FAYETTEVILLE — In the 80 seasons football teams have been playing in the SEC, no receiver ever had a bigger game than Arkansas’ Cobi Hamilton did against Rutgers on Saturday night.
Hamilton set SEC and Arkansas records with 303 receiving yards and had career highs of 10 catches and 3 touchdowns, but none of it was enough against Rutgers, which beat Arkansas 35-26 in Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
“It really doesn’t feel like it,” Hamilton said of becoming an SEC record-holder. “That’s a good honor, but hopefully we can finish the game better than the way we did.
“Hopefully, we’ll have better days ... I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to say.”
The Razorbacks fell to 1-3 with their third consecutive loss after being ranked among the top 10 nationally. Their next two games are at Texas A&M and Auburn.
“It’s tough,” Hamilton said. “If you had told me in August we were going to be 1-3, that’s hard to say, but we’ve got to keep fighting.
“We’re going to still be together, still going to come out to practice Tuesday and practice our tails off like we always do. Hopefully, we can finish the game next week at A&M and get this season going the right way.”
Hamilton broke the SEC record previously held by LSU’s Josh Reed, who had 293 receiving yards on 19 catches in the Tigers’ 35-21 victory over Alabama in 2001.
He broke Jarius Wright’s Arkansas record of 281 receiving yards against Texas A&M last season, and his three touchdown catches tied the school record held by Alton Baldwin (vs. Arkansas A&M in 1944 and TCU in 1945) and Anthony Lucas (vs. SMU in 1999).
“Cobi played a great game,” Arkansas offensive coordinator Paul Petrino said. “I was proud of him. He played his butt off.”
Hamilton, a senior from Texarkana, Texas, had just two catches for 14 yards in the Razorbacks’ 52-0 loss to No. 1 Alabama last week.
“He competed and came back, and it really started this week in practice, because he knew he didn’t play very well last week, didn’t step up when we needed him,” Petrino said. “He played unbelievable tonight, and now he might as well do it every week. He needs to do it every week to give us a chance to win.”
Hamilton’s record-setting performance started when he caught a deep pass over the middle from Tyler Wilson for a 54-yard gain on the Razorbacks’ third offensive snap to set up a Zach Hocker field goal.
Later in the first quarter, Hamilton scored Arkansas’ first touchdown on a 57-yard pass from Wilson. His other scoring passes from Wilson covered 10 and 80 yards in the fourth quarter as the Razorbacks tried to rally from a 28-13 deficit.
“It’s good that we’re on the same page now,” Wilson said. “We’ve got to everybody there.”
Hamilton looked like he might score another touchdown in the third quarter when he caught a pass near the sideline, then cut back toward the end zone. But he tripped and fell at the Rutgers 16, with safety Lorenzo Charles credited with making a tackle as he dived at Hamilton’s feet.
“He tripped me up,” Hamilton said. “I was frustrated, because Coach Petrino always tells you when you have the opportunity to score you have to score. Don’t leave it anyone else’s hands. So I was disappointed in myself.”
Rutgers Coach Kyle Flood said Hamilton put on an impressive performance.
“He’s a dynamic football player and he’s got the right guy throwing him the ball,” Flood said. “Some of those passes are not defendable. There’s an expression that there is no defense for the perfect pass, and when you play Tyler Wilson, there are going to be some of those.”
Hamilton said he’d happily trade his records for a victory.
“We came here to win,” Hamilton said. “We knew this game was going to change our season around, but we’ve still got another chance next week. We’re going to take advantage of that.”
Sports, Pages 34 on 09/23/2012