Скачать или смотреть Family & friends, coaches & teammates remember Ryan Mallett at Razorback great's funeral

It was a week ago Tuesday when record-setting former Razorbacks quarterback, second-year White Hall head coach Ryan Mallett lost his life on a Destin, Florida beach.

The tragic news rocked Arkansas football fans hard, and those who knew him even harder.

On Thursday, the late 35-year-old’s loved ones gathered to celebrate Mallett’s life at Central United Methodist Church in Fayetteville, where his family resides. Once one of the nation’s top-rated high school prospects out of Texarkana who went on to star in the SEC, playing five seasons in the NFL and backing up Tom Brady, Mallett offered a lot to remember in little time.

“He had a heart as big as Texas but full of Arkansas,” former high school coach Scott Surratt said. “He was in the best place in his life. He was with the person he wanted to be with. And he loved the beach, the place he wanted to be. But now he’s in the best place ever.”

Also taking the podium at Mallett’s funeral were his sister Lauren, his agent JR Carroll, and pastor Paul Young. In the church pews sat the Batesville native’s former teammates and coaches along with current Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman.

While his all-conference play on the field is what he’s known for, everyone in the room could agree that the biggest impression Mallett made was with his character.

“All these media people were coming down at halftime, and he was always playing with the kids,” Surratt said.

“The writer said that for the three years Ryan was [a Razorback,] he stayed two to three hours longer than everybody else to make sure every kid that wanted an autograph got one,” Carroll said.

“That was Ryan. That was his heart… a big, tender heart.”

Watch our story to hear more from inside Mallett’s funeral as we remember a Hogs legend and local coach who, a year before his passing, described himself as being “Arkansas through and through.”