RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day 28: Darren McFadden and Felix Jones run hog wild on South Carolina (2007)
Fred and Barney.
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Welcome to day 28 of Running Back Respect Month! Yesterday, we watched every touchdown Ezekiel Elliott scored at Ohio State. Here's where we're at today, and how the rest of the month looks:
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Today: Darren McFadden and Felix Jones vs. South Carolina (2007)
RB Respect Month Vol. 3, Day 28: Darren McFadden and Felix Jones run hog wild on South Carolina (2007)
I'm not sure my writing can do justice to how unbelievable Darren McFadden and Felix Jones were as a duo at Arkansas, so I'll give you some raw numbers to do the heavy lifting. In three seasons, they combined for 7,546 rushing yards (8,294 scrimmage yards) and 66 offensive touchdowns. If the thought of containing them as runners/receivers wasn't horrifying enough for opposing teams, Arkansas threw them further off balance by deploying the famed 'Wild Hog' formation with McFadden at QB. Not only did it get he and Jones on the field at the same time, but the threat of McFadden actually throwing the ball was real. For his career, McFadden went 14-22 (63.6%) for 205 yards with seven TD and an interception.
Their damage wasn't just limited to offense, either. The two combined for 2,675 kickoff return yards and five scores (four from Jones). Add it all up and you've got 10,980 combined all-purpose yards and 78 total touchdowns between two players in three seasons. Darren McFadden and Felix Jones are the most explosive running back duo of all-time, and did it in the prime era of trench football in the SEC. A shining moment in their partnership was the night they combined for 487 yards rushing and four touchdowns in Arkansas' 48-36 win over South Carolina in 2007:
What they did against No. 1 LSU a few weeks later is undoubtedly the gold standard for McFadden/Jones games in terms of its lasting impact. Their complete evisceration of South Carolina does the best job illustrating how many different ways they could beat you, though. Late in the first quarter, McFadden went to the sideline after taking a nasty hit (that definitely concussed him). With the best running back in the country off the field, Jones did this to the Gamecock defense:
Mind you, Jones had already burned them on a 72-yard TD run before that. He had 119 yards on four carries by the end of the first quarter. Hilariously, he's not the Arkansas back who finished with 321 rushing yards in this game.
When McFadden got back on the field, he and Jones tormented South Carolina out of the Wild Hog with a grab bag of different sweeps, fakes, options, and power runs. How is any defense supposed to defend this:
