FAYETTEVILLE — In what will be the last time that Arkansas and Florida play until 2022, the Razorbacks left quite the bad taste in the Gators' mouths.
Arkansas whipped No. 11 Florida on Saturday. The win was the first for Arkansas (6-3, 2-3) against Florida (6-2, 4-2) in SEC play, and only the second ever against the Gators.
“My hats off to (Arkansas coach) Bret (Bielema) and those guys,” Florida coach Jim McElwain said. “They took that week off and came out to prove something and they proved it. They dominated the line of scrimmage, which is something we talked about all week that we needed to do.”
Arkansas’ win moved the powerful SEC West to 9-1 against the SEC East this season.
“It’s pretty big,” McElwain said of the gap between the divisions. “As the Florida Gators is our responsibility of getting it closer.”
Arkansas defense - which gave up an SEC-record 543 yards rushing at Auburn - set the tone early on Florida’s first offensive play.
Florida quarterback Luke Del Rio’s pass for freshman wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland - who the Razorbacks recruited hard - was tipped by safety Josh Liddell and into the hands of a waiting Santos Ramirez at the 24.
Ramirez ran the pick back for a touchdown to get Arkansas off to a roaring start.
“It was kind of a man-zone read,” Del Rio said. “They came out and played man and played man most of the game. I probably should have gotten off of him. They had good coverage, the guy (Liddell) made a good play breaking it up and the safety made a really good play catching the tipped ball and returning it. That’s on me.”
It was not the way McElwain wanted his team to start the game.
“Obviously getting off to a start where the first time you touch the ball and you throw a pick-six,” McElwain said. “That doesn’t help it. We certainly had enough chances holding them defensively after that if we could get anything going on offense, an opportunity to go down and score.
“But we were 1-of-11 on third downs, which we’ve been pretty decent at....We weren’t able to run the football, which is rough. They did a good job of keeping the football with their time of possession.”
Del Rio, the son of Oakland Raiders coach Jack Del Rio, would later throw another pick near the end zone.
“I’ll overstate the obvious, he threw it to the wrong colored jersey,” McElwain said. “We had some people there that beat the corner. You have to worry about that backside safety getting there and they did.”
Del Rio completed 19 of 37 passes for 229 yards.
“I haven’t played well,” Del Rio said. “I haven’t taken care of the ball. I have to be more consistent in my decision-making and my accuracy.
“I think we have had really good game plans in all the games and guys have done their jobs and I need to do mine.”
Arkansas limited Florida receiver Antonio Calloway to four catches for 44 yards. Calloway had 25 yards on two punt returns.
“They obviously keyed on him a lot today,” Del Rio said. “They were playing man across the board, but then they moved the free safety just to him. I have never seen that before ever. It was a unique look and it worked to an extent. We still got him some touches.
“I thought our game plan was fine. I just have to do a better job of not trying to force it to him and just take whatever the play is. Not every play is going to be a 60-yard gain and I need to realize that.”
The loss put the Gators into a tie with Kentucky atop the SEC East. Florida owns the tiebreaker by virtue of a win over the Wildcats earlier this year.
The Gators still have conference games left against South Carolina and at LSU.
“I’m very disappointed, the locker room is disappointed, but as you go through and things happen to you along the way you get a real opportunity to test yourself and sews what how we are going to rebound next week at home,” McElwain said.
“I just feel real horrible for (the) Gator nation, just the way everything played out.”
McElwain didn’t see the humbling loss coming.
“I thought they were prepared,” McElwain said. “I told you we had a slow start on Tuesday. I don’t think guys were still celebrating the last game. We knew what was at stake and didn’t come through.”
There were at least eight players that suffered injuries for Florida. McElwain said five may be out for next week’s game against South Carolina.
“There’s a lot of guys there that got banged up, and there were some guys that stayed in there and fought,” McElwain said. “That’s a heck of a thing.
“We’ll choose how we come back and how we work. I still like our football team. I like our guys. They understand what we let slip away, but the key is what you learn from it. We’ll come back tomorrow and get back to work. We’ll see who we have available and we’ll go from there.”
Florida had the nation's fewest number of plays of 10 yards or more coming into the game, but gave up 16 to Arkansas on Saturday.
“We talked all week about the team that win the lines of scrimmage is going to win the game,” McElwain said. “Trying to re-establish the line of scrimmage and we didn’t re-establish it at all.
“I thought they (the Razorbacks’ offensive line) did a good job of getting angles on us. We’ll see how we respond. These guys had that week off and responded pretty darn good. My hats off to Arkansas and their staff on how they got their guys ready to play.”
Del Rio also gave the Arkansas fans - the attendance of 74,432 was the eighth-largest crowd in Reynolds Razorback Stadium history - credit.
“The crowd was into it,” Del Rio said. “They told us all week that they were going to be pound and their defense really fed off of it like all defenses do. It is really fun to play in front of your fans.
“Their fans showed up, they were loud and they fed off of it. They played well.”