Cursed Jordan-Hare Stadium Has Been Surprisingly Kind to Arkansas in Recent Years
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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Is Jordan-Hare Stadium cursed? Well, that depends on who you ask.
For Auburn fans, it's sacred ground. For former Alabama head coach Nick Saban, it was at times a chaotic hellscape.
"In 17 years, going to Auburn, playing in Jordan-Hare, that place is haunted," Saban said on College Gameday in 2024. "I guarantee it. The way we lost games and the way we won games there, it's unbelievable. Kick Six and then the Gravedigger last year? I'm telling you, the place is haunted."
To his credit, even in a haunted venue, Saban still went 5-4 against Auburn in the nine Iron Bowls he coached at Jordan-Hare.
There is an air of mystery around the stadium, however. As Saban referenced, Jordan-Hare has seen its fair share of wild moments.
From Chris Davis' kick return to win the Iron Bowl in 2013, Auburn's "Prayer at Jordan-Hare" against Georgia just two weeks prior in the Deep South's Oldest Rivalry, to the aforementioned 'Gravedigger' Iron Bowl in 2023 which saw Jalen Milroe complete a miraculous touchdown pass to Isaiah Bond to deal Auburn a heartbreaking loss, the 86-year-old venue rarely plays host to tame, orderly football games.
Arkansas might have nicer things to say about JHS, however. The Razorbacks have won seven of their 17 games against the Tigers on the road, losing nine. Ironically, the first game played between Auburn and Arkansas at the supposedly cursed stadium was a tie in 1992.
While Arkansas has won its last two games against Auburn, it should've won three in a row on the Plains dating back to 2020. Arkansas led Auburn 28-27 in the closing seconds when Auburn quarterback Bo Nix spiked the ball backwards.
Rather than ruling it a fumble recovered by the Razorbacks, officials ruled it an incomplete pass and intentional grounding, which allowed the Tigers to keep possession and kick the game-winning field goal.
There were times when Jordan-Hare, like it occasionally was for Saban and the Crimson Tide, might as well have been equivalent to the ninth circle of hell for the Razorbacks.
Arkansas lost three in a row at Auburn from 2014-18, all three of which were blowouts.
In 2016, the game was between an Arkansas team that entered the contest ranked No. 17 with a 5-2 record and a No. 21 Auburn team that was 4-2. But the Razorbacks' inconsistency, a major problem during that season, reared its ugly head again.
Auburn steamrolled the Razorbacks on a primetime Saturday slot on ESPN en route to a 56-3 shellacking that sent Arkansas fans into a tizzy.
This year's meeting is more likely to be similar to last season's tilt between Arkansas and Auburn, both of which entered the 2025 game in winless in SEC play. Auburn rallied from an eight point deficit late in the fourth quarter by forcing four turnovers to leave Razorback Stadium with a 33-24 victory.
Arkansas' trip to Auburn on Nov. 7 will be first-year coach Ryan Silverfield's best shot at a road win in SEC play this year.
It's a game Arkansas must have in order for bowl eligibility to be a possibility, and given that the Tigers also have a first-year head coach in Alex Golesh, who is winless in three tries against the Hogs' new head man.
The meeting will come down to a pair of potentally winless SEC teams desperate for a conference win during first weekend of November.
A victory for the Razorbacks inside Jordan-Hare Stadium would make Silverfield the third first-year Arkansas coach to win at Auburn's hallowed home stadium.
That begs the question: is Jordan-Hare truly a site of voodoo magic and curses, or did it reserve them only for the likes of Saban?
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/arkansas as Cursed Jordan-Hare Stadium Has Been Surprisingly Kind to Arkansas in Recent Years.
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