FAYETTEVILLE -- The chant from the Ole Miss fans came with less than two minutes remaining — after the Rebels took a 9-point lead on a 28-yard field goal.

“Houston Nutt! Houston Nutt!”

There was still plenty of drama left on Saturday night. But after an overturned call on an onside kick and a controversial pass interference penalty against Arkansas wide receiver London Crawford, Nutt walked toward the Razorback logo at midfield.

One by one, Arkansas’ players approached Nutt, shook his hand and got a few encouraging words from him before they were left to deal with a 23-21 loss to Ole Miss before 74,168 in Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

“He was looking for me. I was actually walking in,” Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick said. “He came and found me. He was just telling me I did a good job.”

Nutt’s much-anticipated to return to Fayetteville — where he coached the Razorbacks for a decade before resigning under pressure last November — was an instant classic.

It was also another heartbreaking loss for the Hogs (3-5, 1-4 Southeastern Conference), who are now in jeopardy of not becoming bowl eligible after losing five of their last six games.

“That’s certainly what you call a tough loss,” said Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino, who was hired Dec. 11 as Nutt’s successor.

In the end, give Nutt Bowl I to the former Arkansas coach.

“I love my team right now, but it’s hard not to love (Arkansas’ players) when you recruited them, when you built relationships, when we had about 20 commitments before we left,” Nutt said. “And boy, they played their hearts out.”

Nutt was booed from the moment he stepped onto the field 41 minutes before kickoff. And the cold response from Arkansas fans only got worse during a fourth quarter that saw the Razorbacks rally from a 20-7 deficit, only to come up short largely because of a questionable call with 51 seconds left.

After Arkansas wide receiver Greg Childs caught a 22-yard touchdown pass that cut Ole Miss’ lead to 2-points with 1:07 left, the Hogs lined up for an onside kick.

Former Springdale High star Alex Tejada booted the football to his left, causing it to bounce in the air and giving Arkansas reserve linebacker Aaron Fenton a chance to recover the loose ball.

Fenton fell on the onside kick near the sideline, but the officials initially said that he was out-of-bounds at the time. The play was reviewed, overturned and allowed the Razorbacks to have one more shot at pulling off the win.

“It was well executed to get the ball up in the air like that and give us an opportunity to make the play,” Petrino said. “Our guys went after the ball and did a great job of recovering it.”

Starting at their own 47 with 1:07 left, Dick was forced to throw the football out-of-bounds after being pressured on first down. But it was the second-down play that caused Petrino to censor himself during his postgame news conference.

Crawford raced downfield and caught a deep pass over Ole Miss cornerback Marshay Green that would have given Arkansas the ball at about the 20-yard line. That’s within kicker Shay Haddock’s range.

But the long play was negated after an official flagged Crawford for offensive pass interference. Instead of having a first down deep in Rebels’ territory, the Razorbacks faced a second-and-25 from their 32.

“I was watching him all the way,” Petrino said. “I thought he did a great job of elevating, going up and catching the ball with two hands.”

Petrino indicated that he wanted to say more about the controversial penalty, but he said what he had to say would only get him fined by the SEC office for criticizing an official.

“It’s always tough when you get a big play like that,” Dick said. “You always hope for the best when the ball’s in the air and the official made a call that he felt was right.”

The Razorbacks hurt themselves on their opening drive and then later on their final series of the first half, missing a 34-yard field-goal attempt by Haddock and then throwing an interception that allowed the Rebels to end the first half with a field goal.

“What a game to watch,” Nutt said. “I wanted it to get where I could relax a little, but you just couldn’t.