Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

9/4/2010 at 5:25pm

We'll be posting throughout the Arkansas Razorbacks' opening football game of the season with Tennessee Tech from Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Feel free to comment here, or email me at jharris@abpg.com or Chris Bahn on twitter at @cbahn (he'll be tweeting throughout the game) and we'll address your thoughts here as well.

And, if you're reading after the conclusion of the game, we've posted this in reverse chronological order. Start at the bottom and work your way back up and follow the game as we followed it. We're allowed three posts on here per quarter while the game in under way. Let's get started:

9:04 p.m. -- And that's a wrap. Tennessee Tech got its big check as a tune-up (sorry Willy) and Arkansas didn't embarrassed the Golden Eagles and a class act coach in Watson Brown, winning 44-3. Arkansas achieved some of its goals -- surely the defense has to be happy holding TTU under 200 yards and without a touchdown. The offensive line had good and bad moments of protection, but Mallett still had a near perfect night. The running game got batter as the contest wore on, as Bobby Petrino likes. Arkansas' backs still like to dance and break their runs outside, which might have worked against a tiring TTU defense, but hardly will be effective against the SEC's best.

We'll borrow a line from ol' Houston Nutt night, apropos we think: Half the teams in America wish they were 1-0. A few others wish they had taken care of business against Division I-AA tuneups. Arkansas did so without any feelings hurt on the other side, and without having to show the full arsenal, and nobody's headd home worrying about the defense being able to hold down a rent-a-win team.

See ya from Little Rock next week, and in the meantime follow all our coverage from tonight (Chris Bahn and myself with columns and other features, plus plenty throughout the week, and our SEC Power Poll on Tuesday).

8:58 p.m. (44-3 Arkansas) -- Not a lot has happened other than Arkansas' workmanlike second half of power running the way Bobby Petrino loks it, with some timely passes. Ryan Mallett reached 301 yards before the third quarter ended, finished it up with a 15-yard scoring pass to Joe Adams that was all Adams, shaking and baking and dancing and darting through the overmatched Golden Eagle defense for all of that from the left side. That put the score at 44-3 and Petrino turned it over first to Tyler Wilson at quarterback for two series (ending in turnovers) and one for talented freshman Brandon Mitchell.

Mitchell's series was exciting; Wilson's was uninspired with an interception and then a fumble after a catch by tight end Ben Cleveland.

Mitchell laid a perfect pass in for freshman Maudrecus Humphrey, but the son of Alabama great Bobby Humphrey dropped the sure touchdown. We've been wondered why daddy's alma mater didn't recruit him with all that speed. Maybe it's the hands. Surely he'll get plenty of chances, though, to show he's got them in coming weeks. And Mitchell needs to play more than one series, when it's not Mallett in at quarterback.

7:50 p.m. -- Wow. Anthony Leon's much ballyhooed speed when he arrived last year as a safety finally showed up in his new role as weakside linebacker on the second play of the third quarter. On a delayed blitz, Leon hammered Tech QB Tre Lamb for an 8-yard loss that went a long way into giving the UA offense great field position to start its third quarter, at the TTU 30 following another shanked punt.

Ronnie Wingo Jr. gets the call again at running back and finishes the short drive with a 10-yard burst outside around left end, dancing around tacklers near the goal line pylon. Arkansas is up 30-3.

I predict a lot of work on the running game in the second half.

The drive started, though, with another Mallett-to-D.J. Williams pass. That's four for the game for 65 yards. Remember last year when everybody wondered if Mallett had something against DJ, because he never looked for him?

7:45 p.m. -- Couple of other halftime notes: Redshirt freshmen Travis Swanson (center) and Alvin Bailey (right guard) started their first collegiate games. If the O-line has been spotty because freshmen are starting fans should be able to live with that and know it will get better.

Anthony Leon made the first start of his career at weakside linebacker.

Joe Adams had caught a pass in 23 straight games. Brod Green has scored at least one rushing touchdown in six of his last seven games.

Dennis Johnson scored the first touchdown in 2009 on a kickoff return, and scored the first this year on his 7-yard sprint through left end.

7:33 p.m. -- Off topic, slightly. The UA band is playing a Led Zeppelin tribute. LED ZEPPELIN. The reason I even bring this up is, the Zep was still in its heyday when I was in school here. My parents hated Led Zeppelin. Now, they are halftime entertainment for the masses at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Quick glance at the stats: Mallett is 15 of 17 for 251 yards, one interception off a deflected pass and a drop by D'Anthony Curtis. If his receivers would (1) not deflect a ball up if it can't be caught or (2) catch a ball in their hands with no one defending, then Mallett would be perfect, and I promise if he did that for 12 games he'd win the Heisman Trophy.

The running game has gained 51 yards on 13 carries. If the defense is playing back defending the pass, you'd expect a little more success than 4 yards a carry against Tennessee Tech.

On the other hand, Arkansas has 302 total yards. Does it matter how the Hogs get the yards if they total out that much? Ronnie Wingo is averaging 13 yards a carry, because he had one carry for 13 yards. Brod Green has 6 carries and has averaged 2.8 per, but one of those was a 1-yard TD dive. He appears to be better than at this time last year.

Childs has 4 catches for 26 yards. Adams has 3 for 108 with the 85-yarder.

Arkansas hasn't had to punt, so we haven't seen Dylan Breeding.

The Hogs' defense is giving up less than 1 yard per rush (18 for 32). TennTech's total offense: 131 yards, just under 5 yards per play (27 snaps). The Golden Eagles' punter Nick Campbell was impressive, turning one over for 64 yards and flipping the field in the first quarter.

7:15 p.m. -- Joe Adams, as we all know, can turn a short gain into a big play. Especially with his speed overmatching the TTU secondary. On that deep zone toss that Mallett with his velocity is among the few who can throw, Adams was open between defenders at the sideline, then bolted by the slow closing safety and turned a 30-yard play into an 85-yard touchdown. 23-3, Arkansas with 4:33.

Now, the Hogs are tuning up more like expected.

Here's a nod out to Hogfan, who offerd 49-7 as his score prediction. For a little while, it looked like 49 points might be a reach, that we were going to see a Florida type game, if you saw the Gators stumble and fumble around today in their post-Tebow era against Miami of Ohio.

Tejada just boomed another kickoff five yards deep into the end zone. The Golden Eagles aren't running any out anymore. Smart!

7:05 p.m. -- Arkansas drives it 49 yards in 9 plays to go up 16-3. Broderick Green does appear a tad faster and much stronger this year, but consider this is smallish Tennessee Tech. We'll see how things look against Georgia, but the past two series, the running game has been a little better.

The play in the drive we were most impressed with was Greg Childs' use of his body after a short quick toss to make sure he had gotten a first down for the Hogs at the TTU 6. More upper body strength is evident from the junior from Warren.

D'Anthony Curtis missed a chance at a touchdown, wide open down the middle for a Mallett pass that he couldn't handle.

Tejada isn't kicking the PAT's, but he's delivering on kickoffs, sending them halfway into the end zone. Zach Hocker has the PAT duties.

We just looked up to see freshman CB Eric Bennett beat on a 31-yard pass to help TTU out of a hole and into Hog territory.

Tramain Thomas was shaken up in the first quarter, but he has returned to the Hogs' defense.

On a safety earlier in the quarter, set up when the Golden Eagles unwisely tried to run out a Tejada kickoff, then had a block-in-the-back penalty on the 2, Ramon Broadway and Jerry Franklin got credit for the stop, running TTU back Jocques Crawford out of bounds in front of the UA band. The 2-pointer had made it 9-3, and Arkansas' 49-yard drive was set up by a shanked free kick punt.

6:45 p.m. -- The play Cobi Hamilton just made to end the first quarter, lunging out to flag down Mallett's throw over the middle for 37 yards, is why everyone was drooling over him in high school at Texarkana Tech. What a catch, putting the Hogs at the TTU 11 as we change ends.

Dennis Johnson comes in, and on his first carry he fumbles, but the Hogs recovered (just as they had done when Knile Davis fumbled after a nice 11-yard run). DJ makes up for it the next time on a pitch sweep left for a 7-yard scoring run, Arkansas' first TD of 2010.

No Tejada on the extra point. Freshman Zach Hocker kicks the point after and the Hogs have their first lead, 7-3, 14:19 left in the half.

We're watching scores and struggling elsewhere. Arkansas State jumped on Auburn 6-0, but Fort Smith's Kodi Burns just capped Auburn's first scoring drive of the year with a 3-yard run. We guess he was running Gus' wildcat. It's 7-6 down in Auburn. The Tigers aren't playing a I-AA team, as our friends in Jonesboro will remind everyone. Ryan Aplin, the Red Wolves quarterback, is 7-for-7 in his sophomore debut for ASU.

 

6:34 p.m. - OT Ray Dominguez's first procedure penalty of the season. Not saying it killed another promising drive, but it set the Hogs back to the TTU 35, and on second down, Mallett was picked on a deflected pass.

Lots of flags. And the Razorbacks aren't really handling this opener as a "tune-up game." Defensive coordinator Willy Robinson tried to warn everybody. It's a game, like any other.

6:30 p.m. -- Arkansas' first offensive series did nothing to convince anyone the running game will be better. Knile Davis didn't take the 2-yard gain he had early in the possession and tried to bounce out and lost a yard, though the official stats will say 0 on the play. Broderick Green couldn't get a yard on third-and-1 when the drive bogged down in Tennessee Tech territory. Arkansas tried to go to the air on fourth-and-6, after a motion penalty on flinching D.J. Williams, and Ryan Mallett was all but sacked, scrambling back to the line of scrimmage. Ugh.

The defense made some nice stops, then two pass rushers allowed Tre Lamb to escape a sure sack, and the secondary botched the coverage, allowing a completion to the 1 (well, we thought the receiver scored, but for some reason the officials marked him on the 1).

All the areas of concern, not answered in at least the first 8 minutes of the game. No effective running. Still allowing big plays on defense. To a I-AA team.

Let's change gears: I really need to write this stuff down so you would believe it, but yesterday on TJ Carpenter's radio show in Fayetteville, I said that if the Good Lord really was interested in football results, or at least evening things out, he'd see to it that Jack Crowe and Division I-AA Jacksonville State beat Houston Nutt's Ole Miss team, since Nutt was on Crowe's staff when The Citadel pulled a 10-3 upset here and led to Crowe being fired the next day by Frank Broyles.

So, should we be surprised that Jack and his Jacksonville State pulled off the 49-48 double-overtime upset in Oxford?

And what is the Blue Man Group doing here? They're in front of the students. Chris Bahn says they are performing at the Walton Arts Center. They're displaying Hogs on their shirts and one put on a Hog hat, and the stadium all seeing it on the Big Screen cheered loudly.

Now, they're leading the hog call. Cool. We like the Blue Men.

5:30 p.m. - Did I finally fall asleep after the Benton-Bryant Salt Bowl and wake up in October? Who brought in this spectacular weather? Who saw this coming back during the high-90s and 100-degree days of just a few hours ago?

What's your forcast on this game? 65-6, perhaps?

Arkansas's student section was filed at least an hour before kickoff. The rest of the stands are filling with a steady trickle of fans from their tailgates. Sitting in the sun is probably the only excuse any has got for trudging in to the East side. This weather is spectacular for Sept. 4. Last we checked, it was 82 degrees and dropping, light breeze out of the south.

Someone has decided that, UA band be damned, they're going to pump hip-hop music through the PA system as loud as they can. I don't know if the student section can tell; they're still trying to be rowdy.

Ryan Mallett looks perfectly accurate in the warmup period. So does redshirt freshman QB Brandon Mitchell. Tennessee Tech looks really small. Maybe the new home Nike jerseys for the Hogs make them look significantly bigger.

We made a quick stopver at the Hog Heaven store at Bud Walton Arena so my youngster, who's sitting in the stands, would have a new Razorback jersey, a No. 15 Nike, no less. Youth size runs $44 plus tax. Go Hogs.

Sit back, relax, and see if Arkansas handles this opener as well as Georgia eventually disposed of Louisiana-Lafayette (55-7) or the way Florida struggled to dispatch an offensively inept Miami of Ohio 34-12.

What will make the UA fans happy: a shutout or something close, with no major offensive plays surroundered by the defense, or 8 or 9 touchdowns and a big passing night for Mallett?

We know Anthony Oden and Van Stumon are suspended for the game by Bobby Petrino for their summer alcohol-related offenses. Chris Bahn says he doesn't see Zach Stadther on the field during the pregame either. Anybody see Zach Stadther?

 

 

Tagged: Van Stumon, Anthony Oden, Zach Stadther, Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles, Bobby Petrino, Ryan Mallett