Wherever Joe Tessitore goes, insanity is sure to follow.
In Week 1, it was Texas beating Notre Dame in overtime. On Saturday night, it was Arkansas surviving a late TCU comeback thanks to a blocked field goal before finishing the Horned Frogs off in double-overtime.
Through three quarters, Arkansas seemed comfortably in control of the game. The Razorbacks had a 20-7 lead on TCU, and though the Frogs had 331 yards of offense, they just couldn't find the end zone.
And then the fourth quarter began.
Kenny Hill and KaVontae Turpin took the fourth quarter over, as TCU racked up 206 yards of offense in the frame and posted 21 points. The third touchdown, a five-yard run by Hill, put TCU up 28-20, but the two minutes left on the clock proved to be too many. Arkansas scored one minute (and four plays) later on a 16-yard pass to Keon Hatcher. Bret Bielema then called a two-point conversion play so zany you need to hear it in Russian.
Arkansas 2-point conversion, as called on Russian TV pic.twitter.com/thPGqTLvZq
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) September 11, 2016
The problem was the Hogs left too much time on the clock.
They also made the mistake of kicking to Turpin, who returned it 64 yards to immediately put TCU within field goal range. It appeared as if TCU would do better than that when Hill immediately threw a touchdown pass, but the score was called back on an illegal touching penalty after the receiver went out of bounds before coming back in. TCU ran a few more plays, couldn't punch it in and set up for a 28-yard field goal with 10 seconds left.
That field goal? Well, it was blocked by 6-foot-10 Arkansas offensive lineman Dan Skipper, who used all 82 inches of his frame to get his hand on the ball.
The teams traded touchdowns in the first overtime, but TCU made a fatal mistake in the second period. It settled for a field goal, and field goals don't win overtimes. Arkansas quarterback Austin Allen (with some helpful shoves from his teammates) responded by scoring on a five-yard run on the next possession to give the Hogs the win.
It's a win that certainly has to feel good for Arkansas after it struggled to get by Louisiana Tech last week. Going on the road to beat a top 15 team like TCU is a big moment for Bielema's team.
Then there's TCU, which struggled mightily with South Dakota State last week and had plenty of its own troubles with Arkansas on Saturday night before going off in the fourth quarter. At this point, you can't help but wonder just how much this TCU team is going to struggle in 2016.
Of course, if not for a 6-foot-10 lineman, the Frogs are 2-0 and everything's fine, so maybe we shouldn't be too concerned.