The number of votes Taylen Green will get for All-SEC quarterback at season’s end will almost certainly be zero. Assuming sane people vote. The Arkansas football season hinges on him, anyway. And after a surprise upset over Tennessee in Week 6 – a win so shocking that a team that has won bowls two of the last three years had its fans rush the field – those who prefer the Razorbacks are back to getting excited.
Green almost certainly needs to be even better against LSU on Saturday when the Bayou Bengals visit. LSU isn’t as highly ranked as Tennessee was when the Volunteers entered Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, but inferior teams don’t often get back-to-back wins over superior opponents. The question is whether Green can make the Hogs truly a team on the cusp of a Top-25 ranking.
What’s Changed For Taylen Green?
Offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino spent parts of his and Green’s first season, separately and together, in Arkansas paraphernalia altering Green’s throwing motion. Petrino wanted Green to throw the football more over the top than with the short-arm, three-quarters motion he carried at Boise State. According to HawgSports.com’s Trey Biddy, Green has reverted back to his old motion more often in recent games. Not something I immediately noticed in re-watching clips, but Biddy has been around long enough to trust.
“As the season has progressed, the elbow has gotten lower and lower, it seems. Maybe it’s for the best at this point?” Biddy wrote in his analysis.
“Maybe” is doing a lot of work there. Against Texas A&M, a 23-for-41 performance for 279 yards with a touchdown and an interception had fans calling for his benching. If the arm moved up from one week to the next, a case could be made. More likely, it’s simple numbers. Green went 19 for 27 against Tennessee for 266 yards. No touchdowns and no picks. An increased efficiency on the outcome is far easier to read than an arm slot. Only 13 fewer yards in 14 fewer passes makes a difference.
Running Remains Key For Arkansas
Such efficiency resulted in Arkansas being able to run the football more. Tennessee stuffed Arkansas for fewer yards per carry than A&M did, but because of better field position gained because of the increase in efficiency, Green wasn’t forced to throw as much in tight quarters (the red zone). The Razorbacks could go back to ground-and-pound from in tight to the tune of two rushing touchdowns.
The good news for Arkansas is that LSU is worse than Tennessee in both stopping the run and the pass. In fact, the Tigers are really bad at stopping teams through the air. LSU is giving up 244 yards a game against the pass, ranking 101st in FBS. Its closest Arkansas familiar? Oklahoma State, which gave up 416 against the Razorbacks. Arkansas lost that game more because of second-half turnovers and an ill-fated fourth-down attempt. By the yardage and efficiency numbers, the Hogs dominated.
Green’s ability to move outside the pocket both while scrambling and on calls specifically for him to run the ball has been a boon most of the year, especially early. In LSU’s two closest games since its season opener – a three-point win over Ole Miss and a three-point win over South Carolina – Jaxson Dart’s scrambling ability and LaNorris Sellers’ rushing ability, both from the quarterback spot, kept both the Rebels and Gamecocks within shouting distance until the final triple zeroes. Green has proven himself a better runner than both, not just this season, but his body of work at Boise State shows as much, too.
Taylen Green Needs To Be Functional
It’s less likely that Taylen Green improved by reversion (he was a poor passer with the Broncos with his usual arm slot, the one Petrino attempted or is attempting to change) than Arkansas is winning with Petrino getting his Xs and Os back to his usual high-quality standard. Tennessee was kept off-balance just enough, even with the Hogs mostly mediocre on the ground between the 20s, to result in an upset. If Petrino calls such a game again, LSU better watch out. The Tigers are not as good as Tennessee.
If Malachi Singleton is forced into duty for a longer stretch, everything changes. Green’s status is unclear right now for the Tigers. The variables are simply too many to ensure anything one way or the other. Singleton has impressed in limited playing time, but he’s also just a redshirt freshman. Asking him to step in for four quarters against a Top-15 team is a big ask. Not that he can’t. It’s just the sort of thing you shouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole if you’re laying a bet.
But as far as Arkansas being back or Green taking a massive step forward, pump the breaks. Arkansas doesn’t need him to be an All-SEC quarterback this year. What Arkansas needs is to slow the likely All-SEC quarterbacks. Carson Beck isn’t on the agenda at Georgia, but Dart and Texas’ Quinn Ewers are, and so is LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier. And Arkansas’ defense doesn’t hardly have to worry about Nussmeier’s running ability.
Truthfully, the Razorbacks just need one more modest upset and to pick up wins in favored games and enough good will return to allow another year of development, both for Green and the Arkansas program. Petrino can make it happen. And in the big picture, that’s far more important.
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What do you think? Does Green’s arm slot look lower below than it did against OSU or UAPB?
J.D. Pickell at On3 is picking the Tigers.
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