TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The last time the University of Arkansas won a game at Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium, current Crimson Tide Coach Nick Saban was in the midst of winning the BCS national championship at LSU.
Four years before Saban took the reins at Alabama, the Razorbacks rallied from a three-touchdown deficit to shock the Crimson Tide 34-31 in double overtime on Sept. 27, 2003. Chris Balseiro made the winning 19-yard field goal for the Razorbacks minutes after Jimarr Gallon intercepted Brodie Croyle on the first play of the second overtime.
In a twist of irony, current Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman was at Bryant-Denny Stadium the week before, celebrating and taking pictures of the scoreboard as Northern Illinois' offensive line coach after the Huskies' stunning 19-16 win over Alabama.
That was five schools and eight job descriptions ago for Pittman, the fourth-year Arkansas coach who will lead the struggling Razorbacks (2-4, 0-3 SEC) into Bryant-Denny Stadium to face No. 11 Alabama (5-1, 3-0 SEC) and the coach Pittman describes as the G.O.A.T., the greatest of all time.
"I mean, he's the best coach that's ever been," Pittman said Monday.
Arkansas has lost four consecutive games, the last three as an underdog away from home. The Razorbacks need a win to avoid their first five-game losing skid since Pittman took the reins from the disastrous Chad Morris regime, which collapsed with nine losses in a row.
There are impediments to breaking that streak.
Alabama is favored by 19 1/2 points. The Crimson Tide have won 16 consecutive games in the series, the longest stretch ever by any Arkansas opponent.
So a psychological component adds to the degree of difficulty.
"We've got to take the logo off their helmet at some point and know they put on their pants just like we do," Pittman said. "Let's go try to play a physical, smart game and see what happens.
"You don't have to play perfect, but you have to play really good. You have to get off the bus believing you are going to win."
The Razorbacks, many of whom were involved in a 42-35 loss here two years ago, say they believe.
"Obviously every week we're positive," senior defensive back Hudson Clark said. "We have hope we're going to win. We're just working. We're watching film and trying to do more than we did last week and I think going into every game you have to believe you can win and that's the beginning of it."
Saban, as is his custom, credits the Razorbacks with being a tough out.
"Arkansas is a huge challenge for us," he said. "Really tough team. They've had some tough losses.
"KJ Jefferson is a really, really good player and a very challenging matchup as a passer and as a runner. They're very aggressive on defense. They've played really well so far this year."
In the 2021 game here, Jefferson passed for 326 yards and 3 touchdowns, 2 of them to Treylon Burks, and the Razorbacks piled up 468 total yards.
That was a relatively close call for Alabama, but it wasn't the closest the Razorbacks have come since the 2003 game. In the 2007 game, Arkansas rallied from a 31-10 deficit to pull ahead 38-31 behind the running of Darren McFadden.
Leigh Tiffin, the goat of the Crimson Tide's double-overtime loss at Arkansas the season before, kicked a 42-yard field goal to draw Alabama within 38-34. With the aid of a fortuitous clock stoppage to measure for a first down when the Tide were out of timeouts, Alabama scored the winning touchdown with eight seconds left on a 4-yard pass from John Parker Wilson to Matt Caddell.
During Alabama's nine-game winning streak against Arkansas at Bryant-Denny Stadium, the Tide have outscored Arkansas by 211 points at 348-137 for an average score of 39-15.
In the Razorbacks' last win here 20 years ago, they had plenty of heroes on what began as a stormy afternoon in central Alabama.
Tailback Cedric Cobbs rushed for 198 yards and a touchdown. Quarterback Matt Jones passed for 149 yards and a touchdown and opened the scoring with a 39-yard run to cap the Hogs' first series. Receivers Steven Harris and Richard Smith turned in huge plays after George Wilson went down with a high ankle sprain.
Caleb Miller had 12 tackles, while Gallon and Tony Bua added 11 each for the Razorbacks, who notched 11 quarterback hurries on Croyle and Spencer Pennington.
The game featured a weather delay of an hour after the initial on-field warmup, during which Jones clearly did not stress out.
"We come back out and we're warming up again," recalled defensive end Jeb Huckeba, who had five tackles, including a tackle for loss. "I believe our offense was ready to go on the field and people are looking around and, 'Where's Matt?'
"Matt Jones isn't there. Where's he at? A trainer goes back into the locker room. He was asleep on the chiropractic table. That's the kind of poise he had."
The odds seemed stacked against the Razorbacks after Shaud Williams' 80-yard touchdown run gave Alabama a 31-10 lead with 7:21 left in the third quarter. Williams was the same tailback who had a first-play 80-yard touchdown run up the gut in a 30-12 Alabama win at Reynolds Razorback Stadium the year before.
But the Razorbacks did not panic.
Cobbs had a 5-yard touchdown run to cap an 87-yard drive late in the third quarter to pull the Hogs within 31-17.
Even after Cobbs lost a fumble and Ryan Sorahan threw an interception on the Hogs' next two possessions, they kept the faith.
"I remember at halftime where we all came together as a team and said, 'Hey guys, let's go out here and play our butts off.'" Smith said this week at the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club luncheon. "I remember we got together on the sideline between the third quarter and fourth quarter and kind of did the same thing to try to rally the troops."
When Bua recovered a Williams fumble at the Alabama 31, Jones swung into action, completing a 26-yard pass to Harris to set up Mark Pierce's 2-yard touchdown run with 8:31 remaining.
The Razorbacks got the ball back at their 29 with 5:52 remaining.
Jones completed a pass to tight end Jason Peters, the long-time NFL lineman who seems destined for the Pro Football Hall of Fame, for a 21-yard gain to open the series. But soon Arkansas faced fourth and 4 from the Alabama 27.
Jones connected with Harris for a 7-yard pass for a fresh set of downs at the 20.
Four runs by Cobbs pushed Arkansas to the 3, and on second and goal, Jones found Smith just over a defender for a touchdown to tie the game with 27 seconds remaining.
"I had what we call a whip route, like a 5-yard kind of slant, and then you whip out," said Smith, who is now assistant director of educational enrichment services for UA athletics.
"The DB didn't bite on the fake. He was on my hip, and then all of a sudden Matt's rolling out to his right, as usual. The DB sees him and he kind of takes two steps forward and so I just got behind him. Matt threw it up high enough where it got over his hands and I caught it right before I went out of bounds."
When the game went into overtime, the Razorbacks, led by Coach Houston Nutt, felt they had the upper hand. After all, the program was 3-1 in overtime games to that point, with many players on the roster who had been on the winning side in the first seven-overtime game in college football, a 58-56 victory at Ole Miss in 2001.
"We played a lot of overtime games in the four years that I was here," Smith said. "Houston would always tell the guys, 'Once we get into overtime it's anybody's game.' So we thought, even though we were underdogs, if we could get to overtime, we could do it."
But the Razorbacks needed some breaks to take down the Tide. An intentional grounding penalty pushed Arkansas back on the first overtime possession, and Jones' fourth-down pass in the end zone was intercepted by Charles Jones.
But the Crimson Tide drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after the play and Brian Bostick eventually missed a 38-yard field goal, setting up heroics by Gallon, Cobbs and Balseiro for the winning score.
That win was part of a 7-5 run by the Razorbacks in the series with Alabama between 1995-2006, including back-to-back wins in 1997-98 and 2003-04.
Two decades ago, the Razorbacks enjoyed equal footing with the Crimson Tide. Now, with Saban at the helm guiding a championship-filled era, Alabama has been on a rampage the Razorbacks hope to halt today.