As part of the countdown to the 10th Salt Bowl, BryantDaily.com will feature the game stories I wrote for the Bryant Times about the first nine. We’ll post new ones each day for the next nine days. Salt Bowl I was played on Thursday, Nov. 2, 2000 at Bryant Stadium.
— Rob
By ROB PATRICK
BRYANT TIMES
With a scenario reminiscent of their Homecoming romp over the Camden Fairview Cardinals, the Bryant Hornets overcame a deficit with a surge at the end of the first half then cut loose in the second half on the way to victory.
This time, it was a sweet 44-17 triumph over the rival Benton Panthers in the first Salt Bowl on Thursday, Nov. 2, before a large gathering at Hornets Stadium.
It was just the fifth Bryant win in the 27-year history of the rivalry, the second time Bryant has won back to back games.[more]
And it was an air circus for the Hornets as quarterback Jeramie Wooten playing his final game at Bryant went 32 of 42 for 508 yards and touchdowns to five different receivers.
The Hornets had to air it out because Benton would not let them run. Bryant had just 21 yards rushing that was negated — and then some — by 32 yards of losses on four sacks.
Wooten and his receivers got on such a roll, however, that it more than made up for it. At one point, they completed 15 attempts in a row and, after missing on six of his first 11 attempts in the first quarter, Wooten missed just four times, going 27 of 31 over the final three quarters.
A 13-yard connection between Wooten and Matt Brown actually had the Hornets on top 7-0 at the end of the first quarter, however. It finished off a 40 yard drive that started with a 14-yard pass to Luke Brown, who had worked himself back into shape to play after being sidelined with a collarbone injury since late September.
The second quarter started with a trade of turnovers. Benton’s Blake Carlson coughed it up on the first play of the period at the Benton 28 and Jason Rose recovered for Bryant. But, a play later, Wooten was sacked and lost control of the football. It was recovered by Benton’s Joe Hudson.
The Panthers took advantage with a power running attack featuring J.D. Jones and Justin McCauley. The 11-play march ended with a 1-yard touchdown dive by McCauley that, with Jarod Little’s extra point, evened the game.
And after the Hornets were forced to punt, the Panthers got back into gear with a 12-yard bolt by McCauley. This time, however, the Bryant defense made a stand inside its 40.
On a fourth-and-3 from the 30, the Panthers turned to Little and the sophomore knocked through a 48-yard field goal to put his team ahead with 1:47 left in the half.
That’s when Wooten and the Bryant passing game started heating up. Six consecutive completions — and another negated by a holding penalty — and the Hornets were back in the lead. Completions of 26 and 21 yards to Matt Brown were key. For the score, Wooten hit Mark Medlin on a tunnel screen and Medlin wove his way through the Benton secondary on a 14-yard play with :16.9 left in the half. Nick Harbert’s extra point made it 14-10.
That figured to be it for the half but when Benton was flagged for roughing the kicker on the extra point, the 15-yard penalty on the kickoff left Harbert booting it from the Benton 40.
An onside kick caught the Panthers by surprise as Alex Pudinas recovered for the Hornets at the Benton 32.
Wooten hit Matt Brown for 15 yards then Luke Brown for 9 more and the Hornets took a timeout with :05.7 left. Harbert came on and drilled a 26-yard field goal that left the Panthers stunned.
And when the Hornets opened the second half with a screen pass to Matt White who turned it into an 90-yard touchdown play, the Hornets had actually scored 17 points in 35 game seconds, turning that 10-7 deficit into a 24-10 lead.
After Benton ran three plays and punted, the Hornets drove 66 yards in five plays. Wooten, in the midst of his 15-straight streak, completed four passes during the march including a shovel pass to White that the speedy running back turned into a 44-yard play.
On the touchdown, White got the call on the ground, scoring from the 4 to make it 30-10.
Wooten’s streak ended on the next possession. After two more completions, a pass into the flat was dropped and, on the next play, Benton’s Bryan Roseberry caught the Bryant quarterback for a 6-yard sack.
The Hornets eventually punted and Benton got its offense back in gear by using Carlson, the starting quarterback, at tailback. Carlson would take a pitch from quarterback Bryan Greer and throw. A pair of throw-backs to Greer broke for good yardage then McCauley busted a 13-yard run to the 10.
From there, it took four plays, but the Panthers got in on a 1-yard dive by McCauley with 11:21 left in the game.
Needing to win by at least 13 to have an outside chance at a playoff bid and unable to run effectively, the Hornets kept the passing game loaded and drove for two more touchdowns. Wooten capped a 60-yard drive in nine plays by throwing to Josh Farmer on a 6-yard touchdown play with 9:12 to go. Then, after Benton punted the Hornets back to their own 9, Wooten completed six passes on a nail-in-the-coffin, seven-play, 91-yard blitz that ended with an emotional touchdown reception for Luke Brown from 9-yards out.
"We picked up the pace a little bit," said Hornets head coach Daryl Patton of his team’s surge. "And, you know, Benton did a great job of shutting down our run. I know they probably didn’t like us throwing the ball, but that’s what we do. For a few weeks, we had gotten out of throwing it every down and tried to run it and we haven’t won.
"When we went into this week, we told ourselves that Benton was going to play a 4-2 (defense)," he added. "They were going to blitz a rover and blitz a safety, blitz the linebackers, trying to put pressure on us. And we wouldn’t be able to run the ball on that. That’s why we decided we were going to throw it and we were going to throw it a bunch.
"We took advantage of what they were playing us," he continued, "and I thought Jeramie Wooten did a great job throwing it and our line did a great job protecting."
The Hornets finished the season 5-5 and missed out on that playoff bid. Pine Bluff clinched it with a 28-15 win at Camden Fairview.
BRYANT 44, BENTON 17
Score by quarters
Benton 0 10 0 7 — 17
BRYANT 7 10 13 14 — 44
Scoring summary
First quarter
BRYANT — M.Brown 13 pass from Wooten (Harbert kick), :05
Second quarter
BENTON — McCauley 1 run (Little kick), 6:02
BENTON — Little 48 field goal (Little kick), 1:47
BRYANT — Medlin 14 pass from Wooten (Harbert kick), :16.9
BRYANT — Harbert 26 field goal, :01
Third quarter
BRYANT — White 90 pass from Wooten (Harbert kick), 11:32
BRYANT — White 4 run (kick failed), 7:59
Fourth quarter
BENTON — McCauley 1 run (Little kick), 11:21
BRYANT — Farmer 6 pass from Wooten (Harbert kick), 9:12
BRYANT — L.Brown 9 pass from Wooten (Harbert kick), 2:37
Team stats
Benton BRYANT
First downs 17 23
Rushes-yds. 48-142 14-(-11)
Passing 9-17-0 32-42-0
Passing yds. 114 508
Punts 5-35.6 4-34.2
Fumbles-lost 5-3 1-1
Penalties-yds. 6-50 10-93
INDIVIDUAL STATS
Rushing: BRYANT, White 8-21, L.Brown 1-1, Wooten 5-(-33); BENTON, McCauley 18-65, Jones 15-53, Carlson 8-20, Hefner 1-4, Greer 5-1, Williams 1-(-1).
Passing (C-A-I-Y): BRYANT, Wooten 32-42-0-508; BENTON, Carlson 7-13-0-99, Greer 2-3-0-15, Jones 0-1-0-0.
Receiving: BRYANT, L.Brown 9-103, M.Brown 8-127, Farmer 6-57, White 5-162, Medlin 4-59; BENTON, Carlisle 4-49, Greer 3-44, Johnson 1-14, Swaim 1-7.
