FAYETTEVILLE — Alabama and Florida met in the first three SEC Championship Games before another team crashed their party.
Fans not well-versed in SEC history might be surprised by which team elbowed its way into the Georgia Dome.
It wasn’t Georgia or Tennessee from the East or Auburn or LSU from the West.
The Arkansas Razorbacks — whose first game as SEC members was a 10-3 loss to The Citadel in 1992 — became the first team other than the Crimson Tide and Gators to play in the conference’s showcase game when they won the West and faced No. 2 Florida on Dec. 2, 1995 in Atlanta.
Florida won 34-3 to improve to 12-0, but the game was more competitive than the final score indicated and the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s appearance boosted the program.
ABC’s game telecast attracted more than 25 million viewers.
Why This Game Matters
Arkansas made its first appearance in the SEC Championship Game four seasons after moving from the Southwest Conference.
“I tell what you it did for us more than anything else is it helped us in recruiting outside of Arkansas,” said Danny Ford, the Razorbacks’ coach from 1993-1997. “We were able to get our foot back in the door in Texas.
“We could go into Alabama and get a good player. We could go into Louisiana and Oklahoma and get a good player.”
Arkansas entered the game 8-3 and ranked No. 23, including 6-2 in the SEC with victories at No. 13 Alabama 20-19 and over No. 11 Auburn 30-28 in Little Rock.
“The goal of every team in the SEC is to play in Atlanta for the championship,” said Mark Smith, an All-SEC linebacker for Arkansas in 1995. “So I think to make it there earned us a lot of respect from the rest of the teams in the conference.”
The Razorbacks led 3-0 when Todd Latourette hit a 36-yard field goal on their first possession, but Florida was ahead 17-3 by halftime.
Arkansas’ offense took a major hit with the loss of All-SEC running back Madre Hill, who rushed 307 times for 1,387 yards and 15 touchdowns that season.
Hill suffered torn ligaments in his left knee on the game’s 14th play. The severity of the injury wasn’t immediately known and Hill returned in the second quarter, but went back to the bench after one play.
“Madre was certainly a big part of our offense,” Arkansas receiver J.J. Meadors said. “To have him go down early in the game was tough for us.
“If Florida loses their running back, they just reach over there and grab another guy and keep rolling. But we were still trying to build up our numbers.
“We didn’t have another running back like Madre. Obviously, our chances would have been a lot better with Madre out there.”
Florida led 24-3 when the Razorbacks drove to the Gators 3 with less than five minutes left in the third quarter and faced fourth-and-1.
Arkansas quarterback Barry Lunney Jr. tried to pitch the ball on an option play to Marius Johnson, but Lunney was chased by defensive tackle Ed Chester.
As Lunney was falling, his pitch was intercepted by linebacker Ben Hanks, who returned it 95 yards for a touchdown.
“The whole dynamics of that game changed, because we had been moving the ball some,” said Lunney, who is now Arkansas’ tight ends coach. “That was obviously too much to overcome.
“You never want to make a turnover there, but the pitch actually went a little forward through a deflection. The odds of that happening were not really strong.
“Our defense competed their tails off for what Florida was offensively. They had slowed them down.”
Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel — who won the Heisman Trophy the next year — completed 20 of 28 passes for 276 yards and was the game’s MVP.
Eighteen Gators from the 1995 team were selected in the next three NFL drafts, including four first-rounders: wide receivers Ike Hilliard and Reidel Anthony, offensive tackle Mo Collins and running back Fred Taylor.
“Florida had lot of weapons on offense and a lot of speed on defense,” said Meadors, who led the Razorbacks with 7 catches for 70 yards. “They were just a better team than we were at that point.
“At the beginning of the year I think everyone expected Florida to be in the championship game, but no one expected Arkansas to be there.”
In addition to trying to beat Florida on the field, the Razorbacks were essentially playing a road game.
“The Florida fans were everywhere,” Smith said. “I heard a lot of people yelling ‘Gator Bait!’ at us.”
Lunney, a Fort Smith native, said the Razorbacks’ appearance in the game was a significant lift for the program after moving to the SEC from the Southwest Conference.
“Being an Arkansan and being a long-time follower of the program and growing up with it, I think as much as anything it was a ray of hope for our people, our fan base, our supporters,” Lunney said. “Probably even our administration that were maybe apprehensive or curious about what the change in conferences was going to do for us and whether we were going to be able to handle it.
“So four years into the league here we are. We didn’t win the West by default. Nobody was on probation. We went and won our games.
“Even though the game wasn’t a great memory, it was a point of pride that we were there.”
Box Score
SEC Championship Game
Dec. 2, 1995
Georgia Dome
Atlanta
Florida;14 3 14 3 — 34
Arkansas;3 0 0 0 — 3
FIRST QUARTER
ARK—Latourette FG 36, 7:26
FLA—Doering 22 pass from Wuerffel (Edmiston kick), 4:30
FLA—Wuerffel 1 run (Edmiston kick), 1:25
SECOND QUARTER
FLA—Edmiston FG 31, 5:03
THIRD QUARTER
FLA—Hilliard 29 pass from Wuerffel (Edmiston kick), 8:26
FLA—Hanks 95 fumble return (Edmiston kick), 4:25
FOURTH QUARTER
FLA—Edmiston 20 FG, 12:48
Attendance—71,325
FLA;ARK
First downs;25;21
Rushes-yards;35-114;43-129
Passing;282;170
Comp-Att-Int;21-29-0;17-27-2
Return yards;164;83
Fumbles-lost;0-0;3-2
Penalties-yards;8-55;9-59
Time of possession;29:45;30:15
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Florida, Jackson 11-62, Williams 10-53, Wuerffel 7-13, Dubose 7-12. Arkansas, Johnson 20-71, Nichols 5-26, Hill 7-21, Lunney 10-6, Hebert 2-5.
PASSING—Florida, Wuerffel 20-28-0 276, Kresser 1-1-0 6. Arkansas, Lunney 17-27-2 170.
RECEIVING—Florida, Hilliard 7-125, Doering 6-73, Anthony 5-47, Green 1-17, Allen 1-14, Jackson 1-7. Arkansas, Meadors 7-74, Johnson 4-51, Eubanks 4-37, Hill 2-8.