October 13, 2007 Week 7 · Regular Season Belt defended

Auburn defends the belt, 9–7, on the road at Arkansas.

Home · Challenger

Arkansas 7

Away · Defending Holder

AuburnAP No. 22 9

AP poll, week 7: Auburn No. 22 at Arkansas unranked · No. 1 that week: Illinois. The belt vs. the polls →

Belt context

Where this game sits in the lineage

Auburn came in 14 days into reign #262, which began with a win over Florida, with one defense already behind it; this was its second defense. It was the last defense: LSU took the belt in the very next belt game, on October 20, 2007.

For Arkansas this was its 9th shot at the belt; it had held the belt once before.

It was the first of 2 meetings between the two with the belt on the line; all-time Auburn leads 2–0.

AI-Written

Recap

Auburn's defense dominated this defensive slugfest in Fayetteville, holding Arkansas to just 193 total yards and forcing a crucial interception in the final seconds to preserve the belt. The game remained a kicking duel through three quarters, with Wes Byrum's 22-yard field goal in the first quarter giving Auburn an early 3-0 lead, and a second Byrum field goal from 38 yards making it 6-0 entering the fourth quarter. Arkansas finally found the end zone late when Casey Dick connected with Lucas Miller for a 13-yard touchdown with 1:36 remaining to take a 7-6 lead, but Auburn answered immediately with a critical touchdown drive capped by Byrum's 20-yard field goal with just 21 seconds left to escape with a 9-7 victory. The belt remained around Auburn's waist thanks to stellar fourth-quarter execution and an interception by Jerraud Powers with just one second on the clock.

Wes Byrum's 38-yard field goal in Q4 gave Auburn a 6-0 lead heading into the final quarter
Casey Dick's 13-yard touchdown pass to Lucas Miller with 1:36 left put Arkansas ahead 7-6 for the first time
Wes Byrum's clutch 20-yard field goal with 0:21 remaining gave Auburn a 9-7 lead
Jerraud Powers' interception of Casey Dick at the final second sealed Auburn's belt defense

Written by Claude from the box score and play-by-play on this page — a plain-English recap of the numbers below, not a substitute for them.

Full Box Score

Team stats

CFBD box score

ArkansasAuburn

Total yards193290

Rushing yards67189

Passing yards144109

First downs1121

3rd down conv.3/131/13

Turnovers11

Penalties–yards10–1006–35

Time of possession14:4721:53

Full team box score from CFBD’s /games/teams data. This section only appears for belt games from 2003 onward — CFBD doesn’t have team-level stats that far back.

Play By Play

Key plays

CFBD play-by-play

When	Team	Yards	Play
Q1 8:48	Auburn	+22 yd	Wes Byrum 22 yard field goal GOOD.
Q1 8:48	Auburn	+29 yd	Wes Byrum kickoff for 53 yards returned by Darren McFadden for 29 yards to the Ark 46 out-of-bounds.
Q2 13:06	Arkansas	+29 yd	Casey Dick pass complete to Peyton Hillis for 29 yards to the Aub 43 for a 1ST down.
Q2 10:51	Arkansas	+41 yd	Alex Tejada 41 yard field goal MISSED.
Q3 0:01	Auburn	+36 yd	Wes Byrum 36 yard field goal MISSED.
Q4 10:11	Auburn	+38 yd	Wes Byrum 38 yard field goal GOOD.
Q4 4:19	Auburn	+46 yd	Wes Byrum 46 yard field goal MISSED.
Q4 1:36	Arkansas	+13 yd	Casey Dick pass complete to Lucas Miller for 13 yards for a TOUCHDOWN.
Q4 1:36	Arkansas	+0 yd	Alex Tejada extra point GOOD.
Q4 0:35	Arkansas	+22 yd	Brian Vavra kickoff for 50 yards returned by Brad Lester for 22 yards to the Aub 47.
Q4 1:36	Auburn	+30 yd	Brandon Cox pass complete to Robert Dunn for 30 yards to the Ark 12 for a 1ST down.
Q4 0:21	Auburn	+20 yd	Wes Byrum 20 yard field goal GOOD.
Q4 0:01	Arkansas	+3 yd	Casey Dick pass intercepted by Jerraud Powers at the Aub 29, returned for 3 yards to the Aub 32.

Scoring plays, turnovers, and gains of 20+ yards, pulled from CFBD’s play-by-play. This section only appears for belt games with play-by-play on file (2003 onward).

Box Score

Player stats

CFBD player stats

Passing

Arkansas

Player	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	QBR
Casey Dick	12/26	111	4.3	1	1	17.3
Robert Johnson	1/1	15	15.0	0	0	98.4

Auburn

Player	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	QBR
Brandon Cox	13/23	101	4.4	0	0	39.6

Rushing

Arkansas

Player	CAR	YDS	AVG	LONG
Darren McFadden	17	43	2.5	13
Felix Jones	6	42	7.0	17
Casey Dick	2	-18	-9.0	0

Auburn

Player	CAR	YDS	AVG	LONG
Ben Tate	23	91	4.0	10
Brad Lester	21	89	4.2	18
Mario Fannin	3	9	3.0	5
Carl Stewart	1	6	6.0	6
Kodi Burns	1	1	1.0	1
Brandon Cox	4	-7	-1.8	7

Receiving

Arkansas

Player	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Peyton Hillis	5	59	11.8	0	29
Lucas Miller	2	25	12.5	1	13
D.J. Williams	1	14	14.0	0	14
Reggie Fish	1	9	9.0	0	9
Felix Jones	2	9	4.5	0	5
Darren McFadden	1	5	5.0	0	5
London Crawford	1	5	5.0	0	5

Auburn

Player	REC	YDS	AVG	LONG
Montez Billings	5	31	6.2	9
Robert Dunn	1	30	30.0	30
Rodgeriqus Smith	4	19	4.8	8
Carl Stewart	1	13	13.0	13
Cole Bennett	1	8	8.0	8
Mario Fannin	1	0	0.0	0

Show more stats (4 more categories)

Interceptions

Arkansas

No recorded stats in this category.

Auburn

Player	INT	YDS	TD
Jerraud Powers	1	3	0

Kicking

Arkansas

Player	FG	PCT	LONG	XP	PTS
Alex Tejada	0/1	0.0	0	1/1	1

Auburn

Player	FG	PCT	LONG	XP	PTS
Wes Byrum	3/5	60.0	38	0/0	9

Punt Returns

Arkansas

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Jerell Norton	2	2	1.0	4	0

Auburn

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	LONG	TD
Robert Dunn	8	58	7.3	16	0

Punting

Arkansas

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	TB	In 20	LONG
Jeremy Davis	9	367	40.8	0	0	51

Auburn

Player	NO	YDS	AVG	TB	In 20	LONG
Ryan Shoemaker	3	113	37.7	0	0	46
Patrick Tatum	2	79	39.5	0	0	41

Full player stats from CFBD’s /games/players data, split out by team. This section only appears for belt games from 2003 onward — CFBD doesn’t have player-level stats that far back. Linked player names go to that player’s stat line in every other belt game they’ve appeared in.

Sources Box score at ESPN · Game record: College Football Data (id 272860008) · This game in the downloadable dataset

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