What Bret Bielema said following Arkansas’ improbable comeback win in Oxford
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Things looked incredibly bleak for Arkansas midway in the second quarter in Oxford as Ole Miss jumped out to a 31-7 lead over the Razorbacks and appeared poised to destroy Bret Bielema’s team. At that point, social media was buzzing about the demise of the program, and who could blame them?
The game turned in a hurry thanks to one play by Santos Ramirez. Down 31-7 with Ole Miss driving, the defensive back stripped Octavious Cooley and proceeded to recover the fumble. Arkansas scored on the ensuing drive, intercepted Ole Miss on their next drive and scored another touchdown to give the team life.
Arkansas would come back to win 38-37 with a field goal in the closing seconds of the contest, improving its season record to 3-5 and earning its first SEC win of the season. The win marks the first time one of Bielema’s Arkansas teams have won after losing at the half.
Immediately after the game, the Arkansas coach gave his players all the credit for the win.
“I’ve known all along, everyone keeps asking how these kids keep coming back and there’s the answer,” Bielema said. “They are resilient, got great character. Hopefully, we’ll take this and parlay it into something bigger.”
While the defense was abysmal in the first half, the Razorbacks unit got much tougher in the second half. Ole Miss managed only six points in the second half after scoring 31 in the first.
“All week we talked about we have to change the answer (on defense). Obviously, we didn’t do that in the first half but we did in the second half,” Bielema commented. “I thought the way we ended the second quarter would give us great momentum. Can’t say enough about these kids.
“Hats off to Ole Miss. I know they are going through a tough one, too. Their kids have great character to fight and make this a great game.
On getting their first SEC win:
“Just makes the next one that much bigger. Obviously, we would have liked to have one much sooner than this but we’ll take this one. We need to focus on us because we’ve had so many guys fall down around us. We’ve got to get better at us and again, a lot of credit to the kids.”
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
