FAYETTEVILLE — In his first extended action at Arkansas, Malachi Singleton played well in relief of Taylen Green on Saturday.
The redshirt freshman played the entire second half of the Razorbacks’ 63-31 loss to No. 19 Ole Miss at Razorback Stadium and led three touchdown drives in five possessions, completing 11 of 14 passes (78.6%) for 207 yards and one touchdown.
Arkansas did go three-and-out once with Singleton, but likely would have gotten at least some points from the other drive had Isaac TeSlaa not fumbled the ball through the end zone for a turnover and automatic first day.
“I think he took control,” Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman said. “I think he went out there and I tell you guys, he made a few passes…that he let the ball go way before the break and were right on. Here on that last drive, he threw an 8-yard out that, I mean, he let that ball go way before the break. He did it several times.”
Since the season-opening blowout win over UAPB, Singleton has appeared a handful of times, including a series at Auburn and, most notably, the end of the Tennessee game. In that latter outing, he actually led the game-winning touchdown drive in the closing minutes, scoring on an 11-yard run.
On Saturday, though, the Kennesaw, Ga., native took over after halftime and looked the most comfortable he has in an Arkansas uniform.
“I think he played extremely well,” TeSlaa said. “I mean, you turn on the tape, he’s a playmaker through the air and with his legs, as well. I mean, we’ve been knowing that all year, just what he does in practice and everything. So it’s cool to see, despite the circumstance, him go out there and really succeed.”
Singleton also added 44 yards and another score on eight carries, showcasing his dual-threat skillset.
Those statistics honestly don’t do it justice, either. He was sacked three times for a loss of 18 yards, plus had an impressive 60-yard touchdown run called back because of an illegal formation penalty that had no impact on the play. Factor in those things and Singleton easily could have cracked the century mark on the ground.
“Obviously, him running the football is a big asset,” Pittman said. “He’s a hard guy to tackle. It’s a shame that we didn’t have a receiver on the ball on his touchdown run. But I was really, really happy with the way he competed and the guys that were out there offensively, how they competed with him.”
Taylen Green Injury Update
Of course, the only reason Malachi Singleton was in the game is because Taylen Green got hurt at the 5:26 mark of the first quarter.
After the second of back-to-back 14-yard keepers, the veteran quarterback was slow to get up and limped off the field.
He immediately went into the injury tent and reemerged several minutes later with both ankles heavily taped. The trainers watched him take some practice cuts on the sideline and he spent some time on the stationary bike before they eventually put a brace on his right knee and let him go back in for the following drive.
Despite leading all four drives in the second quarter, Green didn’t return after halftime. Sam Pittman said he got worked on during the break and the coaches didn’t feel confident he’d be able to play, especially considering how important his legs are to his success.
“We didn’t know coming out of half if he would be ready to play,” Pittman said. “We said we were going to look at him throwing and moving. Bobby (Petrino) had him moving front and back and just was gimpy. We didn’t want to take that chance of getting him hurt further.”
Green finished the game 10 of 14 passing for 158 yards and added 16 yards on 10 carries. That latter number was skewed by him losing 23 yards on five sacks.
The injury — and Ole Miss’ pass rush — prevented Green from continuing his recent stretch of stellar play. Since the Tennessee game, he has completed 72.3% of his passes for 978 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions. Granted, five of those touchdown passes came against Mississippi State’s bad defense, but he also missed about three quarters of play because of injuries. Factor in that and he’s averaging 300.9 passing yards per game.
Throw in what Green can do on the ground, as long as he’s healthy, and it becomes clear why the coaching staff views him as their clear No. 1 quarterback and why there’s no impending quarterback battle, no matter how well Malachi Singleton played. As Pittman has said numerous times, Green is a more than capable quarterback when kept clean.
Ole Miss Wreaks Havoc
That didn’t happen Saturday afternoon. In fact, the Rebels lived in Arkansas’ backfield, with 1 of every 5 plays by the Razorbacks resulting in lost yardage.
In a display of its incredible depth, Ole Miss collected 8 sacks with eight different players notching at least a half-sack and 10 different players combined for 13 TFLs.
The sacks were a season-high against Arkansas, which entered the day allowing just 2.1 per game. They weren’t the best mark of the year for Ole Miss, though, as it racked up 9 sacks against Oklahoma the week before. The Rebels rank second nationally with 4.6 sacks per game.
“Just off of what I saw, I would say there’s probably about three of them where the pocket was pushed and then we couldn’t get open,” Pittman said. “We would have had time to throw it. And then there was about three of them where we whiffed a guy. We got beat on the edge. Totally beat on the edge.”
One of those whiffs came on arguably the biggest play of the game.
After stuffing Ole Miss at the goal line, Arkansas took over at the 1-yard line. On third down, linebacker TJ Dottery came around the edge and right tackle E’Marion Harris didn’t touch him. He got a clean shot on Green and knocked the ball loose in the end zone. Princely Umanmielen eventually fell on it for the game’s first points, swinging momentum back to the Rebels.
The 13 tackles for loss were also pretty standard for Ole Miss, which is averaging nearly two more TFLs per game than any other FBS team.
Even the 253-pound Braylen Russell, who hadn’t lost yardage on a carry all season, was taken down behind the line of scrimmage.
Another Goal Line Stand
There’s no denying the fact that it was a rough day for Arkansas’ defense, but it did channel some more goal line magic on Ole Miss’ opening drive.
A week after limiting Mississippi State to 3 total points on three possessions that reached the 1-yard line, the Razorbacks did it again to the Rebels.
After an offensive pass interference wiped out a 13-yard touchdown, Ole Miss quickly got back in position to score. On third-and-goal at the 5, Jaxson Dart connected with tight end Dae’Quan Wright, but Jayden Johnson and Anton Juncaj stopped him at the 1.
Rather than take the easy 3 points by kicking a short field goal, Lane Kiffin — as he so often does — opted to try to punch it into the end zone by going for it on fourth down. It didn’t work, though, as Ulysses Bentley IV was stuffed for no gain.
The difference between this week and last week was that it didn’t matter. The ensuing possession by Arkansas is when Taylen Green got strip-sacked in the end zone and Ole Miss recovered to score a touchdown anyways.
Armstrong Hits Century Mark
For the sixth time in eight games since missing the opener against UAPB, Andrew Armstrong was the Razorbacks’ leading receiver. The super senior caught six passes for 135 yards.
It was his fourth 100-yard game of the season and the fifth of his career, which is significant because he’s just the 10th player in UA history with five such games.
The performance increased Armstrong’s season totals to 55 receptions and 857 yards, which rank third and second, respectively, in the SEC. Those marks also already rank 11th and 13th on the school’s single-season charts. He needs just one more catch and 41 yards to crack the top 10 of those lists.
Armstrong is also up to 111 receptions and 1,621 yards in his career. If the Razorbacks make a bowl game and he plays, he’d need to average 94.8 yards the rest of the way to become just the 10th member of the 2,000-yard club at Arkansas.
Another Big Day for Hasz
Considered a legitimate All-SEC candidate in the preseason, Luke Hasz hasn’t been quite as productive as expected – but he seems to be turning a corner.
The sophomore turned in his second straight solid game Saturday, catching 5 passes for 77 yards and a touchdown against Ole Miss. That followed a 4-reception, 59-yard, 2-touchdown performance at Mississippi State.
Hasz’s two-game totals of 9 receptions, 136 yards and 3 touchdowns are nearly equal or better than his first seven games of the season, over which he caught 10 passes for 131 yards and only one touchdown.
With four touchdowns this season, the Bixby, Okla., native is tied with South Carolina’s Joshua Simon and Vanderbilt’s Eli Stowers for the most among SEC tight ends.
Including his injury-shortened freshman year, Hasz now has seven career touchdown catches. Assuming he remains at Arkansas, he’ll have a good chance to track down Cheyenne O’Grady’s UA record for career scores by a tight end. He finished with 12, which is more than Jeremy Sprinkle (11), D.J. Williams (10) and Hunter Henry (9).
Lineup Changes for Arkansas Football
While junior Patrick Kutas remained at left guard, Arkansas did make three changes to its starting offense on Saturday.
Perhaps most notably, Rashod Dubinion got the nod at running back and played 51 snaps – by far the most on the team at that position. Braylen Russell, fresh off a 175-yard performance in his first career start, played just eight snaps. He didn’t appear to be fully healthy, which Sam Pittman confirmed before adding that he’s “going to be okay.” In his first action since the Texas A&M game, Rodney Hill played nine snaps.
At wide receiver, Isaac TeSlaa and Jordan Anthony made their second and first starts of the season, respectively. However, they subbed out on the second play of the game and usual starters Tyrone Broden and Luke Hasz still played the bulk of the snaps.
On defense, Jaheim Singletary returned to the starting lineup after being replaced by Hudson Clark for the Mississippi State game. He was replaced after just three plays, though, and Clark ended up playing more than twice as many snaps as Singletary (65 vs. 26).
It’s also worth noting that Anthony also replaced Isaiah Sategna as the kickoff returner. He didn’t get a chance to return a kick, though, as nine of Ole Miss’ 10 kickoffs were touchbacks and the 10th was fair caught by Dylan Hasz.
Arkansas Football Availability Report
By our count, the Razorbacks were without 11 scholarship players for the Arkansas vs Ole Miss game.
That number includes four players who are no longer on the team — long snapper Eli Stein, wide receiver Jaedon Wilson and tight ends Var’keyes Gumms and Ty Washington — as well as three freshmen who are known to be out with season ending injuries: defensive back Jaden Allen (knee), linebacker Justin Logan (shoulder) and offensive lineman Zuri Madison (ACL).
Of the remaining four, two of them — running back Ja’Quinden Jackson (ankle) and cornerback Jaylon Braxton (leg) — were known to be out because of the SEC’s official availability report.
The other two were reserve offensive lineman Luke Brown and transfer wide receiver Khafre Brown. Both Browns had previously been out, returned and went through pregame warmups in recent games, only to now be out once again.
Freshman defensive back Tevis Metcalf was listed as a game-time decision on the SEC availability report, but looked okay in pregame warmups and participated on special teams.
It’s also worth mentioning that running back Rodney Hill was available for the first time since the Texas A&M game. He had been dealing with an MCL injury, but dropped off the availability report earlier in the week.
It’s also notable kicker Vito Calvaruso dressed out for the first time this season. He did not attempt field goals during warmups, but did kick some practice kickoffs for the returners. That means freshman walk-on Charlie Von Der Meden was presumably still the backup placekicker to Matthew Shipley with Kyle Ramsey out with a groin injury.
Other Arkansas Football Tidbits
- The announced attendance for Arkansas vs Ole Miss was 72,894. That is the lowest of the season in Fayetteville, as the previous three each topped 75,000.
- It was a split decision on College GameDay, as Nick Saban, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit each picked the Razorbacks, while Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and guest picker Keegan Michael-Key went with the Rebels.
- The Razorbacks’ rotating team captains for Arkansas vs Ole Miss were wide receiver Jordan Anthony, offensive lineman Patrick Kutas, defensive end Quincy Rhodes Jr. and linebacker Alex Sanford. The honor probably meant a little extra for Kutas, considering how he was raised.
- With 492 yards against Ole Miss, Arkansas is now averaging 483.6 yards per game through nine games this season. That is just ahead of the UA all-time record of 482.5 set in 2010.
- While he did miss a 45-yarder later in the game, Matthew Shipley did boot a 55-yard field goal Saturday. That is tied for the eighth-longest successful kick in UA history and tied for the second-longest since kicking tees were outlawed in college football.
- The 2015 Arkansas baseball team, which reached the College World Series led by Golden Spikes Award winner Andrew Benintendi, was recognized during the two-minute timeout of the first half.
Read our latest here:
Arkansas vs Ole Miss Postgame Interviews
***
More coverage of Arkansas football and Arkansas vs Ole Miss from BoAS…
