Open dates give college football teams a golden opportunity for intense self-evaluation for at least half a week.
Because Arkansas didn’t find out about the postponement of Saturday’s scheduled game at Texas until late Wednesday night — due to the impending arrival of Hurricane Ike — the Razorbacks will now miss out on the self-reflection time.
Instead, the Hogs got an extra few days to prepare for their SEC opener against Alabama on Saturday. They will now take that first road trip to Texas on what would have been their open-date weekend of Sept. 27.
Through two games, Arkansas has remained unbeaten by the skin of its teeth, showing it can excel — even dominate — in the fourth quarter.
The flip side is that against the softest part of its schedule, Arkansas failed to capitalize on early opportunities and found itself behind by 10 points against Western Illinois and 18 points vs. Louisiana-Monroe.
“We’re to the point where we know we’re going to be the team that stops ourselves,”
sophomore tight end D. J. Williams said. “We’ll take it as far as we take ourselves.”
Arkansas Coach B obby Petrino was asked Thursday if he saw improvement in any particular area during the Razorbacks’ third game-week of practices.
“That’s what we were hoping to find out Saturday,”
he said. “You always are thinking you’re improving and always work on it in practice, but sometimes with a young team, it doesn’t carry over to the game.“
“ That’s what we have to see, our effort carry over to our next game on a Saturday morning.”
Arkansas has not forced any takeaways on defense, but it has battened down the hatches during the Hogs’ fourth-quarter rallies in both games.
“Coach Petrino has prepared us well,”
junior defensive tackle Malcolm Sheppard said. “We play hard in the fourth quarter. I don’t take it as a negative thing that the games have been close.“
“ I think it shows we’re a team that’s going to play well in the fourth quarter, and that’s going to benefit us when we get into tough situations.”
The early trends for the Razorbacks go against the Petrino offensive doctrine of maintaining a healthy balance between the run and the pass.
Partly by necessity, Arkansas has had to keep the ball in the air, particularly in the second halves of both games. The Razorbacks entered the weekend leading the SEC with 320. 5 passing yards per game but ranking last with 129. 5 rushing yards per game. The passing attack ranks 13 th nationally, the rushing 76 th in the country.
The total offense figure of 450 yards per game is good for third in the conference and 33 rd nationally, but the solid ball movement hasn’t translated in like manner to the scoreboard. The Razorbacks’ 28 points per game rank eighth in the league, 59 th in the country.
“When we get in the red zone, [we have ] to smell it, to have the urgency to get the ball in the goal,”
offensive tackle Jose Valdez said.
“Deep down inside, we know we have to play better and execute better,”
guard DeMarcus Love said. “Any time you get a win, it’s a good feeling and exciting, but we know we have to execute better to win down through the season.”
Almost all of Arkansas’ defensive statistics rank near the bottom of the SEC: 10 th in total defense and scoring defense, 11 th in rushing defense and pass efficiency defense. The Hogs are sixth in pass defense, in the upper half of the SEC, but still alarming since Western Illinois is almost exclusively groundbased.
Of course, the Razorbacks ’ turnover margin of minus-1. 5 per game, which ranks 99 th nationally, has not helped the other statistics.
Special teams ? Well, the breakdowns in the kicking game gave Louisiana-Monroe a serious shot at upsetting the Razorbacks eight days ago.
“I think we have improved [in special teams ],”
Petrino said Thursday. “We’ve got some new guys with experience coming back. I hope that will help us.“
“ We have been kicking the ball better, but you know, there is only one way to go on that one.”
