FAYETTEVILLE — No statistic has been a better indicator of Arkansas’ success this season than turnovers.
The old cliche of taking care of the football being the most important thing in football was proven true once again Saturday, as the Razorbacks were minus-2 in that category and lost to No. 3 Texas 20-10 at Razorback Stadium.
Arkansas is now 0-5 when losing the turnover battle, compared to a perfect 5-0 when winning it or finishing even. In the five losses, it is a combined minus-10. It is plus-7 in the five wins.
“We have to hang on to the football, and if we do we’ve got a pretty good team,” Pittman said. “I think we showed it out here today. But that’s kind of been the story of all our losses and all our wins — depending on what we do with turnovers.”
Half of that problem is the fact that Arkansas has had a hard time forcing turnovers. It has 12 through 10 games (8 INT / 4 FR), but all but two of them came in wins over Auburn and Mississippi State.
The Razorbacks had a couple of chances to create a turnover Saturday, but came up empty for the fifth time in six games. Defenders got their hands on at least three passes and Hudson Clark stripped a running back, only for the ball to go out of bounds before Arkansas could fall on it.
“We’re not getting them and we’ve got to get them,” Pittman said. “We’ve got to knock the ball out. Hud did a nice job of stripping the ball carrier on the long run down their sideline. But it’s frustrating. We work on it every day besides Thursday.”
On the flip side, Taylen Green threw his eighth interception of the season. However, it was more on Tyrone Broden, who let the pass to him down the seam go through his hands and into the arms of the defensive back.
“Obviously we had the one pick, but that wasn’t his fault,” Pittman said. “That was a dart on the line. I mean, that was a great throw.”
The second turnover proved to be the final nail in the coffin, as freshman CJ Brown lost a fumble after making his first career reception — but that was probably more on the coaches than the Bentonville native.
Too Pass Happy?
Despite facing the No. 1 pass defense in the country, Arkansas came out of the games leaning on Taylen Green’s arm against Texas.
The result was an ugly first-half shutout in which the Razorbacks went 3-and-out on half of their six drives and mustered just four first downs on 74 total yards. When factoring in four sacks and one scramble, they called 16 pass plays to only 10 runs.
It was an odd split because Arkansas managed 50 yards – or 5 yards per carry – on those true run plays.
Sam Pittman said the coaches got together at halftime and came up with a plan that involved more running.
“I think we mixed it up a little bit better,” Pittman said. “We would run two or three times in a row which I don’t think that we did that early in the beginning.”
In the second half, Arkansas dialed up 16 passes to 17 runs. The result? More sustained drives and 10 points. The Razorbacks gained 79 yards on the ground for an average of 4.6 yards per carry.
Another key was getting Taylen Green more involved with his legs after halftime. Pittman said there were no restrictions on him running, unlike the LSU game. He officially finished with minus-4 yards on 16 carries, but had 44 yards on 10 carries when factoring out sacks.
Sacks Galore
Speaking of sacks, Texas came into the game ranked sixth in the SEC in sack percentage at just 6.8% – or roughly half of that of LSU (12.2%) and Ole Miss (11.9%).
You wouldn’t have known it from watching Saturday’s game. The Longhorns lived in Arkansas’ backfield, matching a season high with six sacks on 32 dropbacks by the Razorbacks. That’s a sack percentage of 18.8%, which is nearly triple their rate over the first nine games.
Four of the sacks came in the first half before Arkansas cleaned things up a bit and allowed only two after halftime.
“Some of them were to do with the O-line,” Pittman said. “Some of them were to do with we were holding the ball. Some of them…we broke in where we (should have) broke out on a couple of routes. So we weren’t really locked in, as it looked, in the first half.”
The sacks on Saturday were particularly tough on the Razorbacks because they resulted in a loss of 48 yards, or 8 yards per sack, and four of them happened on first down, putting them well behind the sticks.
“Where we get in trouble is when we take a sack on first down,” Pittman said. “That’s got to be zero or positive yards, it can’t be minus eight because those are hard holes to dig out of.”
Through 10 games, Arkansas has allowed 31 total sacks. Its 3.1 sacks allowed per game are tied for 118th out of 134 FBS teams. As bad as that is, it’s still an improvement from last year, when it ranked 129th with 3.9 sacks allowed per game.
Nearly three-quarters of this year’s sacks (23) have come in the Razorbacks’ five losses, compared to only eight in their five wins.
Secondary Overhaul
One major bright spot for the Razorbacks was their defense. In their first game since giving up 63 points on 694 yards to Ole Miss, they held the Longhorns to only 20 points on 315 yards.
A key to that was a much improved pass defense. Despite being the kind of veteran quarterback who has given Arkansas fits this year, Texas’ Quinn Ewers completed 20 of 32 passes for only 176 yards and two touchdowns.
That came against a reshuffled secondary that featured four different starters compared to the game against the Rebels.
“I thought it worked,” Pittman said. “We got beat on a double-move early down here in this (north) end zone. Other than that, I just didn’t feel like we cut people loose.”
Like they did against Tennessee, the Razorbacks primarily used their dime defense with six defensive backs and only three down linemen.
Larry Worth III and Miguel Mitchell entered the starting lineup at safety alongside Jayden Johnson, with T.J. Metcalf being the odd-man out, while Kee’yon Stewart and Hudson Clark replaced Marquise Robinson and Jaheim Singletary at cornerback.
The most surprising aspect of those changes was Stewart, who hadn’t played on defense since the Texas A&M game, when the Houston native had a critical missed tackle that led to a touchdown.
“What we were doing wasn’t working,” Pittman said. “So I just went in and said, ‘We’re starting him and let’s figure out if he’s the best we have.’ … Let’s give him the confidence that we have in him to go be the starter and see what happens.”
The only starter who remained in his same spot was Doneiko Slaughter at nickel.
According to Pro Football Focus, Worth played all 73 snaps, Slaughter played all but one and Mitchell played 61, with Johnson and Metcalf essentially splitting reps as the third safety.
At corner, Stewart was on the field for all but one snap and Clark played 63 snaps. The remaining 11 cornerback reps went to Robinson. Singleton did not play.
The shuffling in the secondary resulting in a better performance against a veteran quarterback provides at least some optimism for the final two games of the year, especially the finale at Missouri.
It also helps that Brady Cook hasn’t been as effective for the Tigers as he’s battled through a hand injury. Over the last three games, he has just a 121.6 passer rating — down from 137.8 over the first six games.
Armstrong Update
Since missing the opener against UAPB with an injury, Andrew Armstrong has been Arkansas’ leading receiver in seven of nine games. That includes against Texas, when he grabbed six passes for 74 yards.
He is now ranked seventh and tied for seventh on the UA’s single-season yards and receptions lists, respectively, with 61 catches for 931 yards. Both of those marks are currently second in the SEC, as well.
“He’s by far our biggest weapon,” Pittman said. “He’s proven that throughout the entire year. … I think we’ve got to get him the ball a few more times a game.”
With two regular-season games and a potential bowl remaining, Armstrong is just 69 yards shy of becoming the fifth 1,000-yard receiver in school history. He also needs only six receptions and 187 yards to move into second place on both lists. Cobi Hamilton’s single-season records of 90 catches and 1,335 yards are likely out of reach.
On the UA career lists, Armstrong now ranks 17th in both receptions (117) and yards (1,695). With his performance against Texas, he moved past Hunter Henry (116) in all-time catches and Mike Reppond (1,625), J.J. Meadors (1,651) and Henry (1,661) in all-time yards.
Not All Longhorns are Bad
Many Arkansas football fans have been raised to hate all things Texas Longhorns, but a moment after Saturday’s game showed they aren’t all bad:
Even though it came from an opponent after a tough loss for the Razorbacks, those kids will probably never forget their first football game.
Safety Michael Taaffe is probably familiar with the Brandon Burlsworth story because he’s a former walk-on himself and was the Longhorns’ nominee for the Burlsworth Trophy last season.
He has been even better in 2024, starting all 10 games and racking up 49 tackles. His 88.4 Pro Football Focus grade ranks third among all FBS safeties with at least 250 snaps.
Availability Report for Arkansas vs Texas
By our count, the Razorbacks had only 73 scholarship players available for the Arkansas vs Texas 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 two freshmen who are known to be out with season ending injuries: defensive back Jaden Allen (knee) and offensive lineman Zuri Madison (ACL).
Of the remaining six, cornerbacks Jaylon Braxton (leg) and Selman Bridges (illness), as well as defensive end Anton Juncaj (knee) and linebacker Anthony Switzer (undisclosed) 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.
Walk-on kicker Kyle Ramsey (groin) was also included on the SEC’s availability report as being out; Two other walk-ons – running back Emmanuel Crawford and offensive lineman Tim Dawn – did not dress out.
One thing worth noting is that freshman linebacker Justin Logan dressed out and went through pregame warmups. He was previously believed to be out for the year with a shoulder injury.
Up Next for Arkansas Football
The Razorbacks will play their final home game of 2024 next weekend when they welcome Louisiana Tech to Razorback Stadium.
It will be the fifth all-time meeting between the two schools. Arkansas is 4-0 in the previous meetings, but the last two were decided by a combined five points: 21-20 in 2016 and 17-13 in 1997.
With a 12-7 upset win over Western Kentucky on Saturday, the Bulldogs improved to 4-6 overall and 3-4 in CUSA play. They check in at No. 116 in the ESPN Football Power Index, which has Arkansas at No. 32.
Kickoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT and the game will be available via streaming only, on both SEC Network-Plus and ESPN-Plus. (SECN+ is available to all people with a cable package that includes the main SEC Network channel, while ESPN+ is ESPN’s subscription service.)
Other Arkansas Football Tidbits
- The announced attendance for Arkansas vs Texas was 74,929, which is the 11th-largest crowd in Razorback Stadium. Four of those top-11 games have been this season, as the Razorbacks drew 75,000-plus fans against LSU, Tennessee and UAB.
- Arkansas’ rotating captains on Saturday included a trio of Texans — defensive back Hudson Clark (Dallas), quarterback Taylen Green (Lewisville) and defensive Landon Jackson (Texarkana) — and left tackle Fernando Carmona.
- Members of the 1964 national championship team were recognized following the first quarter. They are in town to celebrate the 60th anniversary of their legendary season. Among those in attendance were Ken Hatfield and Jerry Jones.
- Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek drove the tractor hauling Tusk VI into Razorback Stadium. Arkansas gymnast Joscelyn Roberson, who was a member of Team USA during the Summer Olympics, rode atop the trailer.
- WWE legend Hulk Hogan attended the game and even spoke to the crowd during a timeout in the first quarter. He was in town for his “Real American Beer” Tour, which has taken him across the country as he promotes the new brand.
Postgame Interviews
Arkansas vs Texas Highlights
***
More coverage of Arkansas football and Arkansas vs Texas from BoAS…
