Hornets’ air attack overwhelms Panthers
EDITOR’S NOTE: Because the look back at each day in Bryant athletic history has been so favorably received during the time when there was no sports during the COVID-19 shutdown, BryantDaily.com will continueposting past stories of Bryant athletics either posted on BryantDaily.com (from 2009 to the present) or published in the Bryant Times (from 1998 to 2008).
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
With a scenario reminiscent of their Homecoming romp over the Camden Fairview Cardinals, the Bryant Hornets overcame a deficit with a surge at the end of the first half then cut loose in the second half on the way to victory.
This time, it was a sweet 44-17 triumph over the rival Benton Panthers in the first Salt Bowl on Thursday, Oct. 26, before a large gathering at Hornets Stadium.
It was just the fifth Bryant win in the 27-year history of the rivalry, the second time Bryant has won back to back games.
And it was an air circus for the Hornets as quarterback Jeramie Wooten playing his final game at Bryant went 32 of 42 for 508 yards and touchdowns to five different receivers.
The Hornets had to air it out because Benton would not let them run. Bryant had just 21 yards rushing that was negated — and then some — by 32 yards of losses on four sacks.
Wooten and his receivers got on such a roll, however, that it more than made up for it. At one point, they completed 15 attempts in a row and, after missing on six of his first 11 attempts in the first quarter, Wooten missed just four times, going 27 of 31 over the final three quarters.
A 13-yard connection between Wooten and Matt Brown actually had the Hornets on top 7-0 at the end of the first quarter, however. It finished off a 40 yard drive that started with a 14-yard pass to Luke Brown, who had worked himself back into shape to play after being sidelined with a collarbone injury since late September.
The second quarter started with a trade of turnovers. Benton’s Blake Carlson coughed it up on the first play of the period at the Benton 28 and Jason Rose recovered for Bryant. But, a play later, Wooten was sacked and lost control of the football. It was recovered by Benton’s Joe Hudson.
The Panthers took advantage with a power running attack featuring J.D. Jones and Justin McCauley. The 11-play march ended with a 1-yard touchdown dive by McCauley that, with Jarod Little’s extra point, evened the game.
And after the Hornets were forced to punt, the Panthers got back into gear with a 12-yard bolt by McCauley. This time, however, the Bryant defense made a stand inside its 40.
On a fourth-and-3 from the 30, the Panthers turned to Little and the sophomore knocked through a 48-yard field goal to put his team ahead with 1:47 left in the half.
That’s when Wooten and the Bryant passing game started heating up. Six consecutive completions — and another negated by a holding penalty — and the Hornets were back in the lead. Completions of 26 and 21 yards to Matt Brown were key. For the score, Wooten hit Mark Medlin on a tunnel screen and Medlin wove his way through the Benton secondary on a 14-yard play with :16.9 left in the half. Nick Harbert’s extra point made it 14-10.
That figured to be it for the half but when Benton was flagged for roughing the kicker on the extra point, the 15-yard penalty on the kickoff left Harbert booting it from the Benton 40.
An onside kick caught the Panthers by surprise as Alex Pudinas recovered for the Hornets at the Benton 32.
Wooten hit Matt Brown for 15 yards then Luke Brown for 9 more and the Hornets took a timeout with :05.7 left. Harbert came on and drilled a 26-yard field goal that left the Panthers stunned.
And when the Hornets opened the second half with a screen pass to Matt White who turned it into an 90-yard touchdown play, the Hornets had actually scored 17 points in 35 game seconds, turning that 10-7 deficit into a 24-10 lead.
After Benton ran three plays and punted, the Hornets drove 66 yards in five plays. Wooten, in the midst of his 15-straight streak, completed four passes during the march including a shovel pass to White that the speedy running back turned into a 44-yard play.
On the touchdown, White got the call on the ground, scoring from the 4 to make it 30-10.
Wooten’s streak ended on the next possession. After two more completions, a pass into the flat was dropped and, on the next play, Benton’s Bryan Roseberry caught the Bryant quarterback for a 6-yard sack.
The Hornets eventually punted and Benton got its offense back in gear by using Carlson, the starting quarterback, at tailback. Carlson would take a pitch from quarterback Bryan Greer and throw. A pair of throw-backs to Greer broke for good yardage then McCauley busted a 13-yard run to the 10.
From there, it took four plays, but the Panthers got in on a 1-yard dive by McCauley with 11:21 left in the game.
Needing to win by at least 13 to have an outside chance at a playoff bid and unable to run effectively, the Hornets kept the passing game loaded and drove for two more touchdowns. Wooten capped a 60-yard drive in nine plays by throwing to Josh Farmer on a 6-yard touchdown play with 9:12 to go. Then, after Benton punted the Hornets back to their own 9, Wooten completed six passes on a nail-in-the-coffin, seven-play, 91-yard blitz that ended with an emotional touchdown reception for Luke Brown from 9-yards out.
“We picked up the pace a little bit,” said Hornets head coach Daryl Patton of his team’s surge. “And, you know, Benton did a great job of shutting down our run. I know they probably didn’t like us throwing the ball, but that’s what we do. For a few weeks, we had gotten out of throwing it every down and tried to run it and we haven’t won.
“When we went into this week, we told ourselves that Benton was going to play a 4-2 (defense),” he added. “They were going to blitz a rover and blitz a safety, blitz the linebackers, trying to put pressure on us. And we wouldn’t be able to run the ball on that. That’s why we decided we were going to throw it and we were going to throw it a bunch.
“We took advantage of what they were playing us,” he continued, “and I thought Jeramie Wooten did a great job throwing it and our line did a great job protecting.”
The Hornets finished the season 5-5 and missed out on that playoff bid. Pine Bluff clinched it with a 28-15 win at Camden Fairview.
Hornets finish in style
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
Whatever people remember of the 2000 edition of the Bryant Hornets football team, there will always be at least one thing they can point to with pride. The very first result listed on the Salt Bowl trophy which will be handed out annually to the winner of the Bryant-Benton war will say this:
Bryant Hornets 44, Benton Panthers 17.
On every renewal of the Bowl presentation, hereafter, be it the fifth annual Salt Bowl, the 10th annual — shucks, the 50th annual — it will be the 2000 Hornets that will be especially invited back home for the game.
They won the first one.
There are certainly other things for the team to be proud of. Yes, they missed a return trip to the playoffs and were disappointed at their 5-5 overall record, but they competed at a level — every loss a close one, every win was not — that certified the renaissance of the Hornets football program. They proved wrong anyone that thought the magical 1999 season was just a flash in the pan and quality football at Bryant could not be maintained.
The 2000 Hornets had a lot to prove under a lot of pressure and they may not have done it with a bang all season but they proved it nonetheless with the win over the arch-rival Panthers as a punctuation mark.
Chad Hooten of the renowned Hooten’s Arkansas Football magazine said it best during a halftime interview: “I still believe, when healthy, this Bryant team is as good as any in the AAAAA-South Conference.”
And not only will the Benton win serve as punctuation for the 2000 season, it will serve as a springboard for 2001.
“It was a good win for the program,” concurred Bryant head coach Daryl Patton, who has been involved as a player or coach in four of the five Bryant wins in the 27-game series with Benton. “It’s a good way to go into the off-season. There aren’t many teams that can win that last game so we’re tickled to death about it.
“To have a down year in our view, at 5-5 — yet, we were so close,” Patton added. “We’re going to look back on this and see some games that we let slip away. What could have been, you know. But I’m proud of the kids for fighting and competing hard.”
One of the most compelling individual aspects of the game was the performance of senior quarterback Jeramie Wooten. In each of the past two seasons, Bryant quarterbacks had set records right and left, first Tadd Farmer then Derik McCoy. Wooten’s season was as much a rollercoaster as the team’s. One game, he was even replaced as the starter. Said to be not tall enough, not big enough, not strong enough, he nevertheless kept his head up, said the right things and continued to compete.
Still, it appeared there would be no record-book for Wooten.
Until the Benton game.
The senior went out in a blaze of glory, passing for 508 yards and five touchdowns and completing 32 of 42 passes including, at one point, 15 in succession.
For that, he was awarded the KCDI/Press Box Bryant Hornets Offensive Player of the Game award which, along with a Defensive Player of the Game award, will be an annual part of the Salt Bowl (thanks, in large part, to press box regulars Jim Lagrone, Jim Hudman and Fred Foster.)
In fact, Wooten’s numbers might have been even greater, had he not had three completions negated by penalties.
And who were Wooten’s top receivers? It was the Brown boys, reunited. Luke Brown, on the injured list since suffering a dislocated collar bone Sept. 29 at Pine Bluff, rejoined fellow senior Matt Brown to combine for 17 receptions for a whopping 230 yards. Luke, a running back much of his career, made nine catches as a wide receiver for 103 yards and quipped to one of the Bryant assistant coaches after the game, “Y’all were wasting me at fullback.” Matt, the school’s all-time leading receiver, added eight catches and 127 yards to his career totals.
But Patton wanted to talk about his defense after the game which, after the previous game at Texarkana, was a bit singed about some strategy they, at first, didn’t understand. Trailing 14-13 and with Texarkana’s offense eating up the last remains of the game clock as well as Bryant timeouts, the Hornets defense was told to allow Texarkana to score once they got deep into Bryant territory.
Understandably, the defense took that as an affront to their abilities. Later, those hard feelings were salved somewhat when the strategy was explained, that in order for the offense to have any time for a comeback it needed the ball and a 7 or 8 point deficit with possession and a chance to tie was no worse than a one-point difference without possession and little chance to win.
In light of that, the Hornets felt like they had something to prove against Benton. And, though the Panthers were able to accumulate 256 yards of offense, Bryant forced three turnovers and pitched a shutout for three quarters.
Junior linebacker Jason Rose, one of several reasons for optimism about next year’s defense, was awarded the Defensive Player of the Game plaque for getting in on 13 tackles including five unassisted and recovering two of the fumbles.
“A lot of times, the defense is kind of the second child,” Patton said. “They don’t get all the attention. But our defense for the last two years, they have given us a chance to win week in and week out. And, if you look at Bryant football the last two years, our defense is the biggest thing that’s changed.
“(Against Benton), we played well,” Patton added. “We bent at times but we didn’t break. It was going to be tough for Benton to score 21 points on us.”
Of the offense, Patton said, “Our offensive line, week in, week out, I’ve probably been guilty of pointing the finger at them sometimes when we can’t run the football. But Coach (Paul) Calley did a great job of getting the line ready to play. We took what (Benton) was giving us which was the pass and they did an excellent, excellent job of pass protection.”
There again, there’s room for optimism about the offensive front. Against Benton Thursday, only one senior, three-year starter Brad Roberts, drew a starting assignment.
So, the 2000 seniors pass the torch, still held high and burning brightly, just the second group to be a part of consecutive wins over the rival Panthers and just the second group to lead Bryant teams to consecutive non-losing campaigns since the mid-60’s.
For the juniors, they can now become the first class to sweep three games from Benton with a Salt Bowl II win next year, and the first since 1967 to be a part of three straight years with an even or better record.
