Arkansas coaches find positives in loss to Alabama

FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas' offense had 72 snaps on Saturday night compared to 64 for top-ranked Alabama, but could only muster 227 yards of total offense.

That included only 27 yards on 29 carries. Despite that there was some positives including sophomore wide receiver Brandon Martin catching four passes for 34 yards. This came one week after he made his first collegiate catch that went for 15 yards against South Carolina. Martin was the No. 1 junior college wide receiver in the nation out of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, but was sidelined with injuries prior to the South Carolina game. Martin is happy to be back on the field again.

"It's a blessing that I can be out there to try to help my team win some games," Martin said. "I just had to take a different approach to learning the plays and get healthy. I'm very excited."

The Razorbacks had a new quarterback as well with redshirt freshman Cole Kelley taking over for the injured Austin Allen. Kelley was 23 of 42 passing for 200 yards, one touchdown and one interception. He was thankful to have Martin, redshirt freshman Jordan Jones and others as targets.

"We've got some great athletes out there," Kelley said. "That's always a plus."

Michael Smith was asked how did Martin play against the Tide?

"Doing a lot better," Smith said. "I think you saw last week he had a lot of confidence in some of the things he did. He's been coming in and meeting with me. They're on fall break and he came in today to try and get ahead on the game plan. We met for about a half an hour.

"He's that type of wide receiver when he knows what he's doing. That's my biggest challenge to him, to keep trying to learn it as much as possible. When he plays fast, I think people saw last week he has the talent to do it for us."

How much of it was getting healthy with Brandon and how much was mental?

"I think it's a combination of both," Smith said. "He is healthy. He's running around a lot better. But at the end of the day, you've got to know what you're doing. That was the thing, when he got in, he knew what he was doing. I think he had one time in the game Saturday that he didn't execute the assignment he had the way he needed to. We're going to get that corrected. If he keeps progressing the way that he's doing right now we're going to be fine.

Jones caught four passes for 72 yards including a 46-yard gain on Saturday night. How did Jones and the other wide receivers do?

"I thought we did some good things," Smith said. "There was some times we were getting open and unfortunately we weren't able to get the ball to them. But we didn't play good enough to win. That's our main goal as a wide receiving corps is that we go out and play good enough to help this team win. Regardless of the stats we have, and going back and grading them, at the end of the day if we don't have a W it really doesn't matter."

Jones' 3-yard catch came against three Alabama defenders. How impressive was that play?

"It was very impressive," Smith said. "When a guy goes in traffic like that, it's always good to see. We want our guys to be fearless and I don't know if he could've dropped it as hard as Cole threw it to him. I was excited for him. To score a touchdown against Alabama, I don't care what time of the game it is, it's something he'll have as a memory for the rest of his life."

What is it like for the receivers to have a quarterback with a big arm like Kelley owns?

"We just want to continue to grow," Smith said. "I think Coach (Dan) Enos, and I've said this before, Coach Enos and the rest of the offensive staff, we've put together some really good game plans. It's our kids that have got to go out and execute it once they cross that white line.

"And to answer your question about Cole's big arm, I recruited him so we knew that. We knew that off of tape. It was just a case of him getting his opportunity. Unfortunately, he had to get it the way he's gotten it. But he's a big boy, he's playing in a big boy league and he's going to do big boy things for us."

Kelley talked about what it was like to get to play an entire game. How do you feel now?

"I feel great," Kelley said. "It feels good to get some action. I'm a little sore, but a good sore. It felt good to get out there and play a full game again. It has been since high school and I really missed it."

Even though this will be Arkansas' seventh game of the season it will be their first SEC game in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. How excited are you to play in front of your home crowd?

"I am very anxious," Kelley said. "We've got to find a way to win this weekend."

Arkansas and Auburn will kickoff at 6:30 p.m. CT on Saturday night. The game will be televised on the SEC Network.