Arkansas which was the key game to their winning the National Championship. In fact had Arkansas won they would probably have won it. Yet Arksansas made probably a mistake in judgement that probably cost them the game in the fourth quarter. Can anyone tell or remember what it was?

[Phil C]

I should have saved this for the trivia forum. Oh well! Can anyone give the answer?

[BullFrog Dad]

Originally posted by Phil C
That year Texas beat Arkansas 15 to 14 in Arkansas which was the key game to their winning the National Championship. In fact had Arkansas won they would probably have won it. Yet Arksansas made probably a mistake in judgement that probably cost them the game in the fourth quarter. Can anyone tell or remember what it was? Was it that they didn't go to pass defense when Texas had 4th and 11? Then James Street ran the 53 veer pass.

[Chopblock]

One of my old high school coaches played linebacker in that game, I remember hearing him tell the account of disbelief you could see on the Arkansas secondary when Street rolled and dropped.
Basically, Arkansas was looking for the option

[Phil C]

Good guesses but that was not the play even though it was the key play to winning for Texas. Chop who was your old coach. Did he play for Texas or Arkansas. I remember that game well. I saw it live on tv. The infamous Channel 3 (Corpus Christi) goof.

[Phil C]

A hint is that I said Arkansas probably used an error in judgement but that should be taken loosely because hindsite is always more accurate than foresight. I would have probably made the same decision that Arkansas did. This is more a point to ponder with the assistance of hindsite.

[espn1]

He threw to his end (Rees) instead of his ace receiver ( Dicus) both were open and Momtgomery had been throwing to Dicus all day. All they needed was a first down to win the game. Instead he threw an interception and the game was over. Like was said in the above post. Alot of maybees in the equation.

[Phil C]

That is it espn! The score was 14 to 8 in favor of Texas and Arkansas was at about the Texas 9 yard line and third down. The QB went for the td and it was intercepted as you said. Had Ark kept the ball on the ground and run a play in the middle of the field they would have been in perfect position to put Texas in trouble. For one thing they could have used more time off the clock. It would probably have been a sure field goal for Arkansas on fourth down that close because they had one of the best field goal kickers in the country. That would have made the score 17 to 8 in favor of Arkansas and may have put the game out of reach for Texas. We know Texas scored 7 more points to win but this would have made it a two score game and with the way Arkansas defense was playing it would have been tough. Still a td would have been better and as the Ark coaches said they went for the td because they had an outstanding qb and receivers so it was a judgement call and probably everyone would have used that strategy. Still you never know.