The 2002 football season was quite the affair, particularly in the West. Georgia went into the SEC Championship game ranked 11-1 and ranked #4 in the nation. Not surprisingly, their only loss came to Florida. The surprise was that the Gators were actually the underdog, being in their first season under Ron Zook (who brought the program to its lowest in years). The Bulldogs ran into problems while D.J. Shockley was in at quarterback and could not quite pull out the game.
The Arkansas Razorbacks entered into the Georgia Dome with a record of 9-3. They lost (sadly) to Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. However, the Crimson Tide were ineligible to play in the Championship game because of NCAA bans. The loss to Tennessee came in 6 overtimes, much like the 7-overtime thriller in Oxford the year before (the difference, of course, being the winner). The Tennessee game was not the only big-time game for the Razorbacks that year. On November, 29th the LSU Tigers came to meet the Hogs at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. The game was a back-and-forth affair, with LSU leading 17-7 in the fourth quarter. However, Fred Talley scored on a 56-yard touchdown run to put the game at 17-14. After LSU scored a field goal, Matt Jones connected on two huge passes, including one to Decori Birmingham in the back of the endzone, tying the game at 20 with nine seconds. The extra point won the game for the Razorbacks by a final of 21-20. This "Miracle on Markham" came two weeks after the Tigers beat Kentucky on a last-second Hail Mary in the "Bluegrass Miracle" game.
The Razorbacks could not find the magic they needed in Atlanta, however, and the Bulldogs rolled to a 30-3 victory. Georgia did not get a chance to play for a National Championship that year, instead defeating Florida State in the Sugar Bowl. Georgia would reach the SEC Championship game again in 2005, and Arkansas would return in 2006. Matt Jones would go to the NFL as a wide receiver.
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