Reliving Ryan Mallett's best games as a Razorback

Two years ago on Friday, the world lost the greatest Arkansas quarterback in recent memory in Ryan Mallett.

Mallett passed away after a drowning accident at a beach in Florida in 2023. He left behind family, friends and a legacy that will be cemented in Arkansas history forever.

You can't write the history of Arkansas football without Mallett. He led the Razorbacks to their first and only BCS appearance in the Sugar Bowl, still holds the record for most passing touchdowns (32) and yards (3,869) in a season, and three of the 10 longest pass plays in Arkansas history came from his arm.

Aside from the stats, Mallett's performances wrote down lore that is still talked about today. The fourth-down touchdown pass to Joe Adams in the fourth quarter against LSU in 2010. The connection to Greg Childs against Georgia in that same year. The touchdown pass to Cobi Hamilton to close out the first half against LSU.

Those are just a few of the highlights. Simply put: Ryan Mallett is a legend.

After a seven-year NFL career with teams like the New England Patriots, Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens, the Batesville native who played his high school football just across the state line in Texarkana returned to the Natural State, where he was an assistant coach at Mountain Home High School before he took over the reins as the head coach at White Hall High School.

Though he's no longer on this Earth, HawgBeat wanted to give fans the opportunity to relive some of his greatest games as a Razorback...

*Note: This is not a ranking list. These are some of the games that stuck out most to the HawgBeat staff. If you've got a specific memory, head over to The Trough, HawgBeat's premium message board, to share.*

Stat line: 21-of-33, 380 yards, 3 TDs, 1 rushing TD, 1 INT

The "Childs please!" game. Arkansas — which was ranked No. 12 at the time — went into Samford Stadium to take on the Georgia Bulldogs.

The Razorbacks struck first, thanks to a play-action pass where Mallett hid the ball behind his back before he hit tight end Chris Gragg, who walked into the endzone untouched to put the Hogs up 7-0.

Arkansas took a 17-7 lead into the locker room thanks to a field goal from Zach Hocker before time expired, and pushed their lead to 24-10 after a wheel route to Ronnie Wingo with seconds left in the third quarter.

But the game wasn't even close to over. Georgia freshman quarterback Aaron Murray led the Bulldogs on two touchdown drives — the latter being with 3:55 left in the game — to tie things up.

With just 47 seconds left in the game, Mallett led the Arkansas offense on the field in a tie game from their own 28-yard line. It started with a pass to tight end D.J. Williams over the middle that got to midfield, then another pass to Williams that got the Hogs to Georgia's 45-yard line with 27 seconds left and the clock.

The very next play, Mallett found Greg Childs on the left sideline. He got past a diving defender and ran into the endzone to give the Hogs the lead and, ultimately, the win.

"It's Childs! He's loose!" ESPN commentator Dave Pasch said. "He scores! Childs please!"

Stat line: 13-of-23, 320 yards, 3 TD, 2 INT

If we were ranking the top games of Mallett's career (we're not), this would be number one. On top of it being a rivalry game against LSU in Little Rock, this win secured Arkansas' berth in the Sugar Bowl and gave the Hogs their 10th win of the season.

LSU was No. 5 in the nation, while Arkansas was No. 12 and riding a five-game win streak. The Tigers ran onto the field to a healthy chorus of boos the day after Thanksgiving in 2010.

Mallett threw for 320 yards in the game, and 165 of those came on two passes to Cobi Hamilton in the first half. The first came with 6:52 left in the first half. Hamilton snuck by one defender and was off to the races.

The second pass came seconds before halftime.

"I remember getting into the huddle and we’re looking over, because there was a break in play," Arkansas receiver Jarius Wright told HawgBeat. "We get on the field and Bobby calls a play and we all look at each other like ‘what is he doing? We’re playing LSU, we don’t want to make a mistake at this point in the game.’

"It was Z-topper post to Cobi, and I was on the back side. I run my route, and I look back and I see the ball on the way, and it’s on a line, and I’m like ‘oh, Cobi is about to get his head taken off,’ that’s my first thought. But you see Cobi kind of work back a bit towards the ball and then he catches it. Next thing you know, the two LSU guys hit each other and then it’s like ‘oh crap, it’s on.’

"He caught it, and he’s running, and then I run down to basically just make sure Patrick Peterson doesn’t make a play to spoil the fun. I’d say that was one of the top five plays I was a part of."

That was just the first half, though. LSU kicked two field goals to cut Arkansas' lead to 21-20. Arkansas struck again early in the fourth quarter, and on fourth and three, Mallett delivered a pass to Adams to score a touchdown and put the Razorbacks up 28-20 en route to a 31-23 win.

Stat line: 2009: 27-of-38, 310 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT; 2010: 27-of-38, 310 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT

Despite recent history between Arkansas and Texas A&M, Mallett never lost to the Aggies, and between two games he threw a combined seven touchdowns and 581 yards. Both games were played at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas.

The first game he played against the Aggies was a blowout. The Razorbacks downed the Aggies 47-19, despite falling down 10-0 to start the game. Arkansas outscored Texas A&M 47-9 for the rest of the game and Mallett threw for 271 yards and four touchdowns.

In 2010, the game was much closer. Arkansas came into the game ranked No. 11 with a 3-1 record, its lone loss coming a week prior to Alabama. The Aggies were also 3-1 but were unranked. Their wins came against Louisiana Tech, Florida International and Stephen F. Austin, and they'd just taken a close 38-35 loss to Oklahoma State the week prior.

Arkansas got the scoring started after Mallett found Joe Adams from nine yards out over the middle of the field to go up 7-0. On the Razorbacks' next drive, he threw an interception deep in their own territory and the Aggies took over at the 2-yard-line. They scored on a fourth-and-goal run play to tie things up.

Mallett struck back almost instantly with a 71-yard touchdown pass to Hamilton, and the Hogs increased that lead to 21-7 with less than a minute to go in the first half after Mallett found tight end Ben Cleveland in the back of the endzone on a play-action pass.

The Aggies got another touchdown midway through the third quarter, but that's all they could muster. Arkansas tacked on another field goal minutes after that touchdown pass, and the defense didn't allow any more scoring to give the Hogs the win.

Stat line: 21-of-39, 408 yards, 5 TDs

The 2009 game is the only one on this list that wasn't actually a win for the Razorbacks, but the reason being is because it was the first real glimpse the nation got at what Mallett was capable of.

Sure, he threw for 309 yards and had a 77.3% completion percentage against Missouri State the week before in his Razorback debut, but this was his first taste of SEC play, and he showed out, even in a 52-41 win.

The season prior, Arkansas had won just five games while Mallett rode the bench due to transfer rules at the time. The Hogs were unranked while Georgia entered Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium ranked No. 23.

The SEC tilt featured a total of 1,015 yards of offense and Mallett set the record for passing yards and touchdowns in his first game of league play.

Arkansas worked quickly and jumped out to a 21-10 lead in the first half, but Georgia would score 14 unanswered in the fourth quarter and pull away with a 52-41 win.