Planning Wedding During Razorback Season Can Be Huge Mistake

Seven worst Saturdays to have had a wedding in Arkansas this century

LSU Tigers safety (3) Chad Jones tackles Arkansas Razorbacks running back (5) Darren McFadden during first half action at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. / Matt Stamey-USA TODAY Sports

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Back in the early 2000s, my wife and I had an important decision to make. We could get married on one of two weekends in September and squeeze in a quick honeymoon before I had to report back to work the following Monday.

One weekend featured an 11 a.m. game against Texas and the other featured an evening game against North Texas. Logistically, the best decision was to choose whichever day had a late game so we could get the wedding knocked out, take all the photos and maximize the limited hours for the honeymoon.

However, had the Texas game been the option that made the most logistical sense, it would have been a short honeymoon because the wedding wouldn't have started until 7 p.m. after the North Texas game. That's not because I have feelings about the Longhorns that would differ if Iowa or Arizona popped up on the schedule instead.

Arkansas-Texas mattered before my sport consciousness, so it's a so-called rivalry that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. However, most of my family grew up on the old Southwest Conference days back when people of color weren't allowed to play, which allowed Daryl Royal and Frank Broyles to dominate college football with minuscule athletes like Jerry Jones.

That was the height of the rivalry, so more than a decade after the teams stopped playing on a regular basis, the Orangebloods had my family members frothing at the idea of the two teams hooking up. They all would have walked out of the wedding en masse halfway through to start the three hour drive back home to not only get home in time for the game, but to make sure they caught the full pregame on the radio and plenty of time to whip up snacks.

It was a good decision because Houston Nutt took his team into Austin and pulled off the win, 38-28. Had we forced my side of the family to consider missing that game to be at our wedding, we would have been cut out of Christmas forever.

Not everyone has the flexibility to plan around the Razorback to avoid family drama. So, with that in mind, which weekends of this century would have been the worst seven possible dates to plan a wedding that will include a room full of Hog fans on the guest list?

Arkansas 38, No. 5 Texas 28

This one has to be included and has already been addressed. As always, Texas was overrated, but not nearly by as much as the Longhorns usually are. Texas finished 10-3, losing to Washington State in the Holiday Bowl before closing the year at No. 12.

Arkansas climbed to as high as No. 7 five weeks into the season after taking down Alabama in overtime in Tuscaloosa. The Hogs finished with one less win than Texas and won five of their final six, almost all in dominating fashion, but never climbed back into the rankings after a 3-game losing streak to an 8-5 Auburn and Top 25 teams Florida and Ole Miss.

Arkansas , Ole Miss (7OT)

This is the only game on the list that doesn't feature Arkansas knocking off a ranked team. However, had people missed this game because of your wedding, no family gathering would pass without it being brought up in a bitter fashion.

Matt Jones and Eli Manning will be forever intertwined in one of the more historic moments of college football history. While everyone remembers Jones and his 110 yards rushing and two touchdowns, most forget Zac Clark actually started the game at quarterback.

The Hogs had three 100+ rushers in Jones, Cedric Cobbs and Fred Talley, while fullback Mark Pierce had three touchdowns to balance out Manning's 312 yards and six touchdowns with no interceptions.

Arkansas 71, Kentucky 63 (7OT), 2003

The game that ended the three-game losing streak that eventually followed that win over Texas in Austin was a seven-overtime barn burner. While fans wouldn't have been that worked up going into the game considering the disappointment of a losing streak after climbing into the Top 10 and the opponent being Kentucky back in those days, the sanctuary would have slowly emptied as people slipped out the back one-by-one.

Decori Birmingham reeled off a 25-yard run in the final overtime and Matt Jones hit future NFL Hall of Famer Jason Peters on the two-point conversion to give the Hogs the edge. Vickiel Vaughn forced a Jared Lorenzen fumble on 4th and 3 that was recovered by Tony Bua to mercifully end it.

Both teams combined for 1,111 total yards. Perhaps the most stunning stat of the game was Arkansas had 127 yards on five punt returns for a 25-yard average.

Arkansas 27, No. 2 Auburn 10, 2006

No one saw this one coming after Arkansas got stomped in the season opener at home against No. 6 USC to begin the Gus Malzhn/Springdale Five era. However, for what is probably the first and last time ever, the Razorbacks took down Alabama in overtime and then went to Jordan-Hare Stadium and flattened No. 2 Auburn the following week.

The SEC West champion Hogs went into the final weekend of the regular season against No. 9 LSU in War Memoria Stadium at 10-1 and ranked No. 5 in the country. Mitch Mustain threw for a paltry 87 yards against Auburn, but Darren McFadden and Felix Jones combined for 249 yards rushing.

Arkansas 50, No. 1 LSU 48 (3OT), 2007

McFadden ran for 206 yards and three touchdowns, then threw for a touchdown on top of it. Jones and Peyton Hillis combined for another 169 yards rushing, including a pair of touchdowns.

McFadden went for a long of 75 yards, 65 yards by Hillis and 31 yards by Jones. That's 171 yards on three carries, which was almost more than the entire LSU offense had rushing. Once again, in back-to-back years, Nutt coached a team to a win over a Top 2 team on the road without a quarterback throwing for over 100 yards as Casey Dick only managed 94 yards on 10-of-18 passing.

Arkansas 30, No. 8 Ole Miss 0, 2014

Bret Bielema's 2014 season was so close to being a great season. Arkansas narrowly missed taking down Dak Prescott and No. 1 Mississippi State in a 17-10 loss in Starkville, lost to No. 6 Texas A&M 35-28 in overtime, lost to No. 7 Alabama 14-13 and No. 17 Missouri 21-14.

However, for two weeks, Bielema had the Hogs rolling as Arkansas outscored No. 17 LSU and No. 8 Ole Miss by a combined 47-0 in back-to-back weeks in late November. In one of the oddest games of all time, the Hogs didn't have a quarterback throw for 100 yards, nor anyone rush for more than 100 yards.

Rohan Gaines had a 100-yard interception return and Adam McFain kicked three field goals to help the defense and special teams outscore an offense led by Brandon Allen and Alex Collins.

Arkansas 53, No. 18 Ole Miss 52 (OT), 2015

For the second year in a row, Arkansas knocked off Ole Miss and LSU in back-to-back weeks with one ranked in the Top 25 and the other a Top 10 team. The win over the No. 9 Tigers the following week would normally have been the game on the list, however, there may not be a more infamous game in Razorback history than this overtime win over Ole Miss.

This game has spurred an Arkansas holiday on April 25 of each year because of the 4th and 25 catch by Hudson Henry that he threw over his head to be scooped by Alex Collins and run for a first down. Arkansas eventually scored and Ole Miss never really recovered in a loss that kept the Rebels from making the SEC championship game.

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