It’s Personal: Arkansas Is Still Arkansas And I’m Still The Fat Kid In Orange

Image: AP

By Cody McClure

November 11th, 2006.

Do you remember where you were?

Perhaps you were in a Comfort Inn somewhere close to Fayetteville, Arkansas.

You’ve just slipped out of your second-floor non-smoking room with that shitty little plastic ice bucket to try to get a few cubes for your bourbon and Cokes.

You’re struggling to hold that tiny cellophane-like sheet over the lip of the bucket so the cubes don’t actually touch the bucket as they pour from the ice machine.

As you turn back down the hallway wearing only socks on that cigarette smoke-stained thin carpet floor, you see a fat kid at the door of one of the other rooms.

He’s wearing an orange hoodie and orange sweat pants. The oranges don’t quite match but he’s proud to be wearing them.

The fat kid is leaving his ratty pair of extra wide, size 12 tennis shoes outside the room because they smell so bad that the other occupants inside are on the verge of throwing up.

The fat kid, who has already had a devastating night, is being made fun of by his two buddies and one of their dads — all of whom happen to be wearing red.

The fat kid is me.

A fat, little Tennessee fan in the 8th grade who excitedly took a trip from Batesville, Arkansas to Fayetteville with three Hog fans just one week after making an 8-hour car trip to watch his Vols lose an absolute heartbreaker to LSU in Knoxville.

JaMarcus Russell to Early Doucet with nine seconds to go in the game. Tigers 28-24. Remember?

I do. It happened right in front of me. Brutal.

Before that happened, the Vols had beaten Georgia and Alabama and had only one loss on the ‘06 season — a narrow, one-point defeat against Florida, naturally.

So that LSU game hurt.

But Arkansas was the bounce-back game. Redemption time. I was confident. I was talking mad shit all week to my Razorback brothers.

In my orange Tennessee duffle bag (I really stood out at the hotel) I had packed a bottle of Welch’s sparkling grape juice. Not even exaggerating. I planned to win.

Darren McFadden had other plans.

With College Gameday in Fayetteville, the Hogs ran wild on us. 31-14. A score I’ll never forget.

I was in the depths of Hell.

The first time I’d ever seen the Vols play the Hogs live in person, and this is how the sports gods treated me?

Arkansas had lost to USC at home, 50-14, earlier that season. I thought Tennessee was certainly the best team they’d seen since then.

It sucked.

However, the next season I traveled back to Knoxville and was rewarded as the Big Orange took down the Hogs 34-13. Eric Berry had two interceptions as I remember it.

Good times. My lone good memory of this series, in person.

The years after that against the Hogs… not so great.

I was in attendance for the 2011 game. The Joe Adams punt return. 49-7. Why I willingly chose to attend that one with the Vols having a lame duck coach… I don’t know.

Then there was 2015. I was there in Neyland for that one too. With my Arkansas buddies. Butch Jones. Lost 24-20 after blowing a 14-0 lead. Just another brutal loss.

And who could forget last year? At least I had a couple Vol buddies with me as we made the 12-hour trek to Fayetteville to watch Nico Iamaleava run out of bounds on the final play.

Hell, I even count 2020 as a terrible loss vs. Arkansas.

COVID was going on so we couldn’t be there in person. But you can bet I was with my Arkansas buddies yet again watching from the Hooters on 2nd Avenue in Nashville (before it got bombed).

Add all those games I mentioned up and I’m 1-5 watching Tennessee vs. Arkansas in person and/or with my buddies.

Sure, I remember watching us beat Arkansas on TV from 2000-02, but that’s not quite the same. And I was just a bit too young to remember the stumble and fumble in 1998. I’ve only got fragmented memories of that season.

So here we go again. Another shot at it.

My Arkansas brother is making his way to town this weekend. He knows the history of our watch experiences together. He’s been on the right side of it.

And he knows I’m due for a win. Yet he’s willing to make the trek east for a 2-3 team that just gave up 56 points to Notre Dame and fired their coach.

Does he know something I don’t? Am I the bad luck charm?

I certainly hope not because, yet again, I’m planning to see a Tennessee win tomorrow.

This time we’ve got a competent program. This time we’ve got a competent coach. This time we’ve got a quarterback.

And this time, we’re back in Neyland. A cathedral of college football where every team not named Georgia seems to go home with an L.

The Arkansas game may not be a huge game for most Tennessee fans, but it means the world to me.

It’s the whole reason I’m here in Knoxville.

My whole Tennessee fandom started because of the Arkansas game.

You see, my dad is from Fayetteville. The other Fayetteville. The one in Lincoln County, Tennessee.

And from the time he decided at seven years old during the 1971 Liberty Bowl to root for the Vols, it’s been in my blood.

Tennessee won that Liberty Bowl vs. Arkansas, 14-13.

And Tennessee will win tomorrow. See you at the bars.