Arkansas Sports 360 - ArkansasSports360.com

11/12/2011 at 4:50pm

Remember when Tennessee was the "big boy" in this used-to-be yearly rivalry, and Arkansas was stumbling along just trying to win a couple or three SEC games? Tennessee with Peyton Manning would hang half-a-hundred on Danny Ford's bunch in Knoxville, on their way to 10 or more wins. Maybe the Vols best assemblage of talent that still didn't win anything, the 2000 crew, clubbed Arkansas in Knoxville 63-20.

We saw a slight shift in the gap between programs just as the annual matchup was coming to an end, thanks to the SEC's change in scheduling between the divisions. Tennessee was fortunate to get out of Fayetteville with a 13-3 win in the rain in 2001, and escaped Houston Nutt's gritty Hogs in six overtimes in 2002 (Arkansas missed a couple of chances to win the game in earlier overtimes). Then the programs didn't play again ujntil 2006, when Darren McFadden introduced the "Wild Hog" to the nation in a 31-14 Arkansas romp.

So, for the first time since Tennessee's win in 2007 in Knoxville, the Hogs and Volunteers meet at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. The Hogs are looking for their ninth win in 10 games, while the Vols whipped up on their four nonconference foes but haven't won an SEC game yet in Derek Dooley's second season at the helm in Knoxville. Arkansas is favored by 15 points and has the high-powered offense that Tennessee once boasted of, while the Volunteers have been saddled with injuries and too much youth to play complete games against the top SEC foes (Alabama won 37-6, LSU topped UT 38-7, but in both games the Vols played close for a half).

We invite you in to this weekly Arkansas live game blog, as we keep you up-to-date with all the happenings, record-breaking, strategies, injuries and everything else that pertains to this SEC clash between the Hogs and Vols.

Join in, add your comments in the comment section at the bottom or visit our Facebook page, ArkansasSports360, where you can leave your comments as the game progresses. You can also follow our comments on Twitter @cbahn and @jimharris360. Or email jharris@abpg.com. I'll be checking email regularly, so if you have any questions you want to toss my way, feel free.

Remember, if you're picking this up late in the game or going back through the game as it progressed, we're posting in reverse chronological order.

It's windy as all get out here this afternoon. Tailgaters with tents were dealing with the possibility many times that an updraft might take their canopy away. The gusts are far more prevalent and faster than last week's game with South Carolina. Wind again is out of the south, but with the shape of the stadium and the open north end, the fast breezes tend to come around the stadium and swirl or blow the other direction on the field. The wind could hamper kicking again (normally sure-footed Zach Hocker missed two field goals last week) and medium and deep passing.

Kudos to Vic Harville in the statewide daily for his cartoon, which says it all about the state of these to programs, with the hound dog in a boxing ring asking another UT dog about the UA Hog, "Has he gotten that much bigger, or have we gotten smaller?"

Here we go:

8:32 p.m. 49-7 Arkansas, final — That's a wrap here, where Arkansas impressively rolled Tennessee and should move up the BCS standings to No. 6 when they are announced Sunday night, what with Boise losing and Stanford or Oregon destined to have a loss after their game is over. That said, Arkansas' win over Texas A&M keeps getting "worse" in the way the BCS is calculated after A&M lost in double overtime to Kansas State. There are other factors, as we saw last week when the Hogs impressively dispatched No. 9 South Carolina and managed to DROP from No. 7 to No. 8.

Somehow, though, Oklahoma's home loss to Texas Tech doesn't seem to damage the Sooners as much as you would expect, considering Texas Tech has been curb-stomped in every game since that win, including losing AT HOME 66-6 to Oklahoma State. Tommy Tuberville, better look out pard; you can probably have the Ole Miss job back if you wanted.

Back to Reynolds Razorback Stadium — all the Hogs seniors seemed to step up with strong  efforts on both sides of the ball all night. We saw highlight runs at the end from Broderick Green and DeAnthony Curtis (though Curtis spoiled his night a little with a terrible, unforced fumble in the Hogs' final possession, showing why he's probably a last resort as a running back choice for Petrino; you can't turn the ball over unforced like that on this level, as Trey Biddy two seats from me just said, and I agree).

Anyone, hardly much to frown about, though the defense bend a lot and also gave up some huge individual plays from Tennessee. The Vols just couldn't make anything out of them, except for one touchdown. Too many fourth-down gambles and to little consistency on offense.

Arkansas made almost everything off its big plays, with the exception of one drive. That's why the final difference was 42 points.

This isn't your daddy's Tennessee, but any win over the Volunteers is precious for a Razorback program all time is only 4-13 against UT. Lot of older fans have sat through heartbreak of seeing the 1971 Liberty Bowl stolen from the Razorbacks, or the 1998 game that probably doesn't need rehashing.

Speaking of, Clint Stoerner was the honorary captain of the game. While 1998 is a bad memory for him (and a game that allowed UT to win its only BCS national championship), Stoerner led the Hogs to a monumental 28-24 win the next year here, passing to Anthony Lucas for the 23-yard winning touchdown in the last four minutes.

Those wins have been rare over a tradition-rich UT program, just like Saturday's romp.

We're sure Bobby Petrino will take it grinning.

Now up is Mississippi State in Little Rock next Saturday at 2:30 p.m. on national TV

8:15 p.m. 49-7 Arkansas — Senior De'Anthony Curtis gets in on the scoring act with a 26-yard touchdown run right up the gut against a Vols defense that has all but quit. Arkansas, with Brandon Mitchell now in at quarterback, covered 74 yards in 5 plays. Bobby Petrino let Mitchell throw once and he delivered a strike to Jervontee Herndon to move the Hogs into scoring position.

Ronnie Wingo found good yardage at the start of the drive, and Curtis was a dynamo on the end of the drive, battering the Vols on two big gains, including the 26-yard touchdown.

There is still 6:37 to play. We figure Petrino may have to call of the dogs now, though — Arkansas returns this game to Knoxville next year, unless the new SEC schedule with A&M and Missouri coming into the league changes things. Tennessee will have to be a lot better than we're seeing tonight; quite a few sophomores and freshmen have seen significant playing time tonight, but they're spent now.

8:03 p.m. 42-7 Arkansas — Tennessee's defense just made Broderick Green look like the Parade All-American he was coming out of high school. Wow. Green single-handedly moved the Hogs 53 yards in 3 plays — he ran for 44 yards on two plays, then took a swing pass from Tyler Wilson on the left side and danced in. Seriously, he tip-toed the sideline the final five yards acrobatically for the score as Volunteers futilely tried to tackle him.

Bobby Petrino is spreading it around and feeding all the studs tonight.

Comparatively (and we know you don't compare scores), LSU beat the Vols 38-7 in Knoxville and Alabama topped UT 37-6 in Birmingham. You're looking for style points, folks, style points. Tennessee is the perfect foil the way the Vols are either tiring or laying down defensively in the second half, it's hard to tell which. The Hogs are on a 21-0 run.

All those fourth-down gambles by the Vols seem to have zapped the life out of the UT defense.

Still 10 minutes to go. Everybody's getting in. Seniors are making plays all over the place. Bret Harris nearly had an interception.

7:52 p.m. 35-7, Arkansas, end of three quarters — Bobby Petrino gave Joe Adams two chances in a row to join Jarius Wright as 1-2 on the school's all-time receptions list. Adams (coincidentally, like Wright did on his first chance to break the record) dropped a pass wide open down field (Wright was also wide open on the play, btw) and couldn't make an acrobatic catch on the next Wilson pass).

OK, an opinion that won't be enjoyed by everyone: UA STUDENTS, you would not see this at Alabama or Auburn. But, there you are, with the fourth quarter starting in an SEC game, and half of you had hauled butt to wherever it is you head to. Not good.

Not sure the UA gets as good a student support as Alabama and Auburn or many or the top echelon SEC schools anyway. The ones who are here still and get here 90 minutes or more before kickoff and stick it out to the end: kudos to you!

7:40 p.m. 35-7, Arkansas — Derek Dooley was probably thinking he was experiencing deja vu on Arkansas' fifth touchdown of the night.

Tennessee failed on a fourth-and-1 from its 40-yard line (just as the Volunteers had done three weeks ago against Alabama.

On the first offensive snap, Arkansas went for the jugular, running Joe Adams on a post route and Tyler Wilson put the ball in to Adams perfectly 5 yards deep in the end zone behind the safety for the touchdown (just as Alabama had done three weeks ago against the Vols in blowing them out in the second half).

The catch allowed Adams to tie Anthony Eubanks' long-standing (12 years) school record for career receptions, which teammate Jarius Wright broke on the previous Arkansas offensive series.

7:29 p.m. 28-7, Arkansas — Jarius Wright had two catches totaling 40 yards, the first one for 14 setting the Arkansas record for career receptions, and the Hogs covered 52 yards in 5 plays to push their advantage back to 21 points.

Dennis Johnson carried through left tackle, broke two tackles near the line, and rambled 15 yards for the touchdown with 7:07 left in the third quarter. Tennessee's defense even snuck a linebacker in a gap on the UT right side for a run blitz that couldn't stop Johnson.

Zach Hocker just rammed his kickoff through the goal posts on the opposite end, 80 yards.

Arkansas took over after a promising Volunteers drive self-destructed after reaching the Arkansas 39, thanks to a 48-yard catch and run by receiver Da'Rick (pronounced Derrick) Rodgers that got the Vols off their 4-yard line. The Hogs had put them there thanks to a 55-yard punt that rolled about 20-plus yards for Dylan Breeding.

After reaching the Hogs' 39, a holding penalty and then an 11-yard loss on a fumble when Jake Bequette flattened Vols quarterback Justin Worley put UT back to its 40. Matt Darr then shanked the punt 12 yards, setting Arkansas up at its 48 for a five-play scoring drive that took 1:51.

Attendance was announced at 72,103. Tennessee traveled well in supporting the Vols. Nobody is sitting in those bleachers that are used for student overflow, atop the south end zone. We can hardly blame them for not daring to sit up there with these winds. We can't imagine the top of the upper decks on the East and West side are any picnic tonight.

7:01 p.m. 21-7, more from halftime — Forgot to mention earlier, one of the largest cheers so far was for the announcement of TCU's 36-35 upset of No. 5 Boise State. Arkansas came into this game No. 8 in the BCS standings. Either Stanford or Oregon will probably drop, whoever loses between the two, when Sunday's poll is announced.

Tennessee's media folks provided us with a Derek Dooley halftime quote:

"The difference in this half is we had five missed tackles on a punt and a guy makes a play. Then we are in Cover 2 and they split a run for a long [gain]. We can't give up big plays, that's what they do best. We have to play sound football and we can't miss tackles. We have to rally and put a lot of hats on the football. No big plays. Now we have to convert when we get down to the red zone. We can't throw interceptions down there."

Austin Johnson's interception of Tyler Wilson's first-quarter pass was Johnson's third of the season, all in the last four games. It was also UT's fifth in the past four games after just one in the first six games.

Also, UT's media says the fake field goal try was the first time the Vols ad tried one since Nov. 11, 2000, when Seth Reagan scored on a two-yard touchdown run. Former Vols Coach Phil Fulmer was trying fake field goals in a 63-20 game?

6:50 p.m. 21-7, Arkansas, halftime — The Razorback defense was about to probably get a halftime blasting from head coach Bobby Petrino before senior safety Tramain Thomas stepped in front of a Justin Worley pass at the goal line for an interception to stop a Vol thread in the final minute of the first half.

Thomas has had a tremendous game. One play he won't get any credit for was an amazing one-handed grab out of bands of a Vols pass; had he had maybe a yard of room it would have been one of the best interceptions of the year, maybe the best.

The one at the goal line, well, Petrino will sure take that one.

Tennessee has had three drives in scoring territory and the Vols have only come away with one touchdown. A fake field goal from the 25 was snuffed out by the Hogs, and Thomas stopped the other threat.

Arkansas has only moved it twice into Tennessee territory, scored once and missed a field goal. Joe Adams' amazing punt return and Dennis Johnson's 71-yard blast have spelled the difference.

Arkansas' last two defensive stands were weak in relation to the rest of the game. It seems that after the score reached 21-0 the effort fell off somewhat. The Hogs regained some of the energy when Tennessee was sniffing a touchdown on the final series, though. Jake Bequette's pressure of Worley forced maybe a slightly off throw to an open receiver, and Thomas showed outstanding closing speed to steal the pass.

Arkansas has just a 3-yard edge in total yardage, 210-207, but a 109 to 60 advantage in rushing yardage. Worley has outpassed Tyler Wilson 147 to 101.Wilson is 7 for 13; Worley is 12 for 23.

Tennessee has Arkansas whipped in time of possession by a 2 to 1 margin (20:24 to 9:36), which shows just how meaningless that can be. Tennessee ate up a lot of time on its first and last drives of the half to come away with nothing. Arkansas scored twice in a stretch in which the Hogs' offense only snapped it twice.

6:25 p.m. 21-7 — Jarius Wright saved maybe his best catch as a Razorback to tie the all-time reception record at Arkansas. Wright, heavily defended, tipped a long pass from Wilson three times before getting his fingers on it for good an inch from the ball hitting the ground. The play totaled 40 yards and put the Hogs on the Vols 40.

Unfortunately for Wright, he dropped whaqt would be the record breaking on third-and-5 at the 25. That was probably one of the easiest passes Wright's had thrown his direction in his career.

Arkansas got no points on the possession as Hocker hooked a 42-yard field goal attempt.

6:20 p.m. 21-7 Arkansas — Tennessee scores its first touchdown in SEC play since the first half of the LSU loss in Knoxville. The Vols covered 77 yards on five plays, with the 50-yard completion from Justin Worley to Rajion Neal setting up Neal's 11-yard touchdown run three snaps later. Neal ran a reverse from left to right and took Worley's handoff, getting to the goal line without any trouble.

The Arkansas defense, outstanding for the most part in the first half, fell asleep on that possession. One play can do it.

6:17 p.m. 21-0 Arkansas — After an exchange of punts, the quick-hitting Razorbacks strike again..

Tyler Wilson on first down missed Joe Adams wide open about 40 yards downfield on a well-designed bootleg rollout to the left. Wilson overthrew Adams badly, but remember we told you the wind would affect the deep downfield passing. Tennessee's struggling too, though it might be simply that its quarterback isn't accurate and its receivers are getting hammered by the Hogs' secondary.

Second down and 10 from the UA 29. Dennis Johnson took a simple handoff from Wilson and broke through an opening at left end, then turned on the jets through Tennessee's slow-reacting secondary. A couple of Vols made lunging efforts at his feet, but weren't close, and linebacker AJ Johnson appeared to take a bad angle as well and had little chance. Dennis Johnson had all green in front him from midfield on. There is 11:25 left in the half.

Check that on the inaccurate freshman, Justin Worley. He just tossed a 50 yard pass down the right sideline to Rajon Neal as Hogs freshman cornerback Tevin Mitchel made a poor play trying to pick the ball. The Vols are on the move.

 

5:50 p.m., 14-0 Arkansas — Holy smokes!

I don't think I've ever seen a Razorback player just do, at least against SEC competition, what Joe Adams accomplished against Tennessee on the Volunteers' punt.

At about the time Adams made what surely was a ridiculous attempt to go one way and another back to his 30, and as I leaned over the Chris Bahn and said "this has a chance to be utter disaster," Adams broke eight arm-tackle attempts or lunges at his feet and then he found an opening on the sideline in front of the Arkansas bench, managed to not step out of bounds, and took off untouched. The official yardage on Adams' third punt return touchdown of the season was 60 yards, but he covered 80 or more.

Really, readers, have you ever seen a punt returner that bottled up by the punting team, and still pull out something that amazing? It reminded me of Nebraska great Johnny Rodgers back in the early 1970s.

What's funny was that some of the media were noting Adams' previous poor job fielding the Vols punt where he fell on his muffed effort. That's happened a few times this year. When he fielded this second one, it appeared he might fair catch, but then he took off to the right, reversed field to the left, back to the right and somehow he's hitting the end zone 15 seconds later.

Figure that as a backbreaker for Tennessee? The Vols haven't score more than 12 points in an SEC game since October 1. They did put up 23 points, a lot of them late and with now-injured quarterback Tyler Bray, against Florida in September.

5:35 p.m. 7-0 Arkansas — Tyler Wilson is making things happen with his feet, buying time for his receivers to get open. Such was the case from the 7-yard line, when Wilson waited until senior Jarius Wright broke from left to right a yard away from the goal and took his toss, then dragged his defender into the end zone with him on the first touchdown of the game. The play came on second and goal from the 7, set up by the previously mentioned personal foul.

Arkansas covered 76 yards in more than five minutes of the clock, with Wilson finding running back Dennis Johnson wide open in the flats for big chunks of yardage to move it into Tenessee territory. Ronnie Wingo showed some power from the running back position on the drive. Wilson was the star, though, managing to avoid the Tennessee rush with his feet. The Vols are so worried about the middle and deep routes by Wright, Adams and Childs that they are giving up the short flat stuff, showing that it's difficult to cover everything in Bobby Petrino's arsenal.

With 3:39 left in the first quarter, the Hogs are up 7-0.

Guess the wind has suddenly changed or is swirling oddly, as Zach Hocker just boomed this kickoff 9 yard deep into the end zone.

 

5:31 p.m. — A battle of who is less stupid in the critical zone. With no reason whatsoever, young Arkansas receiver Jervontee Herndon blocked in the back in the end zone to wipe out a 20-yard Ronnie Wingo touchdown run. Tennessee linebacker Maurice Couch forced Tyler Wilson out of bounds for a 3-yard loss and then hit him five yards out of bounds for a personal foul to give the Hogs a first and goal at the 8.

5:23 p.m. — Tennessee has tried a lot of gambles so far in the SEC season, most to no avail, but this one was pretty stupid. A drive apparently helped by the replay official still bogged down at the Arkansas 25, bringing on Michael Palardy for an apparent 42-yard field goal try on fourth-and-11. But Palardy was part of a fake, taking a flip from the holder to attempt a pass on the run that had no chance, and Tennessee got no points out of a drive where it had plenty of breaks.

You folks out there watching on TV at home, tell me: Was it a fumble when Da'Rick Rodgers coughed it up at the end of of a 17-yard reception and run? Alonzo Highsmith seemed to separate him from the ball and recovered the fumble at the Hogs 22. But the replay judge, taking several minutes up in the comfort of the windless press box, overruled the call on the field of a fumble and Arkansas recovery. Most of the media up here felt like the replay clearly showed the ball coming out before the receiver's knee hit the ground.

The biggest break Tennessee got was Arkansas mysteriously choosing to kickoff into the breeze instead of letting Zach Hocker boom it easily through the end zone the other direction. Tauren Poole returned the opening kickoff from his 3 to the 28 to get Tennessee going.

5:19 p.m. — Tenarius Wright is in the starting lineup for the Arkansas defense on the first series. Wright has missed every game since the first series against Alabama, when he broke his forearm. Also starting is Ross Rasner at outside linebacker.

5:08 p.m. -- Bequette, Wright, Wilson and Franklin are the Hog captains. Tennessee wins the toss and will take the ball, and will defend the south goal. The wind is blowing out of the south. Arkansas chose to kick off into the wind. OK.

It's 61 degrees at kickoff.

 

 

 

Tagged: Bobby Petrino, Derek Dooley, Justin Worley, Tennessee Volunteers