Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas 55, Eastern Illinois 20
Hogs’ defense steals show in Morris’ debut
FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks breezed to a 55-20 victory over Eastern Illinois in Chad Morris’ head coaching debut Saturday, but hardly anyone could have written how the winning script played out.
Ty Storey came off the bench to pass for 261 yards and three touchdowns — most of it in a dazzling 28-point second quarter — as Arkansas jumped out to a big lead before an announced crowd of 63,342 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
But the bigger story was the University of Arkansas defense, which pried away five fumbles — including four in the first half — that were converted into 24 points. The five takeaways were the most for the Razorbacks since nabbing six in a 300 shutout of Ole Miss in 2014.
“The defense definitely set the tone early in that first half,” Morris said. “I thought offensively it was an extremely slow start, and we could not get into a rhythm.
“We’re a work in progress, but we’re going to get there.”
Arkansas won the turnover battle 5-0 and had just four penalties for 40 yards, including no pre-snap penalties.
Cornerback Chevin Calloway forced and recovered a
fumble on the third snap of the game to set off the turnover spree and lead to Connor Limpert’s 35-yard field goal for the first points of the Morris era.
The biggest of the takeaways came courtesy of tackle Armon Watts, who hit backup quarterback Harry Woodbery in the end zone just as Woodbery was trying to pass. Briston Guidry scooped up the loose ball for a touchdown and 10-0 lead.
Freshman linebacker Bumper Pool returned a fumble forced by D’Vone McClure for 60 yards to the Eastern Illinois 5-yard line to set up Storey’s 2-yard rushing touchdown in the third quarter.
The other forced fumbles came from linebackers Dre Greenlaw and De’Jon Harris, and end Michael Taylor.
Eastern Illinois Coach Kim Dameron, a former Razorback, said his team had not been sloppy with ball security in camp.
“I think a lot of it early was the speed of the game, the contact, the size and the speed of the players that were hitting us,” Dameron said. “We had like four contact fumbles in the first half, and one of them was our quarterback trying to throw the ball out of the end zone — not something we need to be doing. We just didn’t take care of the football.”
Storey, who admitted his disappointment in not winning the starting job, hit the Panthers with one big pass play after the other in the second quarter, countering a dismal running game.
“We wanted to get the run game started a little bit, and … they kind of brought the safeties down to stop the run, so we had to do what the defense gave us, and that was throwing the ball today,” Storey said.
Storey completed 10 of 13 passes for 214 yards and 3 touchdowns in the quarter as Arkansas took advantage of the Eastern Illinois safeties’ commitment to loading the box against the run.
“I want to run the football, but in the same sense … when the numbers present themselves, you’ve got to take your shots over the top,” said Morris, who added that he told offensive coordinator Joe Craddock to look more to the skies and deep passes.
“I instructed Joe, I said, ‘Look, if they’re going to drop these safeties down and load the box like that, let’s just don’t keep beating our heads against a wall. Let’s try to take some shots on some double moves to try to get a couple big plays over the top.’ And that’s what we did.”
Storey said he thought a long pass to receiver Jordan Jones early in the second quarter helped the offense settle down.
“When you have guys like that out there, you just get them the ball and they’ll convert,” Storey said. “My job is not too hard.
“They did a good job all day, they got open, and there were certain looks they kind of threw at us that we hadn’t seen in the past, but our guys did a great job of kind of seeing it, dealing with it and rolling with it.”
Storey entered with 11:18 left in the first half and got busy after throwing incomplete on his first pass. He found Jones down the middle on third and 11 for a 46-yard gain to ignite the passing game.
“Storey was the story,” Dameron said.
“Ty saw an opportunity to step up and complete a big pass down the middle to Jordan Jones, and I think that sparked it,” Morris said. “That was the spark that we needed.”
Jones and La’Michael Pettway emerged as the top wideouts. Jones had 5 catches for a career-high 132 yards, including a 57-yard deep ball touchdown from Storey with 45 seconds left in the first half. Pettway had 5 catches for 93 yards, including touchdowns covering 14 and 48 yards during the Hogs’ second quarter.
“Ty brought a good spark into the game,” Jones said. “He was making good reads, hitting the check downs, running it if he had to. He really put the ball on the money. He did a real good job, so I’m not surprised at all.”
Said Pettway: “He stepped up and played a heck of a game. It was expected.”
Storey said he’s in no position to say whether he should start next week’s game at Colorado State.
“I was disappointed [not to win the starting job],” Storey said. “I can’t really lie about that. It was rough. But everyone goes through stuff. We have a lot of great quarterbacks, so I know it’s going to be a battle, and it’s still a battle.”
The Razorbacks struggled to establish a running game and never got rolling offensively until Storey entered. Arkansas rushed for 80 yards on 37 carries, with only two runs of 10 yards.
Receiver Alexander Hollins scored all three touchdowns for the Panthers on catches covering 43, 15 and 16 yards.
Eastern Illinois managed 357 total yards and outrushed the Razorbacks 127-80.