LITTLE ROCK - Stopping Darren McFadden doesn't necessarily stop Arkansas - or McFadden. Mississippi State learned that the hard way Saturday.

The Bulldogs held the 2006 Doak Walker Award winner and 2006 Heisman Trophy runnerup to just 3. 1 yards a pop with 88 yards on 28 totes, yet lost 45-31 to the Razorbacks in Saturday's SEC wild West game before 55, 185 at War Memorial Stadium.

" We were in man defense a lot and we did stop McFadden, " Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom said. " But it was the other guys that hurt us. "

And McFadden, too, by air.

Junior quarterback Casey Dick (14 of 17 for 199 yards without a turnover ) tied a Razorback record with four touchdown passes. Fellow junior McFadden caught one of those TDs for 57 yards, and also threw a 24-yard TD play-action pass to Robert Johnson.

ADVERTISEMENT

Senior flanker Johnson, playing his final game on Arkansas turf, also caught a 35-yard TD pass from Dick.

Senior split end Marcus Monk of Lepanto caught a 23-yard TD in his home farewell, and senior fullback Farod Jackson of Little Rock Mills caught his first-ever Razorback touchdown, a 30-yarder from Dick aided by a great downfield block by senior fullback Peyton Hillis.

Alex Tejada's 39-yard first quarter field goal started the scoring and junior defensive end Antwain Robinson's 30-yard touchdown return of an interception with 6: 48 completed Arkansas'scoring. Arkansas netted 429 balanced yards (206 rushing and 223 passing ) on a Mississippi State defense that stuffed Alabama last week and beat Kentucky the previous week.

Croom's Bulldogs fall to 6-5, 3-4 going into their finale Friday at home against Ole Miss, despite wideout Jamayel Smith catching 10 passes for 208 yards and two TDs Saturday while quarterback Wesley Carroll completed 29 of 52 for 421 yards and four TDs.

However, the Razorback defense pilfered four Carroll passes (picks by senior safety Kevin Woods, senior cornerback Michael Grant, Robinson and senior safety Matt Hewitt, plus Hewitt's fumble recovery ) for a 5-0 turnover ratio.

" The 5-0 ratio was huge, " Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said. " It saved the game. That was a very good football team we beat today. A hot team that's beaten a lot of good teams. "

Nutt waxed proud of Dick, McFadden (expected to have played his last home game with the NFL surely beckoning early ) and his seniors playing their last home game for a now bowl-bound team. UA stands at 7-4, 3-4 in the SEC West heading into next Friday's regular-season finale at nationally No. 1-ranked SEC West champion LSU.

" Darren McFadden is the best player in the country, " Nutt said. " With Felix Jones [just one play because of a thigh bruise ] out, everyone knew [McFadden ] was going to get the ball. He's a warrior. And if you graded our seniors, I bet they would all grade a champion. "

While it has long been a foregone conclusion McFadden will join the seniors exiting, it has been reported by Internet and broadcast outlets since Friday that Nutt, under increasing fire from a vocal fan segment for the last few years, definitely would either resign to another school or be bought out and fired after the LSU game.

Nutt, UA Chancellor John White and retiring athletics director Frank Broyles have denied the reports from Friday on.

Nutt said he expects to talk with new athletics director Jeff Long for a postseason evaluation as he has in the past with Broyles.

Razorbacks in the lockerroom expressed support for their coach, though none more emphatically than senior offensive lineman Robert Felton, the right guard starting at left tackle against Mississippi State because starting left tackle Jose Valdez is injured.

" I thought all the fans were behind this team, " Felton said. " But some of them, are just trying to divide us right now. You want him gone, that's kicking us in the face. The man's done nothing but good things for me and not one other person on this team can say anything different. I can't believe anyone would start rumors like that. So to the fans that are not behind us, just get out of the way and don't say anything. "

The Hogs and the fans supporting them didn't have much to talk about in a first quarter that MSU held the ball over nine minutes and led, 7-0 on Carroll's 4-yard TD pass to Smith at 3: 58.

Arkansas immediately drove to the MSU 21 with Tejada kicking a 39-yard field goal the first play of the second quarter at 14: 56.

After forcing its first MSU three-and-out, Arkansas, mostly on two big Hillis runs and McFadden's 17-yarder, drove from its 21 to the 30 when Dick found Jackson open underneath and Hillis threw what Nutt called " an RBI block" to spring him.

Dick threw his 35-yard TD pass to Johnson at 5: 01.

Monk grabbed a 19-yard TD 43 seconds before half in front of two defenders on a drive initiated by receiver London Crawford's 31-yard reverse.

Carroll took it to the Arkansas 8 those final 43 seconds with the halftime clock expiring on Carroll's pass to Smith.

That halftime's end with Arkansas up, 24-7 was just the beginning of the final wild 60 minutes. The game was never clinched until Robert Johnson recovered an onside kick after Carroll's last touchdown pass with 5: 00 left.