FAYETTEVILLE — After what Arkansas has gone through this season, it had to be another tightrope walk to the thrilling end, right ?

Arkansas held No. 18 Tulsa’s potent offense out of the end zone on three plays in a row from inside the 7 in the closing seconds and the Razorbacks escaped with a 30-23 victory over the Golden Hurricane before 70, 021 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday.

Arkansas freshman Dennis Johnson returned a kickoff 96 yards for the tie-breaking touchdown late in the third quarter, and quarterback Casey Dick passed for a career-high 385 yards for the Razorbacks.

Arkansas (4-5 ) gave its postseason hopes another nudge and dealt the Golden Hurricane (8-1 ) a crushing blow that snuffed Tulsa’s hopes for crashing into the Bowl Championship Series mix.

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“Well, that’s a relief,” Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino said in his understated manner after the Razorbacks’ goal-line stand following an ill-advised pass by the Hogs that was intercepted in Tulsa’s end zone.

“We’re disappointed. One of those goals is off the table,” Tulsa Coach Todd Graham said. “I’m very proud of the run we made at that, but we want to bring that Conference USA championship back to Tulsa and then go on and win the Liberty Bowl.”

The Razorbacks notched three takeaways, including an interception and a fumble recovery by linebacker Jerry Franklin, and held Tulsa to 32 points fewer than its scoring average in beating the Golden Hurricane for the 17 th consecutive time.

“They were kind of an arrogant team, like their coach, so it really wasn’t surprising that we beat them, to be honest,” Franklin said.

Tulsa, which had won all but one of its games by at least 23 points, scored just three points in the second half despite racking up 528 total yards in the game.

“I thought the whole time we’d settle down and pull it out,” Graham said. “The whole game we thought we’d pull it out in the end.”

It looked like the Golden Hurricane just might have a chance to pull it out as it drove down the field trying to force overtime in the closing moments. But the Hogs got a stop by Matt Harris and Zach Stadther on A. J. Whitmore’s run with a direct snap at the 4-yard line, then Harris stuffed Whitmore, a Nashville native, for a 3-yard loss on a safety blitz.

David Johnson took the fourth-down snap but threw wide of Trae Johnson, who was covered by senior Jamar Love, to finish off the defensive stand.

“Two weeks ago [at Kentucky ] we didn’t do it, we didn’t ring the bell,” Arkansas defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said. “For us to have that in our hands and have our kids step up and do what they did, especially after relinquishing all those yards to get down there, they stepped up and fought.”

Tulsa’s last-chance drive came after Petrino elected to throw on third-and-6 from the Tulsa 15. The Razorbacks had appeared to be setting up for a field goal to extend their 30-23 lead on first and second down, then Dick’s fade pass for Greg Childs was thrown too far inside and Tulsa’s Roy Roberts made the critical interception in the end zone.

“We had called a run, then came back and said, ‘Let’s take a shot for the touchdown to win the game, ’” Petrino said. “If it’s not there, throw it away. And, um, we threw the interception.”

Said Dick: “It was totally my fault. I just tried to give Childs a chance to make a play on the ball, and the corner made a good play on it.”

Dick wound up winning the Crip Hall Award for outstanding performance by a Razorbacks senior on homecoming with the 385-yard showing that was 2 yards shy of Clint Stoerner’s school singlegame record.

“That was a lot of fun,” Dick said. “We tip our hats to the defense playing against a great offense and slowing them down.”

Arkansas sacked David Johnson on Tulsa’s first two offensive snaps and held the Hurricane, the nation’s total offense leader with 601 yards per game, without a first down until the Razorbacks led 17-0.

The Razorbacks scored a touchdown on their opening drive for the first time all season, on Dick’s 13-yard pass to tight end Andrew Davie.

Alex Tejada, back in the starting lineup after his early-season struggles, made a 30-yard field goal on Arkansas’ second possession, then the Hogs drove 65 yards to score on Michael Smith’s 7-yard run to build the quick 17-point lead.

“You couldn’t have scripted a better first quarter,” Petrino said.

The quick start petered out after the first quarter, however, and the Razorbacks fell back into their season-long trend of struggling to score touchdowns after lengthy drives.

Arkansas’ last two series of the first half reached the Tulsa 5 or better, but each of them stalled out. Tejada converted field goals from 22 yards out to end each of the possessions, preventing the Hogs from building more than a 23-20 lead at halftime.

Tulsa tied it on Jarod Tracy’s 22-yard field goal after an 80-yard drive late in the third quarter. The Hurricane had reached Arkansas’ 2, but a high snap led to a 16-yard loss.

Then came the day’s biggest play. Johnson fielded his first returnable kickoff of the day at the Arkansas 4, caught a key block from Van Stumon and others, made a cut to the Arkansas sideline and raced 96 yards for the final score of the day.

Tulsa did an excellent job bottling up Michael Smith, the SEC’s leading rusher, who ran 23 times for just 67 yards. But its focus on stopping the run opened up avenues through the air, and Dick capitalized.

Tight end D. J. Williams had his second 129-yard receiving game in a row, and freshman Jarius Wright logged his first 100-yard game as a Razorback with five catches for 112 yards.