LITTLE ROCK - With the game in the balance, a pass on fourth and 1 is expected to catch a defense unawares, but Louisiana Monroe wasn't surprised by Arkansas's 11 th-hour gambit Saturday night at War Memorial Stadium.

The Warhawks were in position to defend the play-action pass, but Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick delivered the ball where only 6-3 freshman Chris Gragg could reach it. The 25-yard reception positioned Arkansas for the decisive play of its comeback win. Two plays later Dick's 8-yard touchdown pass to tight end D. J. Williams put Arkansas ahead for the duration of its 28-27 victory.

" We end up having guys in place on the fourth down play that they convert, " said Charlie Weatherbie, ULM head coach. " We've got a guy behind him and a guy in front of him and we don't make the play on the ball. "

Knowing Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino's penchant for risk taking, Weatherbie said it was easy to divine his counterpart's intentions.

" We know that Coach Petrino will do stuff like that, " Weatherbie said. " We know that he's a river boat gambler so to speak. "

ADVERTISEMENT

Weatherbie said the play's outcome determined how posterity would remember Petrino's daring call.

" Hey, he gambled and it paid off, " Weatherbie said. " That was quite a call. They made it happen, so it made it an even a greater call. Now if we wouldn't have made it, then what would've been ? The game would've been over. "

Gragg's high-wire catch was one of several plays the Warhawks were left to lament after the game. Weatherbie pointed to running back Rodney Lovett's inability to secure a shovel pass as a play of great consequence. Walk-on kicker Jeremy Gener's 45-yard, gamewinning field goal attempt would've been considerably closer had the third-down pass been completed.

" We drive the ball the length of the field and have some 40 some seconds left, " Weatherbie said. " All we got to do is catch a little shovel pass and we probably get the ball down to about the 10 or 15-yard line.

" They're blitzing us. We know they're coming. We know what they're going to do. We just don't make the catch on the ball. Then we still got a chance with a field goal that's 45 yards. We just didn't make the plays when it was time to make the plays. "

ULM freshman receiver Anthony McCall said the Warhawks weren't intimidated by a crowd of 55, 048 in full throat. They almost channeled the partisans'energy into an upset.

" That was a big crowd out there, " McCall said after catching six passes for 125 yards and two touchdowns. " That's probably the loudest crowd we'll play in front of all year. I think we really fed off that as a team..... It's frustrating. That's a tough loss to take. We came into a great venue, great crowd, came in and played our hearts out, but things just didn't go our way in the end. "