LITTLE ROCK — Many Arkansas fans were surprised by Arkansas’ humbling 38-14 loss at Alabama on Saturday. But all college football programs have lost key road games against national championship contenders, and two former Arkansas players saw similarities in games they played while at Arkansas and the Hogs’ loss on Saturday.
Barry Lunney Jr. and Tony Cherico, now assistant coaches at Bentonville High School, were guest speakers at the the Little Rock Touchdown Club luncheon Monday at the Embassy Suites hotel. Both speakers said Arkansas’ players can use this loss as motivation for future success, as they did with the Hogs.
Lunney, who was Arkansas’ quarterback from 1992-1995, remembers a 10-3 loss in 1992 to the Citadel, after which coach Jack Crowe was replaced by assistant coach Joe Kines. He also recalled a 38-11 defeat the Hogs took to the eventual national champion Crimson Tide on Sept. 19, 1992, at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
“My first two games, coaches Crowe and Kines would tell me to stay close, because I would get to play during the third series,” Lunney said. “The first game, we played The Citadel and Crowe told me to stand by him, and by the third series, he shook me off like a pitcher does to a catcher because he thought he would be up 14-0 by that point.
“A week later when we played South Carolina, Coach Kines told me the same thing, but Jason Allen played great, and I didn’t get in.
“The next week against Alabama, he told me to stand by him and I started to see the pounding Jason Allen took and next thing you know, I made it hard for him to find me.”
“Saturday did remind me a lot of that 1992 game because there was a big gap between us and the elite teams in the SEC. I know a lot of us thought we would do a better job, and Tyler [Wilson] took a pounding.”
While Alabama rolled to the national championship, Arkansas struggled through a 3-7-1 season after which Danny Ford was named the new head coach.
For Lunney, the reward for persistence became sweet as a senior when he threw a touchdown pass to J.J. Meadors in the closing seconds to beat Alabama 20-19 on Sept. 16, 1995, a season in which Arkansas went 8-5 and won the SEC Western Division.
“When we went 6-2 in the SEC that year, that gave us hope,” Lunney said. “Danny Ford brought a lot of toughness and competitiveness to our team. He recruited better and got us to where we were competitive.”
Cherico, who played nost tackle at Arkansas from 1983-1987, remembers a 51-7 defeat Arkansas suffered to eventual national champion Miami on Sept. 26, 1987.
“But we learned from it,” Cherico said. “On a game like that, you have to burn the film and move on. You have to remember that one loss is not going to make a season. It’s easy for fans to remember one loss, but I guarantee you those coaches have a plan and will move forward.”
Arkansas finished 9-4 in 1987, including a 5-2 mark in the Southwest Conference and a 16-14 loss to Texas on the final play of the game in Little Rock. Cherico credited coach Ken Hatfield for keeping the team on track, as evidenced a year later when they went 10-2, won the Southwest Conference title and played in the Cotton Bowl for the first time since the 1975 season.
“The thing is they can’t feel sorry for themselves,” Cherico said. “They have a big game against Texas A&M and they’ll play LSU later in the season and they’ve won three of the last four against LSU. The A&M game is big because they’re joining the SEC and it’s for recruiting in Texas and I know a lot of recruits will be at the game.”
Sports, Pages 19 on 09/27/2011