Arkansas looks to overcome internal, external challenges against North Texas
FAYETTEVILLE — Too bad for University of Arkansas football that one of Dr. Phil’s degrees was achieved at what is now the University of North Texas.
It seems the Razorbacks (1-1) could use a celebrity with a clinical psychology degree in their corner instead of rooting against them.
That’s the Ph.D. that Dr. Phillip McGraw has from the Denton, Texas, based school formerly known as North Texas State, whose 2-0 Mean Green visits Arkansas in today’s 3 p.m. SEC Network alternate channel-televised non-conference game at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
The Razorbacks have been haunted by second halves gone wrong ever since the 2012 season’s second-game, second-half meltdown against underdog Louisiana-Monroe during Arkansas’ John L. Smith era. The stigma lingered through the next five years under former Arkansas coach Bret Bielema.
The meltdown repeated just two games into the tenure of new coach Chad Morris.
Arkansas held a 27-9 lead midway through the third quarter on Saturday against 13-point underdog Colorado State (1-2), of the Mountain West Conference. The Rams won the game, 34-27.
Morris was asked throughout the week if the second-half demises were physical or mental, but he has refrained from commenting on what happened under previous coaches. He said he saw enough from the Hogs both when they led on Saturday and when they lost in Fort Collins, Colo., to diagnose the symptoms.
“Well, I think to be really honest with you it’s the ability to handle success,” Morris said during Wednesday’s Southeastern Conference teleconference. “We had things going our way and just the ability to stay focused, to stay in the moment and just to keep doing what we keep saying over and over about the little things. It’s the ability when you have someone down to put them away. It’s more mental than it is anything physical right now.”
What must they do?
“Just having a complete mindset,” Morris said. “That’s from a staff standpoint, from a players’ standpoint. And believe me that’s something we talk
about every day and obviously we’ve got to continue to address it. If we see anything that’s taking our focus off the moment in that fourth quarter, then we all have to be on point and have to address it.”
Given the SEC West murderers’ row awaiting the three Saturdays after today, the Razorbacks better be able to capitalize on whatever success they can achieve. Their SEC slate begins at No. 7 Auburn (2-0) on Sept. 22, the Texas A&M Aggies (1-1) at the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium on Sept. 29 and No. 1 reigning national champion Alabama (2-0) visiting Fayetteville on Oct. 6.
That capitalizing needs to start with today’s game.
Nobody is pretending that the Mean Green of Conference USA is Alabama, but they do not appear any less formidable than the Rams that outscored Arkansas, 25-0, in the final 18 minutes of last week’s game. North Texas routed Morris’ former team, SMU (0-2), 46-23, and Incarnate Word (02), 58-16.
SMU defeated North Texas each year between 2015-17 under Morris, but North Texas quarterback Mason Fine now leads the nation in passing. He is averaging 431 passing yards per game and is included on the Manning Award, Davey O’Brien Award, Maxwell Trophy and Walter Camp watch lists.
Fine presents a marked contrast to Arkansas’ quarterback situation, which remains unsettled. Junior Ty Storey played better off of the bench than startering sophomore Cole Kelley in Arkansas’ season-opening 55-20 victory over lower-division Eastern Illinois (0-2). The opposite results occurred with Kelley off of the bench against Colorado State with Storey as the starter.
The Hogs still foundered on both sides of the ball in the fourth quarter.
Arkansas senior receivers Jared Cornelius, leading returning receiver from the Hogs’ 2016 team, and Jonathan Nance, the team’s leading receiver in 2017, have not gotten on track in their first two games this season. Cornelius has not registered a reception, while Nance has one catch for -2 yards.
North Texas receivers Rico Bussey and Jalen Guyton, a transfer from Notre Dame, already have 29 catches for 443 yards and six touchdowns between them.
Morris prefers to go up-tempo on offense, but it may take a more deliberate ball-control attack exemplified by the 299 rushing yards the Razorbacks amassed against Colorado State behind a line that blocked much better in the running game than the previous week.
Arkansas defense is still hoping for a healthy return this week by senior linebacker Dre Greenlaw and senior defensive end Randy Ramsey. The unit needs to play a strong four quarters instead of the now routine two and a half quarters.