With just over a minute remaining in the first half, Arkansas defensive end Landon Jackson went down with an injury that everyone could immediately tell was serious.
The senior captain and the Hogs’ undisputed best player found himself face-down in the snow, and was able to move his legs but was otherwise motionless as the training staff came out. He was eventually stretchered off the field and taken to a nearby trauma center.
SEC Network reported that Jackson had movement in his extremities and was alert and talking, and he was hospitalized out of caution due to neck pain he was experiencing.
The Hogs went on to let a 4th quarter lead slip away and lose 28-21 – stop me if you’ve heard that story before. The Arkansas defense certainly could have used Jackson’s intimidating presence in the second half as the Missouri football squad punched in a pair of rushing touchdowns in the closing stretch against a worn down Razorback defensive front.
Even on rivalry week, though, some things are much bigger than the result of a contest. No doubt, Jackson’s health is one of them. Fortunately, Jackson was released not long after his check up at the hospital and after the game rejoined his teammates.
No Missouri Football on Rivalry Week
Still, in a better world, Jackson never would have gone out like that in the last regular season game of his career – especially after he chose to return for his senior year despite being a certain NFL Draft pick. This season, he lived up to his All-SEC expectations by delivering another outstanding campaign that cements his status as an early-round NFL prospect. We can only hope that bright future isn’t affected by what went down in the season finale.
In the best world, Jackson would have never been in Columbia at all for this game. Instead, he along with his teammates would have been in either Baton Rouge or Fayetteville. No snow, no phony rivalry with Mizzou, no bitterly cold temperatures that make injuries more likely and more severe.
He would have been playing for the Golden Boot, a trophy that means much more to fans on both sides – and absolutely means more to Jackson himself.
After playing in five games at LSU as a freshman, the Texarkana, Tex. native transferred to Arkansas, where he has spent the last three seasons blossoming into one of the best edge rushers in the country. He surely would have preferred to spend his final regular season game against LSU, be it at his old stomping grounds in Death Valley or a Senior Day ceremony before a highly-anticipated rivalry game.
Jackson may have (literally) gotten his flowers last week against Louisiana Tech, but he deserved a better regular season finale this this. Instead, he suffered a serious injury in the most pointless, manufactured rivalry in the SEC.
It wasn’t always this way, of course.
Unanimous Decision to Bring Golden Boot Back to Rivalry Week
For decades, Arkansas and LSU fans could count on punctuating their Thanksgiving holiday with the Battle for the Golden Boot on Black Friday. The Tigers hold the upper hand with a 43-23-2 all-time record, but the Hogs always had a penchant for pulling off some thrilling upsets. And frankly, that all-time record against LSU is a lot better than the 4-12 record Arkansas has achieved against Mizzou.
Two Miracles on Markham and a victory over No. 1 LSU in Baton Rouge come to mind.
It wasn’t the most hated rivalry you’ve ever seen, by any means. Indeed, LSU football fans probably have more disdain for Alabama, and the same could be said for Arkansas fans and the Texas Longhorns.
But it was a great annual matchup that both fanbases enjoyed. The fact that an awesome, 200-pound trophy was on the line also helped. Everything was…golden, so to say.
And then came realignment in 2014, when the SEC added Missouri and Texas A&M into the fold. The conference made the genius decision to swap around its Thanksgiving week matchups to try and manufacture some new rivalries.
Arkansas began its much-maligned “Battle Line Rivalry” with Missouri – which both fanbases insist is not a rivalry despite hating each other. LSU, meanwhile, began playing the Aggies in the regular season finale. There was never a rivalry feel to that one, but at least SEC football fans got some memorable matchups like the seven-overtime thriller in 2018.
The latest round of conference roulette, however, has switched things up once again. The Battle Line fixture remains, but Texas A&M was moved into a slot with SEC newcomer Texas. LSU’s new “rivalry” week opponent, Oklahoma, is even more unnatural than Mizzou and Arkansas were back in 2014. The Oklahoma and LSU programs have only met three times before are now supposed to pretend to have beef with each other.
Tiger fans have now joined Razorback Nation in yearning for the former glory of the Golden Boot rivalry.
Great points, gentlemen! Not only do they point out the obvious problem that all parties agree with, but they even propose a solution that makes sense for everybody.
Restore the Golden Boot back to rivalry week, and just make Missouri and Oklahoma play each other. Mizzou and the Sooners have faced each other nearly 100 times, and even have a “Peace Pipe” trophy they used to play for.
That solution might seem simple, but as we all know – getting the SEC to do the right thing is far from easy. And that’s partially Arkansas’ own doing.
Arkansas to Blame for Rivalry Foolishness
Of course, it’s really difficult for Arkansas to make any sort of argument that it should move up the Rivalry Week pecking order right now.
The Razorbacks are a miserable 2-9 against the Tigers since they joined the SEC. Missouri football coach Eli Drinkwitz, an Arkansas Tech grad with deep Natural State ties, has taken particular pleasure in beating the Razorbacks four times in his five years in charge. He’s taken that joy to the recruiting trail, too, trolling Arkansas after poaching Courtney Crutchfield, the state’s top prospect last year.
His trash-talking adds to Arkansas fans’ hatred for Mizzou, but it hasn’t done anything to stop the Tigers getting the better of the Hogs – on and off the field.
As the latest realignment saga showed, SEC executives are all about the Benjamins – so they’re going to put together whichever matchups they think will draw in the most cash. That’s why they forced together two prestigious programs like LSU and Oklahoma without much thought.
Missouri and Arkansas, meanwhile, were mashed in as two middle-of-the-pack programs that needed to fill a TV slot – and they happened to share a border.
If the Hogs want to get their preferred rivalry back on Black Friday, they need to prove that they’re worthy of getting moved up in the pecking order. Arkansas might think the Battle Line Rivalry is dumb, but they need to start winning it to have any hope of getting out of this purgatory.
Calling for a return to better days is not at all meant to trivialize Jackson’s injury situation, but merely to point out that the one of the Razorbacks’ best defenders in recent memory deserved better than a rival game he got on Saturday. In some alternative universe, he would never have been playing on such a miserable day in Columbia to begin with.
***
For more on Arkansas vs Missouri:
The Inside Arkansas crew breaks down whether Arkansas vs. Missouri is a legitimate rivalry or not:
***
More coverage of Arkansas football from BoAS:
