Morris: 1st-team snaps for Storey
FAYETTEVILLE — Junior quarterback Ty Storey will take the primary snaps with the first-team offense for the University of Arkansas when the Razorbacks resume practice today for Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. game at Colorado State.
Coach Chad Morris made the announcement at his Monday news conference, though he stopped short of saying Storey would start against the Rams.
Storey came off the bench to complete 12 of 17 passes for 261 yards and 3 touchdowns in the Razorbacks’ 55-20 season-opening victory over Eastern Illinois on Saturday.
Storey’s efficiency rating of 257.8 ranks second in the nation behind Toledo’s Mitchell Guadagni (269.76). Storey’s high efficiency was a product of the three touchdowns in 17 attempts, no interceptions and a stout 15.4
yards per pass, which ranked third in the country.
Morris said Storey and sophomore Cole Kelley will both play against the Rams. Kelley completed 9 of 12 passes for 92 yards and 1 touchdown and had a 166.9 efficiency rating.
“Ty will get the first-team reps starting tomorrow in practice, and we’ll re-evaluate things as practice goes,” Morris said. “And just like we did last week, Ty got first-team reps at times last week. But Cole got the majority of them last week. This week Ty will get the majority of them. And we’ll make the decision later in the week how we’re going to run this thing out there. Ty’s earned that right right now.”
Storey was named the coaching staff’s offensive player of the week.
The Razorbacks capped off the week as the nation’s No. 2 team in turnover margin at plus-5 after recovering five Eastern Illinois fumbles and converting them into 24 points.
From a personnel standpoint, Morris said Greenlaw (ankle) and defensive end Randy Ramsey (hamstring) would be day-to-day.
Morris and his coordinators talked Monday about needing to improve in many facets.
“After watching the video, it’s never as good as you think it is, and it’s never as bad as you think it is,” Morris said. “I thought our guys played with a lot energy, and they competed really well in all areas, which is something
as a coach you always look for, especially in your first game.”
Two key areas Morris has identified as critical to winning in the SEC stood out as needing attention: the running game and stopping the run.
“Obviously, we have to run the football a bit better,” offensive coordinator Joe Craddock said in his opening remarks. “It was not entirely on the offensive line. I know that will be a question coming from you guys. It’s a team game, and everybody has got to do their job.”
The Razorbacks managed 80 rushing yards on 37 carries, an average of 2.16 yards per carry. The 80 rushing yards ranked 112th in the nation out of the 125 FBS teams who had played through Sunday night, and the 2.16 yards per carry ranked 115th.
“From the run game, there were times where we got these guys hatted up, but couldn’t get anything to break through,” Morris said. “That’s an area we’ll focus in on this week.”
Eastern Illinois ran for 127
yards and averaged 3.1 yards per carry. Reserve back Jamal Scott, a teammate of the Razorbacks’ Rakeem Boyd at Independence (Kan.) Community College last season, ran for a game-high 82 yards on 12 carries, averaging 6.8 yards per attempt.
“Defensively, obviously, we’ve got to improve,” Morris said. “We misaligned too many times, which opened up too many run lanes. Our defense is built to stop the run and create turnovers, and I thought at times they ran the ball too easy on us.
“A lot of that was caused from some of our misalignments. So we’ve got to get aligned correctly and get it communicated out on the field to stop the run.”
Defensive coordinator John Chavis said the misalignments were on him.
“That’s coaching, and that’s things we’ve got to take care of and we will take care of those,” Chavis said. “If it’s a misalignment, it’s easy to fix. It’s it’s a player that’s not good enough, then it’s a little bit tougher to fix.
So we think we can fix those issues we have.”
Chavis also was not happy about allowing six pass plays of 12 or more yards. Receiver Alexander Hollins, a preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference selection, had 9 receptions for 127 yards and 3 touchdowns, including over-the-top touchdowns of 43 and 15 yards against starting cornerback Chevin Calloway.
“Those plays are gonna happen from time to time, but those are things we’ve got to limit,” Chavis said. “We had a pass thrown over our head for 43 yards. We’ve got to eliminate those plays in a game.
“We gave up a run of 29 yards and one of 12. We’ve got to eliminate those explosive plays.”
Morris and Craddock credited the Eastern Illinois coaching staff, led by former Hog Kim Dameron, for a solid defensive game plan.
“They were doing some things early on they haven’t shown on film, and they did a good job with that,” Craddock said.
Morris and Craddock also pointed out that Kelley did a good job keeping his head in the game and celebrating Storey’s success.
Morris said he expects major improvement before the Razorbacks suit up against 0-2 Colorado State on Saturday.
“Every football team I’ve been a part of, you always see great improvement from Week 1 to Week 2,” Morris said.
“I would never expect anything different out of this football team than to go out and get our absolute best this Saturday.”