Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/ RUSSELL POWELL 10-18-08 Ashton Cobb of Kentucky gathers a fumble DeAnthony Curtis in the fourth quarter at Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington, Ky. Saturday

LEXiNGTON, Ky. — What Michael Smith started against Kentucky, the Razorbacks failed to finish.

With Smith, 35 carries for 196 yards and two touchdowns, out and injured late in the fourth quarter and the Hogs up 20-7, backup running back De’Anthony Curtis’ fumble gave Kentucky an opening that Kentucky quarterback Mike Hartline and receiver Randall Cobb seized.

They connected 32 and 21 yard touchdown passes at 4:15 and 2:21 to beat Arkansas, 21-20 in a SEC game that many of Kentucky’s disgruntled but assuredly now pleased fans had abandoned by the finish at Commonwealth Stadium.

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“We had had the opportunity to win the game,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said, “and let them back in it. We didn’t make the plays to win and Kentucky did in the fourth quarter.”

Kentucky coach Rich Brooks concurred though acknowledging the verdict was a truth stranger than fiction.

“This obviously didn’t go by a script,” Kentucky coach Rich Brooks said. “This is one of the strangest by the way it did turn.”

It turned Hartline from early-game goat to hero and the Hogs into stunned losers of the game senior All-American center Jonathan Luigs said, “We gave away.”

The script was in Smith’s hands until what Petrino believes is a concussion forced him to the late-game sidelines.

“It’s a shame,” Petrino said, “because he was playing his heart out. But we have to have other guys step up and make plays. We didn’t continue to play like an entire offense like we had earlier. We fumbled

it back and our defense has to come up with a stop and couldn’t do it.”

Lones Seiber’s third PAT provided the decisive point with Arkansas having to settle for a field goal for its final score with 10:00 because a Casey Dick touchdown run was voided by an illegal shift penalty.

Arkansas, 3-4, 1-3 in the SEC West heading into Saturday’s 6 p.m. SEC game against Ole Miss in Fayetteville, led 10-0 at half and 17-7 on

Shay Haddock’s 23-yard field goal at 9:45.

Haddock also kicked a 19-yard field goal with 9:45 left in the third quarter.

Kentucky, 5-2, 1-2 in the SEC East, looked dead after Arkansas cornerback Ramon Broadway intercepted a Hartline pass with 4:56 left in the game.

However Curtis, effective the series before in Smith’s place, fumbled to Kentucky’s Ashton Cobb at the Arkansas 41.

Two plays, later Hartline, the quarterback benched for Randall Cobb early in the game threw the 32-yard TD pass to Randall Cobb who mostly plays receiver.

The shaken Hogs went backwards three plays from their 17 to their 12 after the ensuing kickoff, punted back to their 35 after Kentucky return and got hit for two straight passes, the second the 21-yard game-winner.

All this after blanking Kentucky other than for running back Alfonso Smith escaping two tacklers and going 71 yards with a Hartline swing pass.

Other than fumbling once at the Kentucky one, Smith was sensational with his two touchdowns and 196 yards on 35 carries.

He was also instrumental in the penalty-filled, 20-play drive for a field goal that included Arkansas losing a Smith first down because of a block in the back and then Kentucky handing it back committing pass

interference on a short pass on second and 27 for an automatic first down.

The penalty voiding Dick’s touchdown before Shay Haddock’s field goal left the Hogs with too short a lead to hold once Hartline got hot.

“I guess,” Dick said of the repeated formation penalties, “I wasn’t letting them get set at the line of scrimmage. That’s my job to get everybody set. I have to do a better job.”

Dick completed 11 of 29 passes for 92 yards with two intercepted and the TD pass to Smith.

A fumbling, unfulfilled yard away from taking a 14-0 first-quarter lead, Arkansas withstood Kentucky turning the field over to get that 14-0 lead at the half.

Smith, 16 carries for 114 first-half yards plus 3 catches for 33 first-half yards netted both first-half touchdowns, a 2-yard first-quarter run and cutting away from Kentucky linebacker Sam Maxwell to take Casey Dick’s down the middle pass for a 22-yard second-quarter

tally.

In between, trying to hurdle and extend the ball on third and goal, Smith fumbled at the Kentucky one to defensive tackle Corey Peters with 1:12 left in the first quarter.

Kentucky, mainly on a 37-yard pass to tight end T.J. Drake, drove out of its 1 all the way to the Arkansas 38.

Ryan Tydlacka’s pooch-punt drove the Hogs all the way back to their six for their next offensive possession.

Arkansas couldn’t net a first down and had to punt.

The Wildcats took over at the Arkansas 37.

With passing quarterback Mike Hartline, the starter benched after two series but returned when quarterback/receiver Randall Cobb was shaken up returning a punt, confounded the Hogs for a bit operating the option.

However the defense stopped the Wildcats at the 12 and kept the first-half shutout intact as Tydclacka missed a 30-yard field goal.

Setting up Arkansas’ first touchdown on safety Elton Ford’s interception of a Hartline pass before Smith carried 5 straight times to complete the 24-yard scoring drive, the Arkansas set up Arkansas’ second touchdown.

Jerry Franklin, the Will linebacker from Marion returned 18 yards to the Kentucky 17 with tailback Derrick Locke’s fumble after a screen pass as only 1:47 remained in the first half.

Smith scored his second touchdown on second and 15 after the Razorbacks were penalized for illegal formation. It all looked so winnable then.

“Saying we gave the game away,” Arkansas senior center Jonathan Luigs said, “is an understatement. We shot ourselves in the foot tonight.”