SMU (0-1) dropped the 1999 season opener to 18th-ranked Arkansas (1-0) in front of 51,019 fans at the Cotton Bowl Saturday night. The Razorbacks, picked to finish first in the Southeastern Conference Western Division this season, improved to 37-31-5 in the series (17-15-3 in Dallas).
"First of all, I think Arkansas is a very good football team," said SMU head coach Mike Cavan. "They played like a top 10 team, and that's what I think they are."
The Mustangs faced a ferocious Razorback defense and gained 175 total yards in the defeat. SMU's normally reliable ground game was limited to 35 yards rushing, mostly because of 48 yards lost on five Arkansas sacks.
"We couldn't put anything together on offense tonight," said Cavan. "I have to give Arkansas credit. They put a lot of pressure on us."
Arkansas utilized the big play on offense en route to its victory. The Hogs had passing touchdowns of 28, 70 and 63 yards to WR Anthony Lucas and a 53-yard run by Cedric Cobbs for their four scores. Despite the big plays, SMU forced nine Arkansas punts and limited the team to 2 of 14 on third down conversions. Individually, DE Markus Pratt had a huge game statistically for the Ponies, registering seven tackles, including three for -22 in losses (two sacks for -19).
Sixteen SMU freshmen, including 12 true freshmen, saw action against Arkansas. True freshman RB Kris Briggs rushed for a team-high 63 yards (56 in the second half) on 16 carries. Sophomore QB Josh McCown was 9-for-25 with one interception, while true freshman signal caller Kelan Luker was 5-for-10 with 68 yards.
The crowd of 51,019 was the most to witness an SMU game at the Cotton Bowl in a regular season game since 57,208 saw the Mustangs face Texas A&M on November 4, 1978.
SMU faces Tulane on Saturday, September 11, in the Superdome. The Mustangs and Green Wave will kick off at 5:00 PM Central time and the game will be televised locally by Channel 55 with Allen Stone and Brian Jensen calling the action.
Arkansas vs SMU - Box Score
Box Score (Final)
Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
Arkansas............ 6 13 7 0 - 26 Record: (1-0)
SMU................. 0 0 0 0 - 0 Record: (0-1)
Scoring Summary:
1st 06:28 ARKANSAS - Lucas 28 yd pass from Stoerner (Burstein rush failed), 6 plays, 49 yards, TOP 2:10, ARKANSAS 6 - SMU 0
2nd 13:52 ARKANSAS - Lucas 70 yd pass from Stoerner (Stoerner pass failed), 1 play, 70 yards, TOP 0:11, ARKANSAS 12 - SMU 0
04:16 ARKANSAS - Cobbs 53 yd run (Dodson kick), 1 play, 53 yards, TOP 0:09, ARKANSAS 19 - SMU 0
3rd 01:57 ARKANSAS - Lucas 63 yd pass from Stoerner (Dodson kick), 1 play, 68 yards, TOP 0:31, ARKANSAS 26 - SMU 0
ARKANSAS SMU
FIRST DOWNS................... 15 13
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............ 35-122 37-35
PASSING YDS (NET)............. 251 140
Passes Att-Comp-Int........... 32-13-0 35-14-1
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS..... 67-373 72-175
Fumble Returns-Yards.......... 0-0 0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............ 7-56 3-28
Kickoff Returns-Yards......... 0-0 4-42
Interception Returns-Yards.... 1-11 0-0
Punts (Number-Avg)............ 9-37.6 13-38.7
Fumbles-Lost.................. 2-2 3-1
Penalties-Yards............... 7-55 7-50
Possession Time............... 28:05 31:55
Sacks By: Number-Yards........ 5-48 3-28
RUSHING: Arkansas-Cobbs 8-85; Chukwuma 14-58; Caston 1-8; Sumner 1-7;
Ray 5-2; Daily 1-0; Stinson 1-minus 8; Stoerner 4-minus 30. SMU-Briggs, K.
16-63; Phillips, R. 11-26; Pennington, J. 1-7; McCown, J. 5-minus 13;
Cardwell, C. 1-minus 16; Luker, K. 3-minus 32.
PASSING: Arkansas-Stoerner 12-29-0-239; Hampton 1-2-0-12; Sumner
0-1-0-0. SMU-McCown, J. 9-25-1-72; Luker, K. 5-10-0-68.
RECEIVING: Arkansas-Lucas 6-194; Hamilton 2-27; E.Smith 2-15;
M.Williams 1-9; Loudermilk 1-6; Chukwuma 1-0. SMU-Newsome, T. 5-74; Brown,
M. 2-21; Blueitt, D. 2-18; Cunningham, C. 1-8; Cardwell, C. 1-8; Ellen, D.
1-5; Woods, J. 1-4; Phillips, R. 1-2.
INTERCEPTIONS: Arkansas-Flowers 1-11. SMU-None.
Stadium: Cotton Bowl Attendance: 51019
Kickoff time: 7:10 PM End of Game: 10:26 Total elapsed time: 3:15
Officials: Referee: Gene Semko; Umpire: John Bradley; Linesman: Stu Ross;
Line judge: Robert Baker; Back judge: Scott Allen; Field judge: Dave Adams;
Side judge: James Hatfield; Scorer: Bryan Frazier;
Temperature: 97 Wind: s, 10 Weather: 33% hum.pt cloudy
SACKS (UA-A): Arkansas-Cooper 1-2; Garner 1-1; Flowers 1-0; Petty
0-1. SMU-Pratt, M. 2-0; Patman, J. 1-0.
TACKLES (UA-A): Arkansas-Flowers 4-5; J.Harris 4-3; Kennedy 2-5; Moss
2-4; Jones 2-4; Caver 1-5; Kent 1-5; J.Brooks 1-4; Garner 2-2; Cooper 2-2;
Green 1-2; Lancaster 1-2; Petty 1-2; Harper 1-1; D.Johnson 1-1; Parks 1-0;
H.Harris 1-0; C.Davis 1-0; Berry 1-0; Summers 0-1; Barrett 0-1; House 0-1.
SMU-Hart, T. 2-6; Pratt, M. 3-4; Simonton, J. 3-3; Garrett, K. 3-2; O'Neill,
Sh. 2-3; Brown, R. 1-4; Williams, B. 2-1; Croy, L. 1-2; Dorsey, T. 0-3;
Coats, R. 0-3; Riley, C. 2-0; Aldridge, K. 1-1; Johnson, L. 1-1; Patman, J.
1-1; Orr, J. 0-2; Evans, J. 0-2; Chandler, T. 1-0; McCown, J. 1-0;
Richardson, C. 1-0; Vadheim, C. 1-0; Birdwell, W. 0-1; Johnson, D. 0-1;
Freeman, J. 0-1; Schavrda, C. 0-1.
Player participation:
Arkansas: 1-Garner, 2-H.Harris, 3-Ray, 4-Cobbs, 5-Moss, 6-Jenkins, 8-Akin, 11-Hampton, 14-Stoerner, 15-McBride, 16-Sumner,
17-Dodson, 18-Barrett, 19-Stinson, 20-Talley, 21-Green, 22-Chukwuma, 24-Morreale, 25-Chalmers, 28-Hamilton, 29-Kennedy,
30-Flowers, 31-Berry, 32-Harper, 33-Caston, 35-Butler, 36-Bailey, 37-Campbell, 38-D.Johnson, 39-Loudermilk, 40-Petty, 41-Warren,
42-Daily, 44-Reed, 45-J.Harris, 46-Kent, 47-Norman, 48-J.Brooks, 49-Jones, 53-Caver, 54-Geitner, 56-House, 57-Sandlin, 58-Melton,
61-Money, 62-Wiley, 65-Lancaster, 66-White, 68-Washburn, 69-B.Williams, 70-Sanders, 73-Shockley, 79-Ball, 80-Lucas, 81-E.Smith,
82-Burstein, 83-Muldrew, 84-M.Williams, 85-J.Davenport, 89-Parks, 92-C.Brooks, 94-C.Davis, 95-Poydras, 96-Summers, 99-Cooper.
SMU: 1-Garrett, K., 4-Brown, R., 5-Freeman, J., 6-Newsome, T., 7-Luker, K., 11-Aldridge, K., 13-Schavrda, C., 14-O'Neill, St.,
15-McCown, J., 16-Walterscheid, A, 17-Ford, B., 18-Richardson, C., 19-Beard, K., 20-Hart, T., 21-Cunningham, C., 22-O'Neill, Sh.,
24-Briggs, K., 25-Cardwell, C., 26-Dorsey, T., 28-Phillips, R., 30-Woods, J., 32-Coats, R., 34-McGraw, B., 36-Simonton, J.,
38-Johnson, D., 39-Orr, J., 40-Gardner, T., 41-Brown, M., 42-Williams, B., 43-Ellen, D., 44-Williams, J., 45-Johnson, L.,
46-Pennington, J., 48-Vadheim, C., 50-Birdwell, W., 51-Patman, J., 52-Nichols, R., 53-Riley, C., 54-Evans, J., 56-Pratt, M.,
59-Pettit, J., 64-Murphy, D., 67-Slaten, J., 70-Adami, A., 71-Erxleben, J., 74-McCarthy, J., 78-Holder, B., 80-Riddle, R.,
86-Hampton, J., 87-Blueitt, D., 89-Randle, D., 92-Croy, L., 95-Post, C., 99-Chandler, T..
