Heisman Flashback: Wuerffel Goes Hog Wild At Arkansas With School-Record Effort

Thirty years ago this week, 1996 Heisman winner Danny Wuerffel led 4-0 Florida into Fayetteville, the first time Florida had played a road game at Arkansas.

The Hogs, along with South Carolina, had joined the SEC four years earlier. The conference was split into two divisions — sound familiar? — and schedules were mashed up a bit.

Arkansas and Florida met in the the fourth-ever SEC Championship game in 1995, a 34-3 Gators romp. Remember what they say in Gainesville: if you’re not a Gator, you must be Gator bait.

Well, the Razorbacks were chum in 1995, Wuerffel throwing two TD passes and running in another as Florida clinched a berth in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl, a de facto national title game against Nebraska.

The Fiesta Bowl did not turn out well for Wuerffel and Florida. The top-ranked and defending national champion Cornhuskers, led by dynamo QB and 1995 Heisman runner-up Tommie Frazier, humbled Florida, 62-24.

It was a kick in the mouth, for sure. But Florida returned nine months later, reborn. Ranked fourth, it opened 1996 with blowout wins over Southwestern Louisiana and Georgia Southern before a showdown in Knoxville against No. 2 Tennessee.

In front of more than 107,000 fans, most dressed in orange and ready to scream, Wuerffel led the Gators to a 35-29 win over Heisman runner-up Peyton Manning‘s Volunteers.

Wuerffel only completed 11 passes that day, but four were for touchdowns. Florida raced to a 35-0 lead and held on for the six-point win.

The Gators were ranked No. 1 a day later and celebrated with a 65-0 rout of Kentucky to end September before setting their sites on its first ever visit to Arkansas.

The Razorbacks hoped hosting Florida would yield a different result in 1996. It didn’t. The Hogs entered the game 1-2 and again made great bait for the Gators.

Wuerffel unleashed an offensive fury on Arkansas, breaking Florida’s single-game school record for passing yards with 462. He completed 23-of-39 aerials for four touchdowns in a 42-7 romp, turning a modest 14-7 lead at the half into a laugher.

Head Coach and Heisman winner Steve Spurrier was set to, understandably, remove Wuerffel late in the game when word got down to the sideline that the quarterback was 11 yards short of the school record.

A year earlier, Spurrier sat Wuerffel to give long-time backup QB Eric Kresser a chance to play on Homecoming against Northern Illinois.  Kresser had a heroic day, passing for 458 yards and six TDs, breaking Wuerffel’s then-Florida passing yards mark of 449.

A year later, Spurrier gave Wuerffel a crack to break Kresser’s mark by keeping him in against Arkansas until the record was his.

(Interestingly, Kresser transferred to Marshall after the 1995 season to become a first-time starter and spent his senior season throwing to future NFL Hall-of-Famer Randy Moss en route to a Division 1-AA title).

Wuerffel’s 462 yards against Arkansas was topped — by two yards — five years later by Heisman runner-up Rex Grossman in 2001. Tim Tebow, two years after winning his 2007 Heisman, established the current Florida single-game passing yards record in his final college effort with 482 yards in a Sugar Bowl win over Cincinnati.