...which I didn't learn until Oregon's blur offense was getting pub last year - is that when the offense makes a substitution, the ball can't be snapped until the defense makes a substitution.
I'm not sure of all the details of that rule. Maybe its that the play clock can't start until the defense subs. But in this case the play clock wasn't the problem - it was the game clock.
Maybe in this case, Croom was dumb enough to sub and Arkansas was smart enough to drag their feet on their sub.
It is equally likely that the ref was just screwing with us. Scratch that, make it more likely. Because when he got ready for play, he took his sweet *** time backing away from the ball before signalling for the play clock to start (which he never got to do).