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McFadden has bad day in Oxford Tuesday, Nov 15, 2005 By Harry King LITTLE ROCK - At the Hallmark store, pick out a thank-you card for Ole Miss linebacker Kelvin Robinson and something with a polite apology for John Mayes. Until Saturday, the Pulaski Oak Grove football coach was in line for a full-blown "You were right, I was wrong," on bended knee. During the summer, Mayes was in Pine Bluff for a golf tournament and all he could talk about was how Darren McFadden was going to make a difference in the Arkansas offense. Knowing the Southeastern Conference is a cut or two above high school football at Crossett and Stuttgart, Mayes' quotes were noted so that they could be regurgitated when McFadden was moved to defense. "His acceleration to the hole is unbelievable," Mayes said. "He's gonna make a difference." Because of the circumstances, it was easy to dismiss his 70 yards in the season opener and kiss off some of his other early-season numbers. At one point, Houston Nutt was asked if McFadden might be moved to safety and he responded with a defiant, "Home run hitter." For five games in a row, he had at least one run of 35 yards and his speed is something. You can brush aside 39 yards against Louisiana-Monroe, but 70-yarders against both Alabama and Georgia smack you in the face. After 190 against Georgia and 187 against South Carolina, he was leading the SEC in rushing and set to join an elite group of freshmen who have topped 1,000 yards. Heading for Oxford, McFadden had 869 and the SEC media guide went into the laptop bag for perspective. Georgia's Herschel Walker was the first SEC freshman to reach 1,000 yards and he did 1,616 in 1980. In 1987, both Florida's Emmitt Smith and Tennessee's Reggie Cobb topped 1,000. Tennessee also had Chuck Webb in 1989 and Jamal Lewis in 1997. In 2003, Justin Vincent made it with a yard to spare. As freshmen, both Walker and Smith led the SEC in rushing yards per game. Prior to last week, McFadden was averaging 108.6, 36 inches per game better than Kenneth Darby of Alabama. During the first 15 minutes in Oxford, McFadden had five carries for 9 yards - all on the first play of the game when he started in the slot and came around for a handoff on a play designed to get him to the outside. On McFadden's first carry of the second quarter, Robinson planted him and he fumbled. Nutt said Sunday that McFadden had never been hit like that since he arrived in Fayetteville and that the collision shook him. McFadden, who had 31 carries against Georgia and 32 the next week against South Carolina, got seven post-fumble against the Rebels and finished with 32 yards. His first run was his longest - the only other time this year that he did not contribute a double-digit gain was when he made 6 on his only carry vs. Vanderbilt. Looking back, Nutt is bound to regret that McFadden and Felix Jones had a total of two tries in the loss to the Commodores. The people who vote for the All-SEC team might want to sign off on the thank you for Robinson and his teammates. With his performance against the Rebels, McFadden is now fourth in the league in rushing with 99 yards per game. Auburn's Kenny Irons, a world-beater against Arkansas but not in the same class with McFadden as far as speed, made 179 on 37 carries against Georgia and is No. 1 in the league at 110.2. Darby is No. 3 at 107.2. In between them is Kentucky sophomore Rafael Little. Considering that Irons and Darby are juniors and are playing for two of the league's best teams, it will be easy to vote for them and put McFadden on the second team with a consolation prize of Freshman of the Year. The only way he can get to the first team is with some gee-whiz performance against LSU. ----- Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media Group's Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com. |
