Hogs’ Curl shows off in debut
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas true freshman Kamren Curl debuted nicely at starting cornerback on Sept. 9 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, albeit quietly, considering the Razorbacks lost
28-7 to TCU.
In his first appearance, the
49-7 season-opening rout of lower division Florida A&M on Aug.
31 in Little Rock, Curl bounded off the bench with three tackles and a pass breakup, replacing injured starting cornerback Ryan Pulley, lost for the season with torn pectoral muscles.
With the rookie from Muskogee, Okla., in his starting debut against explosive TCU, Arkansas’ defensive coordinator and defensive backfield coach Paul Rhoads expected to see the Horned Frogs testing the rookie cornerback all night.
Rhoads only remembers one real test. Curl didn’t pass it.
Neither did TCU. While Rhoads held his breath, the wide open Horned Frog receiver failed to hold on to the ball.
“You noticed him when he got beat deep that the kid dropped the ball,” Rhoads said. “I don’t know how much you noticed him (Curl) the rest of the game. I would mostly say he was sort of quiet out there. With a good corner, that’s sometimes the case.”
Curl only logged one tackle because TCU quarterback Kenny Hill apparently seldom saw anyone open that Curl covered.
“I feel like I did pretty good,” Curl said. “I felt I held my own a lot. It was really a quiet game for me, so as a corner that is very good. For my first start I thought I did a pretty good job.”
Curl did not gloss over getting beat deep once and vowed to work on that during last week’s open date week before the Razorbacks next play this Saturday in their 11 a.m. ESPN televised SEC opener against the Texas A&M Aggies at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“On the post, he got me turned and got behind me,” Curl said. “Rather than that I thought I did pretty good.”
What did he learn from his first start?
“Respect receivers more, even if I don’t know nothing about them,” Curl said. “Respect them and really play to my level.”
He certainly knows and respects at least one Aggie receiver.
Junior Christian Kirk has bedeviled Arkansas during the last two seasons. He caught 8 for 173 yards and 2 touchdowns during A&M’s 28-21 victory over the Razorbacks in 2015 and caught another touchdown among his 3 catches for 25 yards in the 45-24 victory over Arkansas last season.
“We all know he is a playmaker,” Curl said. “I probably won’t be covering him that much because he plays slot, but if they move him outside I might cover him.”
Arkansas’ defense played well in many aspects, keeping the TCU game at 14-7 deep into the fourth quarter before the Aggies scored two touchdowns with 2:18 and 2:04 remaining, the second one set up by Arkansas fumbling the kickoff to TCU. However, an inability to get TCU off the field did affect the outcome as the Horned Frogs converted 10 of 14 third downs.
“I thought our defense was pretty good, but we still have some things we have got to corrected in the fourth quarter, like not letting them score those two touchdowns,” Curl said. Curl parroted Rhoads that A&M consistently set up itself for third down success on the preceding down.
Knowing he would start the next one weighed on him, even as starting safeties Josh Liddell of Pine Bluff Dollarway, Santos Ramirez, senior cornerback Henre Toliver, Pulley and senior nickel back Kevin Richardson of Jacksonville, Fla., tried to calm him.
“Right before I had a bunch of nerves, but I had to go in,” Curl said. “I am in that situation for a reason. The nerves went away right before the game.” Rhoads knew they would. “He did really well,” Rhoads said. “Not surprising to any of us who watch him on the practice field every day.”