OXFORD, Miss. — Brandon Allen has gray hairs.
If you don't think the last four years have taken their toll on Arkansas' 23-year-old quarterback, peer into the sideburns of his thick dark hair.
In a state where the Razorbacks are the main game in town, Allen has received criticism the likes of someone who was actually being paid to play the position. His truck has been egged and burned, and volumes have been written on his imperfections.
If anyone deserved what happened on a cold, near magical night in Mississippi, it was Arkansas' resilient quarterback, who became the first player in 23 years to be carried off the field on the shoulders of his teammates.
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Fans of the Razorbacks will be talking about this game for as long as they call the Hogs. To call the outcome unpredictable would be an understatement - unbelievable a disservice to how it actually went down.
Arkansas beat Ole Miss in a manner in which I'm confident we'll never see again. The lateral to Alex Collins will be the play we remember, but work was still to be done.
Allen threw his sixth touchdown pass to pull the Razorbacks within one point. It was inevitable Arkansas would go for two, but when it did, Allen was sacked. Game over.
Except it wasn't.
This wasn't Allen's typical night. These weren't the Razorbacks that found ways to lose like so many close games the last few years.
A face mask penalty gave the Razorbacks a ninth life, and they capitalized when their quarterback dove across the goal line to stun one of the nation's best teams. There may even be a few in shock back in Arkansas.
Arkansas players mobbed their quarterback and anyone else they could find in cardinal and white. Hog calls permeated throughout stunned silence as Ole Miss fans realized their championship aspirations were over.
Allen may have played the best game ever by a Razorbacks quarterback at sold-out Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. His 442 passing yards and six touchdowns are both career-highs, and came against one of the nation's most talked about defenses. (Results have been a different story for the Land Sharks, who gave up at least 37 points for the fourth time this year.)
The quarterback who could never win the close game won his third close one in a little more than a month. The one who could never win on the road just improved to 2-1 in road games this season.
He pulled the Razorbacks within a game of bowl eligibility in the process.
The stat sheet doesn't show the impact of some of Allen's throws, such as the 30-yarder to Jared Cornelius to answer 10 straight Ole Miss points early in the third quarter, or the 21-yarder to Dominique Reed to set up a field goal that could have given the Razorbacks the win as time expired.
Allen made play after play and Arkansas needed every one of them. The lateral will be the moment, but Allen will be the man we remember most from another overtime thriller in Oxford.
He may have added a few wrinkles to those grays Saturday, but they say every one of those has a story. His will have quite a story to tell.