Planning on better beginning

FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks want to get off to a better start from now on than they did in Thursday’s 49-7 seasonopening victory over Florida A&M.

The Razorbacks did not score on their first two possessions, and only got one touchdown out of their first four drives during the sluggish start.

“The first few drives things weren’t really clicking for us,” quarterback Austin Allen said. “I thought after that we executed, kind of settled down and played our brand of football. So there’s a lot to look back on and learn from and get better at next week.”

The Razorbacks stepped on the gas in the second quarter, notching touchdowns on five of their next six offensive possessions. The nonscoring drive came when Arkansas took possession at its 32 with 42 seconds left in the first half and Allen was immediately sacked for a 4-yard loss.

Bielema said the plan was to play Allen through three quarters.

“As many reps as our 1s could get, we haven’t been able to simulate that in any practice or scrimmage against a live opponent that’s trying to damage you,” he said. “So to get him work through three quarters and get him out, knock off the rust a little bit, I think he was good, but he had some things he needed to work through, especially with new guys in there.”

Allen said the Razorbacks’ early struggles were due to a combination of factors.

“I think little first-game jitters, things like that, where we’re trying to do too much trying to start off the year, want the big play right away,” Allen said. “I think those guys, especially at the wideout position, a lot of them it was their first college football game. They’ll get over the first-game jitters. … The biggest jump is from game one to game two and I think that’ll happen for us.”