Salt Bowl 2024: ‘There are no losers in this game’

Benton hoping 50th anniversary of rivalry snaps a skid that dates to 2005

Salt Bowl 2024: Benton and Bryant players, coaches talk meaning of Arkansas rivalry game /

SALINE COUNTY, ARKANSAS – Fifty years ago, Dwight Fite had no idea what seed he’d planted. The 1961 Benton alum was the head football coach at Bryant High School, and he was hoping the two schools, separated by just a few miles, could enjoy the same rivalry Bauxite, also a Saline County school, and Benton had in the 1950s and 60s.

Players’ fathers that worked at the aluminum plants would argue and brag over those games leading up to and after the games on Monday at work. That’s what Fite hoped for.

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He left Bryant for a job in Texas before that 1974 season but returned a few years later to assist at his alma mater and was later the head coach of the Panthers from 1985-98 compiling an 83-70 record and winning the AAAA-South Conference title in 1989. He also was an assistant on the 1977 state title team.

Fast forward to 2024, Fite was speaking at a press conference Wednesday afternoon at the Saline County Career and Technical Campus in front of hundreds of people. The Salt Bowl was born 25 years ago and moved the game from Saline County to Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium where crowds larger than 20,000 have gathered for the game. Both schools enjoy a significant financial gain while working together to promote it, and also create a handful of fundraisers each year to give back to nonprofit charities each season.

The two rivals meet Friday to celebrate the two anniversaries Friday night at 7:30 at War Memorial Stadium.

“When I scheduled the game back then, I didn’t think about all of this,” said Fite, who was a Democratic state representative after coaching. “I wanted there to be a rivalry there like I experienced with Bauxite and Benton as a kid. Shane Broadway (Salt Bowl committee chair) has created all of this stuff, and he’s done a good job. But, I never expected it.

“We had a lot of kids that have enjoyed this rivalry and at first we go to play it in our home stadiums. That was exciting, and now these players get to play in front of 20,000 people at a big stadium. There are no losers in this game. It’s great memories for these kids.”

The Benton players may beg to differ with Fite. The Panthers haven’t won a game in the series since 2005, when they won in the regular season and the playoffs. The game ended in a tie in 2014. That was before a Arkansas Activities Association rule was passed allowing overtime for nonconference games.

Bryant, who won 35-6 last season, holds the series lead (25-24-2) and has won 20 of the past 23 games.

“I’d rather beat Bryant than win a state championship, if I had to choose,” Panthers star linebacker Walter Hicks said. “We just want to be the ones to break the streak of us losing.

“A lot of people have said we have a chance to break it. Doing that would mean the world. I’d remember that for the rest of my life.”

On the other side, no one is taking the game or the win streak for granted. Especially not Jordan Walker, who is a three-year starter and one of two Bryant sophomore quarterbacks to start the game.

“It would be very special [to win all three years}, said Walker, a Ouachita Baptist University commit. “Like I said at the podium, I was one of those kids tailgating and watching the game for all of those years, and then playing in the game when I was 15 was a big deal. It will be a big deal for me winning it if I could do that for all three years in high school.”

A lot has changed in Bryant since Fite was the head coach. The city has a population of close to 20,000 which is triple of what it was then, but the school district is far reaching. Bryant has a larger enrollment now than Benton, a town with a population near 37,000. Bryant is 7A and Benton is 6A. And the Hornets’ football program has been dominant winning five straight state titles until last season when they bowed out in the semifinals. The Hornets also had a 54-game winning streak snapped earlier last year. The expectations for second-year head coach Quad Sanders and Bryant are to dominate Benton in the Salt Bowl and win a state title.

"The pressure is going to always be the same because of the magnitude of the game," Sanders said. "Both teams want to win. Both teams always have a chance to win. Being that it's the first game, you really don't even know what you have yet, until you get out there, and now you're playing against powerhouse teams in their respective leagues."

Bryant, who is many pundits’ pick to return to the 7A title game this fall, is not only talented but very deep. They rotate many players, including defensive linemen, into the game. That has routinely affected Benton, who doesn’t have near the bench the Hornets do. Bryant has made a habit of pulling away in the third quarter. Last year, Benton senior running back Braylen Russell, who now plays at the University of Arkansas, kept Benton in the game – only trailing 7-6 at halftime. However, he was injured and didn’t play the second half. Many other Panthers were affected by cramps as Bryant rattled off 28 unanswered points to take the win.

"We've been conditioning so much this summer just for this one game right here and for the whole season, really," said Benton senior star receiver Elias Payne, who was injured and didn’t play in last season’s season opener. "I think if we compete with those guys for four quarters, then we'll have a really good chance."

Bryant also didn’t start then-sophomore quarterback Drew Davis in that game. He played more after that blowout and started the 6A-East Conference opener against Little Rock Catholic. He torched opponents passing for more than 3,000 yards and a single-season school-record 42 TDs. He will be under center Friday with a full complement of receivers that return from last year.  He is facing a Bryant defense that is short-handed.

Senior linebacker Ryan Reynolds and junior defensive back TaDayVuan Wilson were lost for the season this summer. Bryant still calls linebacker a strength with seniors Nick Miller, who picked up an offer from Henderson State this summer, and classmate J.T. Allen leading the way. Sanders also welcomes senior Little Rock Southwest transfer Darrell Moore to the corps. Moore was a 7A-Central all-conference selection for the Gryphons.

The secondary was shored up by the announcement in late July of Maumelle transfer Jonathan Frost, who will start in the secondary. Frost, who was a 5A-Central all-conference honoree, will play both ways. Frost, who started his career at Bryant, adds some insurance after the Wilson injury and his speed at receiver helps fill the void of two-way junior Caleb Tucker, who is on the shelf with an injury and expected to return sometime during the conference season. Sanders said in July, he expects the athletic Tucker to have a breakout season this year.

Fite will be an honorary captain Friday night and will be at midfield for the coin toss.

“This is such great exposure, and I am so happy these players get to experience something like this,” he said. I remember having to cut up film of my players and send it out to schools. Everybody can see these guys play now. This is a big stage that none of them are going to forget.”