PhiI C
12-17-2005, 11:23 AM
Some history of SWC football in 1968 regarding the SMU vs Arkansas game. This game more than any other illustrates why coaches are nervous with big leads especially when there is still a lot of time left in the game. Bear in mind this was a time when defenses were more dominate in college football especially with Arkansas who had an outstanding defense that year. At the end of the third quarter Arkansas had a 35 to 0 (This would probably be like a 49 to 0 lead today) lead and their offense was moving the ball and of course their defense was dominate. SMU was making the mistakes. SMU had a great QB in Chuck Hixson and great receivers such as Jerry Levias but the Arkansas defense had them under control. Early in the fourth quarter SMU scored and the score was 35 to 8. At the SMU 49 and having fourth down and inches Arkansas went for the first down but failed. SMU moved down the field and scored and made it 35 to 14. The game became all SMU's now and Arkansas was the one making mistakes. SMU scored again and made it 35 to 22. Arkansas later fumbled and SMU scored and made it 35 to 29. Now with 56 seconds left and trailing by just six points and needing 7 points to win (and SMU had a good kicker) SMU had to try an onside kick. Had they recovered even with just that amount of time they had the type of team that could do it especially with 2 timeouts left. Arkansas recovered the onside kick and that was the difference because even with SMU having two time outs Arkansas was able to run out the clock. With the lead at 35 to 0 Arkansas was probabley playing with overconfidence and let SMU take away the momentum and almost let SMU take the game. Had SMU got that onside kick they would have had a good chance to get that td with their great passing attack and two time outs left. Indeed it was a day when the impossible almost happened but not quite.