By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau • rneiswanger@arkansasnews.com
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas cornerback Ramon Broadway doesn’t need any reminders of the recent history.
There’s no way to escape it. Especially when dealing with a rabid fanbase still harboring plenty of resentment toward its previous coach.
Houston Nutt and the Ole Miss Rebels are back in Northwest Arkansas today, carrying a two-game win streak against Arkansas. It’s a fact that eats at many in the Natural State — Broadway included.
So it’s something he said must change.
“This one is for the state,” Broadway said Wednesday. “We’re going to do this one for the state. We’re going to do this one for coach (Bobby Petrino) and we’re going to do this one for ourselves. We’ve definitely got to get this win.”
Emotions will be high when No. 21 Arkansas (4-2, 1-2 in Southeastern Conference) meets Ole Miss (3-3, 1-2) in front of a sellout crowd in Reynolds Razorback Stadium. It has been nearly three years since Nutt’s 10-year run with Arkansas came to an ugly ending — “golden handcuffs” and all — but time hasn’t healed many of the wounds.
That’s largely because Ole Miss has won both games in the series since. It included a 23-21 win in Fayetteville in 2008, when the Rebels gave Nutt a Gatorade bath while Ole Miss supporters in attendance chanted their first-year coach’s name.
Arkansas players have said they’re not stepping on the field with the sole purpose of getting back at their former coach, though. They said it’s simply time for Ole Miss’ win streak to end.
“It’s not like a personal vendetta or anything like that,” Arkansas tight end D.J. Williams said.
“It was another football game and that’s how we need to approach it. … If you’re a competitor, you don’t like to lose to anyone. Ole Miss. Even if the (New Orleans) Saints came to town and we had to play them we’re going to compete.”
It’s the type of stance both coaches, to no one’s surprise, have taken about the rematch this week.
Petrino was asked Monday, then once again Thursday, about the impact the former Arkansas coach has on his team as it prepared for the game.
“Not at all,” Petrino said. “We just focus on the game and our performance. We’ve got to go out and perform, do the things we know how to do and play well together as a football team.”
Nutt acknowledged there are probably plenty in Arkansas still eager to see him lose to the Razorbacks this week. But he also believes the emotion tied into his return has died down.
At the very least, Nutt said traveling back to his former stomping grounds doesn’t carry the same meaning as it did for him in the 2008 game.
“These last two years, I haven’t felt that,” Nutt told the Ole Miss media.
His players have a different feeling about what to expect from the crowd today after experiencing the emotions tied into their previous trip.
“I think it’ll be just as high because they came here and got beat last year,” Ole Miss running back Brandon Bolden told the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. “I mean, we’re going back there. And I’m pretty sure they still don’t like coach Nutt just like we don’t like them.”
Either way, there is more at stake this afternoon than just the grudge match.
Arkansas and Ole Miss entered the season with high hopes, but are currently locked in a tie for last place in the SEC West.
Ole Miss, which lost its opener to Jacksonville State and its SEC opener to Vanderbilt, is trying to prove it is better than those performances indicated. The Razorbacks are coming off the disappointment of their 65-43 loss at Auburn, when defense and specials teams struggled.
“They’re going to come in and try to hit us in the mouth,” Broadway said Wednesday. “But the thing is, what they don’t know, is we’re not that team they’re watching on film right now.”
Ole Miss has not won three straight in this series since Arkansas joined the SEC in 1992.
Arkansas offensive tackle DeMarcus Love, who also played for Nutt in 2007, said Ole Miss will be inspired by their coach to do so today.
“He’d get you motivated for games,” Love said. “He’s just a fiery coach. That’s what he does.”
But Arkansas defensive end Jake Bequette said the Razorbacks will be motivated as well.
For starters, they want to put the Auburn loss behind them and kick off the second half of the season with a win. And, of course, they don’t want a third straight loss to Nutt and the Rebels.
“Losing two straight to any team is frustrating, especially a team from the SEC West,” Bequette said. “We’ve lost two against them. We owe them one. Hopefully we’ll put on a good performance.”
