Defensive players step up for Razorbacks in losing effort
FAYETTEVILLE - It has been opined, including by this columnist, that Chad Morris inherited a pretty bare talent cupboard from preceding Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema.
Despite the Razorbacks’ 1-4 overall/0-2 SEC record, that bare cupboard opinion is not entirely true. Particularly on defense.
Cornerback Ryan Pulley, free safety Santos Ramirez, defensive linemen Sosa Agim, Randy Ramsey, Arman Watts and T.J. Smith and especially linebackers Dre Greenlaw and Scoota Harris have proven this season they could have helped any Razorbacks team of any era.
Certainly senior Greenlaw and Harris played a game against Texas A&M last Saturday that can measure against some compiled by past great Arkansas linebacking combos.
In the 24-17 SEC loss to the 3-touchdown favored Aggies, Harris made a game-leading 16 tackles, 2 for minus yardage including a minus 9-yard sack of mobile quarterback Kellen Mond.
Greenlaw made 13 tackles and intercepted two Mond passes.
“These are two of the best guys in the country,” Morris told Arkansas’ radio audience in the immediate postgame. “There’s no doubt about that, a great tandem. They feed off of each other.”
In the lengthy postgame session with media, Morris expounded on the GreenlawHarris duo.
“Unbelievable,” Morris said. “I don’t know if I’ve ever been a part of two guys that were that productive in one game all over the field. Very impactful.”
Greenlaw and Harris complimented each other for complementing each other.
“I asked Dre if the quarterback was throwing the ball to him,” Harris said. “Every time I turned around Dre was there.”
Last Saturday marked Greenlaw’s second game back from the sprained ankle ending his 10-tackles effort in the first quarter of the season-opening 55-20 win over Eastern Illinois. He’s obviously been missed. “He’s like a big brother to me,” Harris said. “Just to see him back and healthy and doing great things is good.”
Greenlaw said he’s a better player for playing with Harris.
“We push each other to get better every day,” Greenlaw said. “Playing beside someone like him, he’s big, physical and I know he’s got my back. At the end of the day we’ve got a mark to make at Arkansas.”
They didn’t do it alone, Morris asserted.
“Those two guys will probably be the first ones to tell you that the D-line keeping those linemen off them allowed those guys to play downhill,” Morris said. “We’ll build off that.”
It truly was a team effort. Mond finished Saturday’s game completing 17 of 26 for 201 yards without a touchdown against the two interceptions and was sacked three times. That dragged Mond’s rushing totals to net 14 yards on 11 carries.
Just the previous Saturday in a 45-23 loss against No. 1 Alabama, Mond had netted 98 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries. He threw a touchdown vs. Alabama during his 16 of 33 passes for 196 yards against two picks..
The Aggies amassed more total offense, 393 yards, against the mighty Tide than their 377 against Arkansas.
“I’m very impressed,” Morris said. “Especially against an offense that has been averaging over 500 yards a game and you hold them to 370-something yards today. That was a really good football team we played.”
And some really good coaching, particularly by defensive coordinator John Chavis and defensive assistants John Scott, Steve Caldwell, Ron Cooper and Mark Smith, to improve that Arkansas defense against the best offense it has faced.
No Razorback came farther faster than Reid Bauer. The freshman walk-on, among three punters that Morris has tried and mostly failed with the previous four games, Bauer punted superbly against A&M.
Bauer last Saturday averaged 43.2 on 8 punts against A&M with only three returned for a net minus 2 yards.
“I thought Reid Bauer did a phenomenal job today,” Morris said.
Offensively, these Hogs still have a long ways to go. But there’s no denying they have stability since Morris decided before the Auburn game that fourth-year junior Ty Storey is his quarterback.
Morris said tight end Cheyenne O’Grady against A&M, logging his first three catches of the season for 77 yards, “gave us a spark.”
There’s realism to face that these Hogs are 1-4 and about to host the nation’s best team.
But it’s also reality these Hogs have improved light years over when they last Sept. 15 played in Fayetteville embarrassed 44-17 by North Texas.