Arkansas vs. Ole Miss: all-time top 5 most thrilling finishes

image-1200x630-92 — Arkansas Razorbacks tight end Hunter Henry (84) laterals the ball as he is tackled by Mississippi Rebels defensive back Tony Bridges (1) during overtime at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Arkansas won 53-52. Photo Credit: Matt Bush-Imagn Images

The 72nd all-time meeting between the Arkansas Razorbacks and Ole Miss Rebels will go down in primetime Saturday night at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi.

Arkansas has plenty of motivation to rebound after getting smoked 63-31 by the Rebels last season. The 32-point victory for Ole Miss was the largest margin of victory over the Hogs in series history. Arkansas owns the all-time series 37-31-1, but the Rebels are on a two-game win streak for the first time since the miserable Chad Morris era in 2018-19.

It may not be a legit rivalry, but this series has had some of the wackiest finishes and there is a good chance that Arkansas and Ole Miss fans will have the same top five all-time finishes on their side, just in different order. Here are mine..

5. Powder River Pass

Final score: 6-0, Arkansas

Year: 1954

Meeting: 18th

This matchup was played well before many Razorback fans today were born – including myself – but it seems to come up every season during Ole Miss week or when some of the best moments at War Memorial Stadium are brought up.

This was a top 10 matchup that featured the seventh-ranked Razorbacks versus the fifth-ranked Rebels. The Razorbacks made their first crucial play on defense in the first quarter when Bill Fuller stuffed Ole Miss running back Slick McCool on fourth down and two from the Arkansas six-yard line.

Needing a spark late in the game, Arkansas head coach Bowden Wyatt dug into his bag of tricks and came up with the ‘Powder River’ play. The name for the play derived from the Powder River that is located in Wyatt’s home state of Wyoming and is “a mile wide, an inch deep” which is would turn out to be an analogy for the trick play that would ensue.

Lined up in the single wing formation, quarterback Buddy Bob Benson took the snap and rolled left showing a run play with a blocker in front. He stopped, planted and heaved the ball to Preston Carpenter who was streaking down the sideline. Carpenter outran the final Rebel defender for what would be the winning score to complete the upset.

4. Crowd plus Santos Ramirez’s hit shook Reynolds Razorback Stadium

Final score: 34-30, Arkansas

Year: 2016

Meeting: 63rd

“You can actually feel Razorback Stadium shaking under our feet right now,” ESPN play-by-play commentator Joe Tessitore stated moments before the No. 22 Arkansas Razorbacks sealed their third consecutive victory over the 12th-ranked Ole Miss Rebels.

Down 34-30 and facing fourth and 16 from their own 20-yard line with 1:50 remaining in the game, Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly ran left to evade pressure as the pocket collapsed.

As Kelly got within two yards of the first down marker, Arkansas safety Santos Ramirez laid a smack that knocked the ball out of Kelly’s hands. It bounced out of bounds, thus sending the more than 73,700 fans packed in Reynolds Razorback Stadium into even more of a frenzy.

Those were the loudest cheers recorded at Razorback Stadium, reaching 117 decibels and Tessitore had to essentially shout to finish calling the sequence. Sound levels surpassed 100 dBs 55 times throughout the game.

3. Limpert completes Arkansas’ 24-point rally

Final score: 38-37, Arkansas

Year: 2017

Meeting: 64th

This finish was without question the best moment in what was an overall disappointing season and also head coach Bret Bielema’s last SEC victory before being fired less than a month later while walking off of the field in the finale against Missouri.

Riding a three-game losing streak, the Razorbacks got off to a rough start and found themselves down 31-7 with about nine minutes remaining in the second quarter. Arkansas capitalized on two Ole Miss turnovers and went into halftime down 31-21.

After some back and forth, Arkansas got the ball on their own 22 with just over four minutes remaining in the contest. Quarterback Cole Kelley – who was playing for an injured Austin Allen – led a 12-play drive and kicker Connor Limpert nailed a 34-yard field goal with just four seconds left on the clock and ultimately won the game.

2. Seven Overtimes in Oxford

Final score: 58-56 (7 OT), Arkansas

Year: 2001

Meeting: 48th

This one certainly has a strong case for No. 1 if not for one of the most jaw-dropping plays in college football history 14 years later, but we’ll get there. I was 11 when this game unfolded and still at the point in my childhood where I had a bedtime. Needless to say, I stayed up well past it between the ending and trying to come down from the final result.

Probably the craziest part about this early November showdown at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is it ended in regulation tied 17. It kicked off a 6:06 p.m. CT and ended around 10:20 p.m.

Under the previous college rules, teams were required to go for two after scoring once you got to the third overtime. Quarterback Eli Manning and the Rebels once again responded to an Arkansas score following a nine-play drive in the seventh OT.

After Manning tossed a nine-yard touchdown to wide receiver Jason Armstead, he connected with tight end Doug Ziegler over the middle on the two-point conversion attempt. However, Ziegler was smacked inside the three-yard line by Arkansas linebacker Jermaine Petty to put an exclamation on what was the first-ever FBS college football matchup to reach seven overtimes.

1. Henry Heave

Final score: 53-52 (OT), Arkansas

Year: 2015

Meeting: 62nd

It was really hard to keep the seven OT thriller out of the top spot, but it is also safe to say we’ll probably never see anything quite like this ending that occurred in Oxford ever again.

Quarterbacks Brandon Allen of Arkansas and Chad Kelly of Ole Miss led a shootout that resulted in a 45 all regulation score. The Rebels needed only three plays to go up 52-45 in overtime and the Razorbacks got off to a bad start when Brandon Allen and the offense got the ball.

It started with an incompletion, then a five-yard delay of game penalty, followed by Allen recovering his own fumble and an incompletion on third down left the Hogs to face a fourth an 25 from the Ole Miss 40. Allen took the snap and looked left, but there was nothing there. He looked back to his right and threw to tight end Hunter Henry standing on the Ole Miss 25.

The Rebels thought they had Henry tackled, but as he spun around he heaved it backwards and 6-foot-10 tackle Dan Skipper tapped it in the air as it fell to the ground as a live ball. Running back Alex Collins scooped it up and sprinted down the Arkansas sideline past the first down marker.

Allen connected with wide receiver Drew Morgan two pays later for a nine-yard score. Going for the win, Ole Miss was called for a face mask penalty on the ensuing play and Allen ran it in for the win to finish it out.

“They felt like they had the game in hand and honestly it felt like that a little bit on our side,” Henry recently told Pig Trail Nation. “We had game play in with an all-go concept on the right side and I was on the nub side by myself running an underneath route. I ran over to my tight ends coach and told him to put me on one of the deep balls, I want to be down there where I can make a play.

“In my head I did not tell anybody, but I was like if they throw me the ball I will probably be about 10 or 15 yards short. If I get hit right away and can’t make the first guy miss then I have to do something. That was my thought process going into the play and obviously it played out how it did. What a way to get a win there.”