The 32-point demolition that Ole Miss inflicted on the Razorbacks in Fayetteville last season was by far the most embarrassing moment of the year for Arkansas football.
The Rebels offense tacked 63 points on the board as quarterback Jaxson Dart threw for a school-record 515 yards and tied the school record with six touchdowns. Wide receiver Jordan Watkins was uncoverable, breaking two school records by catching eight passes for 254 yards and five touchdowns. Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin’s usually-potent rushing attack managed only 132 yards on the day, but the helpless Hogs secondary made that irrelevant.
It was Arkansas’ largest margin of defeat of the season, and erased all the momentum it had built coming off a 58-25 road win against Mississippi State. The Hogs’ only win the rest of the way came when it sleep-walked to bowl eligibility against Louisiana Tech in late November.
The Hogs had performed admirably against Kiffin’s Rebels the previous four seasons, winning both meetings in Fayetteville by double-digits and narrowly losing two contests in Oxford by one possession apiece. But the horrible performance in 2024 was a humbling reality check for the Razorbacks. Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman’s pregame comments about Ole Miss’ “Louis Vuitton” roster ended up foreshadowing the beatdown that ensued.
For Ole Miss, the blowout win pushed its record to 7-2 and gave the Rebels the momentum to dominate No. 3 Georgia in Oxford the following weekend. Yet Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding was still left with a bitter taste in his mouth after the Arkansas game. The record-setting offensive performances put the score well out of reach, but the Rebels defense still allowed 31 points, with 21 of those coming in the second half.
“That’s what really pissed me off about the Arkansas game,” Golding said on a recent episode of the Coaches and the Mouth podcast. “Some guys got the opportunity in the fourth quarter to go out and show what they could do, and we didn’t play well.”
Defense has been an issue for previous Kiffin teams, but the 2024 unit was elite in every sense of the word. Ole Miss finished second in the nation in scoring defense, only allowing 14.4 points per game. In addition to keeping their opponents off the scoreboard, the Rebel defense also had the ability to put points on the board themselves. The first touchdown of the game was an end zone strip sack on Taylen Green, pounced on by edge rusher Princely Umanmielen.
The Rebels’ stiff front seven allowed just 80.5 rushing yards per game, the best mark in the nation, but the Hogs were able to muster 127 rushing yards against them. But Arkansas’ 365 passing yards were more noteworthy, especially with Taylen Green getting pulled early in the blowout. Backup quarterback Malachi Singleton, who had led a game-winning drive against No. 4 Tennessee a few weeks prior, lit up the Rebels’ second unit for 207 yards and a touchdown, completing 11 of his 14 passes in garbage time.
Ole Miss finished 86th nationally in pass defense, and the 31 points Arkansas scored were the most the Rebels allowed in a game all year. Golding also told Coaches and the Mouth podcast co-host Jeff Williams that better focus in the secondary and not paying attention to the scoreboard are two things he’s looking to improve in 2025.
Unfortunately, two of the main reasons the Hogs were able to put that many points on the board are now donning Ole Miss powder blue.
Arkansas Could Be in Trouble Against Ole Miss in 2025
The final touchdown the Hogs scored that day was a 22-yard pass from Singleton to tight end Luke Hasz. It was insignificant to the result of the game, but was one of the main plays that caused Golding to want to pull his hair out – and likely made Hasz all the more attractive to Ole Miss as a transfer prospect.
Offensive lineman Patrick Kutas was also one of Arkansas’ best blockers in that contest, starting at left guard and paving the way for the Hogs’ respectable rushing performance. That was one of just four games Kutas played in due to a lingering back injury, which allowed him to redshirt the season and pocket an extra year of eligibility.
“The deal that we talked about was he wanted to redshirt,” Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman said of Kutas the week of the Ole Miss game. “And I said, ‘Hey now, we ain’t trying to redshirt you for somebody else.’ He said, ‘No, coach, I would never. I’m a Hog. I want to be here.’”
Kutas promptly entered the transfer portal after the season and committed to Ole Miss soon after. Hasz will also be joining him playing for Kiffin in Oxford. The third of the treasonous musketeers is cornerback Jaylon Braxton, another standout Razorback who took a medical redshirt before transferring to Ole Miss. Braxton did not play against the Rebels last year, but the Hogs certainly could have used his presence as Dart speared the Arkansas secondary time and time again.
Coming off a blowout win in the last meeting and adding in a pissed off defensive coordinator and three of the Hogs’ best players, Arkansas could be in serious trouble when the two teams face off again at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in week three this fall.
The designer vs. discount talent gap between the two programs only got wider after the Arkansas-to-Ole-Miss exodus during the offseason, so it’s little wonder Ole Miss has much better 2025 SEC Championship odds than Arkansas, according to the sportsbooks on Spinit. The next rendition taking place in Oxford doesn’t make things any easier.
But that isn’t even the most troubling aspect for Arkansas come week three. You would think the Hogs would have the overwhelming motivational advantage given they want to atone for last year’s embarrassing loss, but Golding’s perfectionism puts even that in jeopardy.
Most Likely Ole Miss Defenders on the Naughty List
Looking at the film, there are a few likely culprits on the Ole Miss defense whom Golding could be referring to.
PFF credits the TD coming against Brandon Turnage, who played just 19 defensive snaps in the game. Those were his last defensive snaps until the bowl game, so he didn’t appear on defense in Ole Miss’ last three regular-season games. Turnage exhausted his eligibility after last season.
Safety Trey Washington played a team-high 58 of 68 defensive snaps for the Rebels. Five other starters played between 45-51 snaps. Reserve cornerback TJ Banks played a season-high 14 snaps (only one other true defensive snap in the Rebels’ other seven SEC games). Reserve nickel back Nick Cull played his only 10 defensive snaps of SEC play against the Hogs. Fellow reserves Tyler Banks and Chris Hardie each played only 12 true defensive snaps in SEC play last year — and 10 were against Arkansas.
Perhaps as a result of the second unit’s untrustworthiness when they saw action last year, all five projected Ole Miss starters in the secondary are new transfers. It appears that, while it was irrelevant on the day, Arkansas’ second-half scoring barrage was a leading cause of Golding deciding that an overhaul was needed in the defensive backfield.
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