Strange season just gets stranger

As the sun set on an upsetting Friday in college football, two things became apparent about this most unusual of seasons:

First, Louisiana State might be the worst team in the nation when it comes to winning in triple overtime.

Second, the best way to reach the Bowl Championship Series title game is by not playing.

With top-ranked LSU falling to Arkansas -- the Tigers’ second triple-overtime loss this fall while holding the No. 1 ranking -- the BCS standings got tossed into the mixer again, and the biggest winner could be Ohio State, sitting at home after finishing its regular season last week.

At No. 5, the Buckeyes need help to reach the championship. But LSU figures to be out of the way and BCS No. 2 Kansas faces No. 4 Missouri today, which will clear one of those teams out.

No. 3 West Virginia will be favored to win its remaining games against Connecticut and Pittsburgh, but the way this season has gone, actually having to play football can be a problem.

LSU discovered that against unranked Arkansas on Friday. After scrambling from behind to tie the score in regulation, then trading touchdowns through one overtime after another, the Tigers fell short on a failed two-point attempt to lose 50-48.

On the final play, quarterback Matt Flynn threw into the end zone and had his pass intercepted by Arkansas cornerback Matterral Richardson.

“This team is not happy,” LSU Coach Les Miles said. “We understand that this cost us and what was at stake.”

The game was played against a backdrop of turmoil. Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt was on the hot seat and Miles has been rumored as a front-runner for the opening at Michigan.

Maybe that explains why his team appeared to be asleep, settling for field goals on two opportunities and falling behind, 14-6, by midway through the third quarter.

While the offense could not find a spark, the defense couldn’t find Arkansas tailback Darren McFadden.

McFadden started the day by fumbling the opening kickoff and costing his team three points, but was nothing short of spectacular thereafter.

Early on, he scored on runs of 16 and 73 yards.

Later, his team went to its “Wildhog” formation with McFadden at quarterback, running a modified wishbone.

In the fourth quarter, he started up the middle on a run, stepped back and tossed a 24-yard touchdown pass. In the second overtime, he ran nine yards for yet another score.

It all added up to 206 yards on the ground, 34 through the air and a whopping endorsement in the Heisman Trophy race.

“However you want to put it,” McFadden said, “numbers speak for themselves.”

Yet those numbers almost went to waste because LSU -- and its Baton Rouge crowd -- finally came alive.

Flynn did most of the damage, passing for 209 yards and three touchdowns, and scrambling for a 12-yard score. Running back Jacob Hester had 126 yards and two touchdowns.

“We are never out of a game,” Hester said. “No matter what the score is.”

LSU had its best shot to win in the first overtime, leading by a touchdown and forcing Arkansas into fourth and 10. But Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick threw 13 yards to Peyton Hillis, then found Hillis from 10 yards to tie the score.

By that time, LSU’s normally solid defense appeared shot. The Tigers surrendered 385 yards on the ground, with Hillis and teammate Felix Jones each rushing for 89 yards.

As one overtime led to another, McFadden got an uneasy feeling, saying: “It’s just nerve-racking.”

But it should have been LSU feeling worried, given that the Tigers’ only loss this season was in three overtimes to Kentucky. When Arkansas scored to begin the third overtime, they couldn’t stop Jones from diving across the goal line to add two points.

That conversion was the difference.

“It was a very disappointing and heartbreaking experience,” defensive end Kirston Pittman said.

But not for Ohio State and the teams below LSU in the BCS standings. The shakeup probably won’t reach deep enough to vault No. 11 USC to the top two spots but, this season, anything is possible.

Just ask Nutt, who said: “All I know is, we were the best in the country today.”

--

david.wharton@latimes.com