Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Arkansas 21, Louisiana Tech 20
69,132 have to hold breath to end as Bulldogs put scare into Hogs
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkan- sas can thank good fortune on fourth down for surviving an upset bid from Louisiana Tech and its freshman quarterback in Saturday’s season opener.
Successful fourth-down conversions contributed to two of their touchdown drives — — including Austin Allen’s 4-yard throwback pass to Jeremy Sprinkle for the go-ahead score with 6:37 left in the game. There was a third fourth-down conversion, coming on Kody Walker’s second-effort run on fourth-andinches at the Arkansas 37 with 1:27 remaining to run out the clock on a 21-20 victory over the Bulldogs.
Arkansas, which came
into the game as a 25-point favorite, dodged the upset bug that affected some of its SEC brethren on the opening weekend, winning the kind of nail-biter that eluded the Razorbacks during last year’s 1-3 start.
An announced crowd of 69,132 hung around Reynolds Razorback Stadium, with the outcome in doubt, on a mild afternoon.
“We tried to keep everybody in the stands for four quarters and succeeded with that,” Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said before turning serious.
“I don’t know if my first three years here we would have won that football game. … A lot of times we were in the exact same situation and came away with a defeat.”
The Razorbacks dropped a 16-12 decision to Toledo in last season’s second game that had similarities to this opener.
“We’re going to take a win any way we can get one, but I’m not happy with the way we played at all,” Arkansas senor receiver Keon Hatcher said.
“We were beating ourselves more than they beat us,” senior receiver Drew Morgan said. “We gave them the game for the first three quarters and we came back in the fourth quarter.”
Austin Allen, in his first start, completed 20 of 29 passes for 191 yards and 2 touchdowns. But he also took four sacks and threw one interception in Louisiana Tech territory on the game’s first possession and another one at the Bulldogs’ 18 with Arkansas leading 14-7 midway through the second quarter.
“We’ve got to get better,” Allen said. “We played a heck of a team out there. They were solid and they knew what they were doing.”
Louisiana Tech, playing with redshirt freshman J’mar Smith at quarterback over suspended starter Ryan Higgins, passed for 212 yards, held Arkansas to 106 rushing yards, got consistent pressure on Allen, and trailed only 297291 in total offense.
“I think we have an awful lot of positive things to build on, but I don’t think this a game we wanted to be close,” Louisiana Tech Coach Skip Holtz said. “We don’t want to be close, we want to win.”
The game was tied 14-14 at halftime after Arkansas let an opportunity to seize control in the second quarter go by.
The Bulldogs held Arkansas to minus-4 yards in the third quarter but managed two field goals from drives that reached the Razorbacks’ 25 and 3 yard lines.
Leading 20-14 early in the fourth quarter, Louisiana Tech drove to the Arkansas 23 and had a chance to go up by more than one score. Jonathan Barnes’ 39-yard field goal clanged off the left upright and fell back, giving the Razorbacks possession with 14:14 remaining.
“When the defense did what they had to do and they missed that field goal, we knew that we had to finish that game,” said Arkansas tailback Rawleigh Williams, who rushed for 96 yards and the team’s first touchdown of the season. “We always have that mentality, especially at this school, that we have to be able to run the ball. That’s what we did that drive and it ended up working out for us.”
Williams had four consecutive runs for a combined 37 yards to push Arkansas’ game-winning drive to the Louisiana Tech 40-yard line.
Hatcher had catches of 18 yards and 13 yards on the drive, the last on secondand-goal from the 20 after a holding call against the Hogs. On third down from the 7, Sprinkle took a shove pass for three yards. Bielema gambled at that point, asking offensive coordinator Dan Enos to pull out his best two-point conversion play to use from the 4.
Allen took the snap and rolled right, then drifted for a moment as Sprinkle blocked for a beat and then cleared traffic on the left side. Allen lofted a pass just over the reach of a linebacker and into Sprinkle’s hands for the go-ahead touchdown.
“It’s basically a play where I fake blocking at first to get the defense flowing one way then try to sneak out and run a drag route,” Sprinkle said. “There were two guys over there, which is not supposed to happen. I’m usually wide open. One guy came with the flow, so there was one guy left and I had to pick to whether to go in front of him or behind him. Austin just put the ball on the money.”
Smith moved the chains with a pass and a quarterback draw as Louisiana Tech drove to its 48. That’s where Arkansas held tight.
Smith threw incomplete on first and second down, then defensive linemen Jeremiah Ledbetter and Deatrich Wise Jr. collapsed on the freshman, driving him into the turf and knocking his helmet off on a 10-yard sack.
Holtz chose to punt on fourth and 20 with 3:40 remaining, hoping to hold the Hogs and get the ball back.
It didn’t happen, thanks to Arkansas’ nerves of steel in calling for a fullback dive to Walker on fourth and short at the Bulldogs’ 37.
“There’s no book on that last one,” Bielema said. “That was just a pure gut feel. I looked at my offensive line and they had great eyes. Dan felt really good about the call. Kody played fullback and had run that play several times in the past.”
Walker’s firsts surge up the middle looked to be short of first-down distance, but the sixth-year senior kept churning and spurted ahead for 3 yards to move the chains and salvage the victory.