McFadden — like the rest of his teammates — struggled to get anything going offensively against a stubborn Auburn defense Saturday in front of 72,463 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. But with 4 minutes, 59 seconds left in the third quarter, all of those troubles went away at least for a brief moment.
Lining up in a rarely seen WildHog package, McFadden faked the handoff to running mate Felix Jones, sprinted outside to the left and raced 13 yards for a first down. With the run, McFadden also raced into the Arkansas record books, becoming the school’s career rushing leader as he surpassed Ben Cowins for the top spot.
McFadden had also passed former Razorback Gary Anderson earlier in the game to become the school’s all-time leader in all-purpose yards with 4,576.
But after the loss, those numbers hardly mattered.
“That was something I was never worried about,” McFadden said. “In the back of mind, I’m proud to have those. But I’m just playing football.
“It’s hard to enjoy it in a loss when you only put up seven points. So it’s just hard to enjoy something like that.”
The career rushing record might be a nice door prize of sorts, though. Because with his subpar performance Saturday and Arkansas’ now 0-3 start in the Southeastern Conference, any thoughts of McFadden winning any bigger awards — such as the Heisman — took a serious hit.
As far as some are concerned, however, McFadden is not to blame at all for Saturday’s subpar performance.
“Being an offensive lineman, I believe a good running back is only as good as his offensive line,” senior guard Robert Felton said. “I mean I don’t care how good he is. If he doesn’t get blocking it isn’t going to matter. And me being a senior, I’ll take the blame for that.”
With the records now behind him and the Heisman talk sure to be silenced a bit, McFadden can at least look forward to putting his full attention to helping Arkansas win. And that’s exactly what the struggling Razorbacks appear to need at this point in the season.
“We’re just playing football,” McFadden said. “It’s a fun game and if you didn’t love the game then we wouldn’t be out here playing.
“We’re just out playing football because that’s what we love to do. And we just need to come out here and work harder and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Milestone McFadden
Even in defeat, Darren McFadden still had a record-setting day in a 9-7 loss against Auburn. McFadden only gained 43 rushing yards against the Tigers, but that was enough to make him the all-time rushing leader in Arkansas history.
Career Rushing Leaders At Arkansas
Yards Player Years
3,582 Darren McFadden (607 rushes, 32 TDs), 2005-07
3,570 Ben Cowins (635 rushes, 30 TDs), 1975-78
3,317 Dickey Morton (595 rushes, 16 TDs), 1971-73
3,018 Cedric Cobbs (589 rushes, 26 TDs), 1999-2003
2,887 James Rouse (559 rushes, 38 TDs), 1985-89
2,661 Fred Talley (498 rushes, 11 TDs), 1999-2002
2,535 Matt Jones (382 rushes, 24 TDs), 2001-04
2,407 Madre Hill (541 rushes, 25 TDs), 1994-98
2,320 Oscar Malone (471 rushes, 14 TDs), 1992-94, 1996
2,204 Bill Burnett (526 rushes, 46 TDs), 1968-70
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