Road tests next for 3-0 Razorbacks
Arkansas played well enough in spots against Georgia Southern for one to anticipate another Razorback game this year against a team with numbered helmets.
Not that anyone should be caught looking ahead to Alabama. Arkansas, after all, has lost 14 straight games to the Crimson Tide going into its Nov. 20 visit to Tuscaloosa. Nick Saban’s team, as ever ranked No. 1, survived an expected challenge Saturday at Florida, the only Southeastern Conference team to play Alabama close in this decade.
It’s just that Arkansas is growing some difficult fans who demand immediate, often critical analysis from a one-sided victory. Such pressure is ramping up with the Razorbacks 3-0 and nationally ranked for the first time since 2016.
Even a 45-10 rout of Georgia Southern, keeping Arkansas perfect also against the point spread, invites comments about what could have been done better. The sillies of talk radio will have their say this week before Arkansas takes on supposedly heavier lifting in its SEC opener Saturday against Texas A&M. With such as Georgia, Auburn and Ole Miss (the bookend games on the road) to be played, the Alabama game looks a long ways off.
Sam Pittman addressed some of the fans’ concerns leaving the field at halftime. The margin could have been greater than 24-10 and the head coach spoke aloud that the Hogs got away from running the ball and, despite big plays through the air, cited breakdowns in pass protection. For a change, no one got launched for targeting but nine penalties for 93 yards demands cleaning up.
Fortunately, there were no turnovers and, with a 633-yard offensive harvest, Arkansas was in no real danger of an upset. A team that drives 99 and 91 yards for touchdowns like Arkansas did saps the other team’s confidence. Some teams have trouble driving 80 yards in a game, stringing together lots of pretty plays before an inevitable failure near the end zone. A team with no better passing game than Georgia Southern, which depends on option running, has no chance.
The second quarter represented an aberration for Arkansas, which otherwise pitched a shutout (the Hogs have not allowed a first-quarter point). Once Pittman chewed on them at halftime, the Razorbacks responded with their second 14-point quarter of the day and everything was all right again.
KJ Jefferson, known as a runner, attacked a wounded secondary from the first play, finding Tyson Morris open for 47 yards, Morris catching the first big pass for the third-straight game. Warren Thompson, a Florida State transfer, scored on a 60-yard strike in his gettingto-know-you moment as a Razorback. (Entering the transfer portal, Thompson escaped the 0-3 mess in Tallahassee that endangers the job of Mike Norvell, once seen as a future Razorback coach.)
The SportsCenter play, as usual, involved Treylon Burks, a preseason all-SEC wide receiver but slowed early this year because of injury. Early in the third quarter, Burks turned on the jets with a screen pass from Jefferson and went 91 yards for the second-longest scoring catch in Razorback history. The latest big-play receiver from Warren, which sent Greg Childs and Jarius Wright to play for Bobby Petrino, Burks had a game-high 127 yards on three receptions.
Although not a polished passer like Ryan Mallett, Jefferson is blessed with a corps of receivers to go with his quick feet. Completing 13 of 23 for 366 yards and three scores, Jefferson got the ball to DeVion Warren three times for 67 yards and Morris twice for 61 besides the
60-yard strike to Thompson. Arkansas hasn’t forgotten the tight end, Blake Kern’s only catch Saturday going for 21 yards.
Dominique Johnson, though he wears the No. 20 of former Razorback receiving great Chuck Dicus, may be the goto running back that Rakeem Boyd never quite became. Johnson broke tackles on a 48yard run as Arkansas pushed it to 21-0 in the second quarter. The Razorbacks ran for 269 yards, 5.6 per play, and completed 6 of 15 third downs on a day they kept the ball more than 33 minutes.
And what to expect from Texas A&M, which hasn’t been beaten by Arkansas (winning nine straight) since the Petrino era? Jimbo Fisher’s team is also 3-0 for the first time since 2016, backup quarterback Zach Calsada triggering a 34-0 runaway against New Mexico. With Haynes King, Kellen Mond’s designated replacement, undergoing surgery for a broken right leg, Calsada led the Aggies to a fourth-quarter score against Colorado (10-7) and passed for 275 yards and three touchdowns Saturday.
Texas A&M, though a top-10 team, is forever looking up in the standings to Alabama and Georgia. Before it resumes a series with blood rival Texas once the Longhorns join the SEC, the Aggies hope to claim the SEC high ground if the Crimson Tide or Bulldogs slip.
Arkansas, alas, cannot play them all in Fayetteville. Instead of predominantly friendly fans, Jefferson must cope with chanting Aggies this week and what the late Larry Munson called Dawg People the following Saturday at Georgia. How will the two young quarterbacks hold up in their first SEC game?
Call Razorback Nation overly cautious going into the A&M game, though its faith in this team is growing and its expectations are trending upward. Not many years ago, Arkansas looked at a close loss to A&M as a moral victory. Mercifully, those days are over.