Four former Arkansas players and two former coaches are Super Bowl champions.
Defensive ends Trey Flowers and Deatrich Wise Jr. actually played in the Patriots’ 13-3 win over the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LIII, while offensive lineman Dan Skipper and wide receiver Cody Hollister were on the practice squad and non-football injury list, respectively.
Former head coach Bret Bielema served as a consultant to New England head coach Bill Belichick this season and is rumored to be a candidate for the Patriots’ defensive coordinator job or a position with the Miami Dolphins, while former graduate assistant Nick Caley is the Patriots’ tight ends coach.
It was a defensive battle that New England’s defensive line - which Flowers and Wise bookended as starting defensive ends - dominated, harassing Rams quarterback Jared Goff all game.
Although neither of them accounted for any of the team’s four sacks, their impact was still felt. Wise finished tied for second on the team with five tackles, including three solo stops, and had a quarterback hit. Flowers had three tackles - including one for loss - and two quarterback hits.
Here is a clip of Flowers' tackle for loss, on which he stopped Todd Gurley one yard behind the line of scrimmage:
With the win, Flowers becomes just the fifth former Arkansas player with multiple Super Bowl titles, joining Steve Atwater, Ravin Caldwell, Dave Reavis and Dirt Winston. Only he and Atwater have appeared in three Super Bowls.
In his three career appearances, Flowers has racked up 14 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks and nine quarterback hits. He had at least one tackle behind the line of scrimmage and hit the quarterback at least twice in all three games, while playing 181 of a possible 189 defensive snaps (95.8 percent)
Wise joins Alvin Bailey, Billy Ray Smith and Tony Ugoh as the only other former Razorbacks to appear two Super Bowls, and all four of them are 1-1 in the game. After playing only six defensive snaps last season, he was on the field for 31 of 65 defensive snaps and two special teams snaps Sunday.
Former Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen was on the losing side of the Super Bowl as a member of the Rams’ practice squad. For a complete breakdown of former Razorbacks in the big game, click here.