Nov. 3, 2007

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South Carolina Notes

• The University of South Carolina football team paid tribute to the seven students who lost their lives in a tragic beach house fire in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., last weekend. The Gamecocks wore a sticker on their helmet with the phrase “Forever to Thee,” a line from the Carolina alma mater, in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the fire. The Gamecocks will wear the helmet decal the remainder of the season.
• Tonight’s contest marked the 16th meeting between Carolina and Arkansas. Arkansas now holds a 10-6 lead in the all-time series with their 48-36 victory. Steve Spurrier is now 4-2 against Arkansas in his career. Carolina falls to 6-4, 3-4 SEC with the loss.
• Senior quarterback Blake Mitchell made his first start since the Sept. 22nd SEC contest at LSU. The start against Arkansas marked his fourth of the season and 21st of his career.
• Dion Lecorn enjoyed a career night against the Razorbacks. He posted career-high marks with a team-best eight receptions for 109 yards and also recorded his first career 100-yard receiving game. He also tallied his second touchdown of the season.
• With his 31-yard reception in the first quarter, Kenny McKinley extended his streak to 31 consecutive games with at least one reception, matching the third-longest streak in Gamecock history. The junior wide receiver also moved up the South Carolina single season receiving yards list. He now owns the eighth-highest total for a single season with 748 yards.
• Kenny McKinley also claimed seventh position in the career receiving yards record book. His 72 yards against the Razorbacks gave him 1,919 for his career. He also has 138 career receptions, seventh all-time.
• With his 94 rushing yards tonight, senior tailback Cory Boyd ranks 11th on the South Carolina career rushing chart with 2,149 yards. He needs just 85 yards to reach the tenth spot, currently held by Warren Muir (1967-69, 2,234 yards)
• Quarterback Blake Mitchell threw for a season-high 364 yards against Arkansas. (Mitchell’s career high is 388 yards).
• With his 51 pass attempts, Blake Mitchell moved into sole possession of fifth place (passed Tommy Suggs, 672) on in the Carolina career record book with 721 attempts. He also claimed fourth place all-time with 438 career pass completions (passed Anthony Wright, 432) Additionally, Mitchell’s two touchdown passes tonight gives him 34 for his career, matching the fourth-highest total in South Carolina history (Tommy Suggs).
• True freshman Heath Batchelor became the 12th Gamecock player to make his first career start this season.
• Mike Davis’ 57-yard reception in the third quarter marked the longest play from scrimmage for the Gamecock offense this season. It also marked Davis’ longest reception of the year.
• Carolina kicker Ryan Succop recorded two field goals against the Razorback from distances of 37 and 30 yards. He is now 12-for-16 for the season and 28-for-38 in field goal attempts for his career.
• Carolina allowed two opposing players to rush for at least 100 yards for the first time since Tennessee’s Charlie Garner (105) and James Stewart (114) reached the mark during the 1993 season. Arkansas’s Felix Jones (163) and Darren McFadden (323) each rushed for better than 100 yards for the Razorbacks.
• Arkansas’s Darren McFadden rushed for 323 yards, marking the first South Carolina opposing player to rush for more than 250 yards since Kentucky’s Moe Williams rushed for 299 yards during the 1995 season.
• The 84 points scored between the Gamecocks and Razorbacks marked the highest point total for a South Carolina game this season.
• Arkansas’s 48 points marked the highest opponent point total since Auburn also scored 48 points against USC during the 2005 season.
• Carolina’s score on a safety in the fourth quarter marked the first points due to a safety since the 2004 season (vs. Tennessee).

Arkansas Notes

• Arkansas is now 10-6 all-time vs. South Carolina and has won five of the last seven.
• Darren McFadden set the Southeastern Conference single-game rushing record with 323 yards on 35 carries. The previous record was 321 yards by Vanderbilt’s Frank Mordica against Air Force in 1978.
• Darren McFadden set the Arkansas single-game rushing record with 323 yards on 35 carries and one touchdown. He surpassed Dickey Morton’s 271-yard effort vs. Baylor (28 rushes, 2 TD) in 1973. McFadden’s 35 rushes tie for the seventh-most in school history.
• McFadden also set a new school record for all-purpose yards with 357 (323 rushing, 30 on two kickoff returns, four on one reception). He broke his own school record of 315 set vs. South Carolina last season. The 357 all-purpose yards is also the fourth-best mark in SEC history.
• Darren McFadden joined Herschel Walker as just the second player in Southeastern Conference history to rush for 1,000 yards in each of his freshman, sophomore and junior seasons. He accomplished the feat on a 14-yard run in the second quarter.
• As a team, Arkansas ran for 541 yards, which is the second-best total in school history (594 vs. Pittsburg [Kan.] State in 1936). That total is the sixth-best in SEC history and the most for an SEC team against another SEC member.
• Darren McFadden’s fourth-quarter 80-yard touchdown run tied his career high and was his longest in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. It matched his 80-yarder vs. LSU last season in Little Rock’s War Memorial Stadium.
• McFadden finished with his 19th-career 100-yard rushing game as he rolled up 323 yards on 35 carries and one touchdown. He now has 1,316 yards rushing this season, which is the fourth-best season total in school history.
• Felix Jones also eclipsed the 1,000-yard barrier for the second consecutive season. He has 1,026 yards this season, which is the 12th-best season total in school history.
• Felix Jones gained 119 yards on his first four carries, including touchdown runs of 40 and 73 yards. He finished with a career-best 163 yards on 12 carries and a career-high three touchdowns.
• Jones and McFadden are the first teammates in Southeastern Conference history to both rush for 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons. They are the third pair of teammate to both rush for 1,000 yards in a season in conference history. The other SEC rushing duos to both go for 1,000 yards in a season are Auburn’s James Brooks and Joe Cribbs (1979), and Tennessee’s Gerald Riggs Jr. and Cedric Houston (2004).
• McFadden and Jones are just the second pair of teammates in NCAA history to have back-to-back 1,000 yard seasons. (Marion Barber III and Laurence Maroney – Minnesota).
• McFadden also passed Auburn’s Carnell Williams, Kentucky’s Sonny Collins, Florida’s Emmitt Smith, LSU’s Charles Alexander and LSU’s Dalton Hilliard to move into fifth place on the SEC’s career rushing chart with 4,076 yards.
• McFadden threw his second touchdown pass of the season and the fifth of his career with a 23-yard strike to Robert Johnson in the third quarter. He has completed 2-of-4 passes for 65 yards and two touchdowns this season and is 10-of-15 for his career.
• Felix Jones entered the game leading the nation in yards per carry at 8.81 and that jumped to 9.3 after averaging 13.6 yards per tote vs. the Gamecocks.
• Felix Jones passed Gary Anderson for second-place in career all-purpose yards at Arkansas on Saturday night vs. South Carolina. Jones finished with 228 all-purpose yards and now has 4,680 for his career. Only Darren McFadden has more with 5,155 career all-purpose yards.
• Felix Jones had 228 all-purpose yards (163 rushing, 65 kickoff returns), which ranks as the 10th-best single-game total in school history.
• The duo of Darren McFadden and Felix Jones both surpassed the 100-yard barrier for the sixth time this season and the 10th time in their careers.
• Marcus Monk’s first quarter touchdown was the 26th of his career, moving him into a tie for eighth place on the SEC career touchdown reception list. He is tied with Florida’s Reidel Anthony and LSU’s Dwayne Bowe.
• Arkansas has now rushed for at least 200 yards in seven-of-nine games this season.
• Arkansas has now scored 370 points this season, which ties for the seventh-best total in school history.
  Casey Dick surpassed the 1,000 mark through the air for the first time in his career. He now has 1,065 yards passing this season. He completed 8-of-10 passes for 86 yards and two touchdowns. Dick has 13 touchdown passes this season after combining for 16 in his first years. His 13 this year tie for the seventh-best season total in school history.