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Williams leads Hogs to seventh win, rolling past Bulldogs

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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STARKVILLE, Miss. — Sophomore running back Rawleigh Williams had a career performance Saturday night in Davis-Wade Stadium, rushing for 205 yards and four touchdowns and passing for a touchdown to lead Arkansas to a 58-42 win over Mississippi State for its seventh win of the year.

Williams’ performance will go down as one of the best under current head coach Bret Bielema as he is the first Razorback player to rush for three or more touchdowns and pass for one touchdown since Darren McFadden against LSU in 2007.

Williams’ yards on the ground and rushing touchdowns were easily new career-highs, while his passing touchdown in the third quarter to Austin Cantrell was his first of his career.

Overall, the Hogs were able to endure some success by Bulldogs’ quarterback Nick Fitzgerald, who ran for four scores of his own and passed for two, but with each Mississippi State touchdown, Arkansas responded.

Nine of the Razorbacks’ 11 possessions resulted in either a touchdown or a field goal with Williams responsible for five of those scores. Arkansas didn’t have to punt, either, for the second time this season.

As a team, Arkansas put up 661 yards of offense, the fourth highest in a game in school history and highest ever in an SEC game.

Quarterback Austin Allen was strong through the air, completing 18-of-25 passing for 303 yards and two touchdowns. Wide receivers Drew Morgan and Keon Hatcher combined for 10 catches for 156 yards and two touchdowns from Hatcher, but it was the run game that had the Hogs rolling all night.

How It Went Down

The Hogs set the tone early with the ground game, grinding out 134 yards in the first quarter, 122 coming from Williams on four carries. The Dallas native broke through on the Hogs’ second play from scrimmage to open the game, going for 72 yards for the touchdown. It was his longest run of his career and second longest run for Arkansas this season.

Arkansas and Mississippi State traded scores throughout the entire first frame as Williams had both of Arkansas’ scores and Fitzgerald had both for Mississippi State. Williams’ second touchdown of the game was another long run as he capped another two-play, 70+ yard drive with a 42-yard run.

The second quarter was where the Hogs took control.

Three times Arkansas found the end zone, twice on the back of Williams as the Razorbacks busted open a 38-14 lead at the break. In just the first half, Williams had already rushed for 122 yards and four touchdowns, giving him his sixth 100-yard game this season, seventh of his career.

Mississippi State tried mounting a second-half comeback, scoring four times in the final 30 minutes, but with each Bulldog score, Arkansas had a score of its own.

The Razorbacks utilized some trickery for their only score of the third quarter. In what was its longest drive of the game, the Hogs ended a 12-play, 79 drive with a touchdown throw from Williams. In what looked like a run play, Williams took the handoff from Allen and stepped back from the line of scrimmage before finding an uncovered Cantrell in the end zone.

It was the first time an Arkansas running back passed for a touchdown since Jonathan Williams achieved the feat against  Rutgers in 2013.

Hatcher and freshman running back Devwah Whaley provided the final Razorback touchdowns in the game. Hatcher caught his second touchdown of the game early in the fourth quarter to keep the Hogs in front by three scores. It was Hatcher’s second game this season with two touchdowns and fourth of 60 yards or more.

For Whaley, he now has two touchdowns this season and finished with 112 yards against the Bulldogs, his second highest total and second 100-yard game this year.

Up Next
Arkansas finishes off the regular season next week when it travels to Columbia, Missouri to take on the Missouri Tigers. Kickoff is slated for 1:30 p.m. and will be televised by CBS.

Razorbacks come back from 17-point deficit to down Mavs

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Arkansas moved to 3-0 for the fourth time in the last five years after erasing a 17-point first-half deficit to beat Texas-Arlington, 71-67, Friday night inside Bud Walton Arena.

The win is the first after trailing by more than 10 points at the half since beating Georgia 72-68 on the road on Feb. 3, 2010.

The Razorbacks improved to 49-2 against non-conference opponents inside Bud Walton Arena under Anderson.

UT-Arlington used an 11-0 run to start the game to get ahead of Arkansas early. Down 17 with 12:37 left in the opening half, Arkansas went on a 15-3 run of its own, including 10 free throws, to bring the game within four.

The Mavs sank a trio of three pointers late in the half to extend their lead and eventually take an 11-point lead to the locker room.

The Razorbacks responded fast in the second half, using a 20-2 run to take a 52-45 lead. Junior guard Jaylen Barford used a steal and one-handed slam to bring Bud Walton alive and give Arkansas its first lead of the contest.

Barford finished 6-of-12 from the field, scoring a career-high 17 points to go with six boards and two assists.

Despite shooting 2-of-10 from the field, Dusty Hannahs scored 11 points to extend his streak of double figure scoring games to 11 dating back to last season.

Junior guard Anton Beard was big off the bench, scoring all 12 of his points in the second half, including a late jumper with the shot clock winding down to extend the Arkansas lead to five with less than a minute to go

Through three games this season, Beard has recorded 11 assists against only one turnover.

Arkansas finished 24-of-32 from the free throw line and forced UT Arlington into a season-high 18 turnovers.

QUOTABLES
“This was a good test for our basketball team and I thought they responded well because they did it with their defense. In the end, we made free throws and we had guys make plays down the stretch.” — Mike Anderson

“I think the steals helped out a lot because it picked up our whole energy. We fed off of defense and emphasized it the whole time. Every timeout and dead ball, we were talking about defense.” — junior guard Jaylen Barford

UP NEXT
Arkansas will go on the road for the first time this season, as the Razorbacks will face the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 7 p.m. inside Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

Recruiting for system seldom works as well as being flexible

Andy Hodges
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With Arkansas’ four losses this season coming to four SEC West opponents, a lot of the fans are asking why.

Some don’t want to hear the answer. Those are the ones that want the media to provide affirmation, not information.

The honest truth is Bret Bielema either has to figure out how to get more players that are better or change his system to match the type players he can get.

Not to knock Bielema, but it’s going to be easier to do the latter than the former.

In today’s college football world it doesn’t take five years to rebuild a program. By year four — at the latest — you have a pretty good idea of what you’ve got with a coach and his program.

Right now, Arkansas has a program that is mired in the lower half of the SEC West. It’s pretty much where the Razorbacks have been for most of the last decade.

When Bobby Petrino took over from Houston Nutt, the excuse from fans was he inherited a mess. Two years later, they were battling for BCS bowl bids, getting to the Sugar Bowl in 2010.

Petrino’s record over his first two years was 13-12 while Bielema was 10-15. Okay, close enough to not cause panic. After the third year, Petrino was 23-15 while Bielema comes in at 18-20.

Now we’re in Bielema’s fourth year and he sits at 6-4 with a 24-24 overall record. Petrino, with two games left in his four season was 32-16.

Some will say the mess Bielema inherited was worse than Petrino. You can argue that one until the cows come home. The same things were said when Petrino came in after Nutt.

Bielema rode into town after guiding Wisconsin to three straight Rose Bowl bids. When you really look at it, that’s not quite what it seems, although the Badgers did get there.

In the last season, Wisconsin was third in their division with a .500 record. The year before was their best year, getting to Pasadena after tying Penn State in their division before falling to Oregon in a 45-38 track meet. It was his best team.

The year before, the Badgers beat Ohio State, finished in a three-way tie at the top of the Big 10 with the Buckeyes and Michigan State, went to TCU and lost to the Horned Frogs.

What does that mean? Well, Bielema’s system was slowing down before he left the Big 10, which is not the SEC. His best team at Wisconsin would have been no better than 9-3 in the SEC West and that would require some fortunate bounces.

At Wisconsin, Bielema was able to recruit the type players that fit his system. Big, burly, strong linemen and good running backs are more plentiful in that area of the country. He did get some good players out of Florida that fit his system.

Now his recruiting has been better than Petrino, but the results not as good.

Which means the system isn’t as effective.

Petrino had an offense that almost blew up scoreboards. He recruited receivers and skill position players, then put them into a system where they could be successful. In Arkansas and Texas, the overwhelming majority of high schools run some version of the Spread offense.

Not many run a ground-and-pound pro-style attack. Even pro-style offenses are going more to a spread look with a mobile quarterback. Look at Petrino’s current Louisville team or, closer to home, what Nick Saban has done at Alabama with a freshman quarterback.

In a conversation two weeks ago after his radio show in Tuscaloosa, Saban said he looked at what offenses gave his defense the most trouble, then, well, adapted his style to match what works.

As a result, he was able to sign Jalen Hurts, who has started all but the season opener for the Crimson Tide and they are rolling along offensively with a look unlike anything Saban has ever had. They even have some tempo and RPO (run-pass option) discussed at his press conferences.

No one would have dreamed it possible a couple of years ago.

Even Petrino, who never had a mobile quarterback, adapted his high-flying offense to what Lamar Jackson could do best. All that’s done is vault the Cardinals into the College Football Playoff discussion.

Bielema and the Hogs should win their last two games against Mississippi State and Missouri. That will put Bielema at 26-24 with a bowl game left.

More importantly, winning these last two will give Bielema an 11-21 mark in SEC games. After year four, Petrino was 17-15 and, in case you happened to be wondering, Houston Nutt was also 17-15 after year four.

That IS some cause for concern.

Regardless of what happens the rest of the way, Bielema is at a crossroads with a couple of clear choices:

• Get better players for his system. Exactly how is not really clear. What he’s been doing isn’t working, though.

• Get a system for the players he can get. His overall recruiting is rated higher than what Petrino or Nutt did.

Neither option is pleasant for Bielema. He’s repeatedly said he believes in his system, which worked before.

Maybe he’s realized that the SEC West is not the Big 10. You can’t get a bunch of 3-star players and coach enough of them up to win in the world Bielema is now in.

Of course that’s assuming that competing for championships is the no-excuses expectation.

Which SHOULD be the expectation.

Again, with no excuses.

LSU game doesn’t provide good grades across board for Hogs

Andy Hodges
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As grades go, Arkansas’ 38-10 loss to LSU wasn’t as bad statistically as the Auburn game, but it comes close.

The biggest difference was the Tigers’ running backs were better. They hit some big runs that really made the Razorbacks defense look really, really bad at times.

OVERALL: D

OFFENSIVE LINE: F
Arkansas ran for just 81 net yards. With a goal of 200 yards per game that Brett Bielema has stated repeatedly, they couldn’t get halfway there. They were playing against one of the best defensive lines in college football, but this isn’t about effort … it’s results that matter and averaging 3.1 yards per rush isn’t going to win many games.

DEFENSIVE LINE: D
The flip side of the offensive line applies here. LSU averaged 7.6 yards per rush attempt. That will get you beat almost every time. It also allowed the Tigers to dominate the time of possession, a stat that almost always has to be in the Hogs’ favor every game, especially in the fourth quarter. LSU held the ball in that final period 10:51 to 4:09. Ouch.

RUNNING BACKS: D
To be fair, they didn’t have a lot of holes to run through, but there were some times when they simply didn’t hit a hole that was there. Rawleigh Williams III did make a correction on one lane read and broke a second attempt for a big gain, but they weren’t able to break enough big plays to take the pressure off the passing game.

WIDE RECEIVERS: C
Not a lot of glaring issues either way. Tight end Jeremy Sprinkle led the receivers with four catches and he was forced to stay involved in protection more than anyone wanted. Drew Morgan only had one catch, which is never good. In fairness, the Tigers are No. 14 in the country against the pass.

LINEBACKERS: F
Before anyone starts hollering, this is not a reflection of the effort. No group tries harder, but is less equipped athletically to stop the better teams in the SEC. When good running breaks break through a hole, the Hogs’ linebackers simply don’t have the ability to get them on the ground quickly.

SECONDARY: F
LSU quarterback Danny Etling didn’t make a lot of big plays, but he has the running game that doesn’t ask him to do that. He was 10-of-16 with a long gain of 48 yards. In run support, the secondary over-ran some plays and simply didn’t have the speed to catch Leonard Fournette or Derrius Guice once they were in the open.

KICKERS: A
Another steady performance. Toby Baker was the biggest weapon, averagin 43.1 yards per punt on seven kicks with three inside the 20-yard line. Adam McFain made his only field goal and two of his three kickoffs were touchbacks.

RETURNS: C
Deon Stewart had 117 yards on seven kickoff returns, but there was nothing spectacular or anything disastrous.

QUARTERBACK: D
Austin Allen struggled. He was 15-of-31 with one touchdown, but two interceptions, including one on first down which will send coaches’ blood pressures through the roof. As the season has progressed, Allen’s performances have declined. Whether it’s due to self-imposed pressure or what, that’s the way it’s trending.

COACHING: D
Bielema has said the team had a great week of preparation, so the performance is mystifying. The only conclusion that can be drawn is simply the planning was not accurate or the talent level simply wasn’t there. In either case, it comes back to the coaches. At times it appears the Jimmy’s and Joe’s can’t match the X’s and O’s drawn up in the game plan.

Salukis coach calls out Razorback fans not at game

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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After watching his Southern Illinois team give up 13 3-pointers to Arkansas in the Razorbacks’ 90-65 win, Salukis coach Barry Hinson had a few things to say.

Video from WholeHogSports.com

Macon, Jones talking about Hogs’ win over Salukis

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Video from WholeHogSports.com

Five players soar to double figures in ULM victory

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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FAYETTEVILLE — Five Razorbacks scored in double figures as Arkansas blew past Louisiana-Monroe, 92-46, on Sunday afternoon in Bud Walton Arena.

The trio of Jessica Jackson, Alecia Cooley and Keiryn Swenson led all scored with 13 points each.

It was a career high for Swenson, who came off the bench and scored in double figures for the first time in her career. Also off the bench, Briunna Freeman added 12 points and Jordan Danberry had 10 points.

Defensively, Arkansas held ULM to just 22.1 percent shooting, including 10.5 percent from 3-point range, and also forced 17 turnovers, which led to 27 points off turnovers.

“I thought it was the best 40 minutes that we have played so far.” said coach Jimmy Dykes. “I know it’s only our second game, but I thought from the opening tip to the final buzzer that it was the most complete game that we have played. I really liked our energy defensively and I really liked like how active everyone was on the floor.”

Arkansas continues its four-game home stand with home games against defending WNIT Champion South Dakota on Thursday and Stetson on Monday, Nov. 21.

Guice, Fournette run over and through Razorbacks in 38-10 route

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Derrius Guice rushed for a career-high 252 yards and Leonard Fournette added three touchdowns and No. 24 LSU improved to 4-1 under interim coach Ed Orgeron with a 38-10 win over No. 25 Arkansas on Saturday night.

The win ends a two-game losing streak against the Razorbacks for the Tigers (6-3, 4-2 SEC), who were coming off a 10-0 loss to No. 1 Alabama.

Guice rushed for two touchdowns on 21 carries, and his 96-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter was the longest in school history. Fournette scored on runs of 7, 7 and 3 yards for LSU, finishing with 98 yards rushing on 17 carries.

“Arkansas sees us as an easy victory every time we lose to Alabama because we always play them right after,” Guice said. “They felt like it was tradition to just beat us every time we play Alabama and lose, so I’m just happy we got to bring the Boot back home.”

The Tigers outgained Arkansas (6-4, 2-4) 547-291 in total yardage, and LSU quarterback Danny Etling finished 10-of-16 passing for 157 yards.

Rawleigh Williams accounted for 103 total yards to lead the Razorbacks, while Austin Allen was 15-of-31 passing for 210 yards and two interceptions.

“Offensively, it just seemed like whenever we did something good we shot ourselves in the foot or did something uncharacteristic,” Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said. “That obviously set us back.”

Guice’s previous career high was a 163-yard performance against Missouri on Oct. 1. The sophomore has now topped the 100-yard rushing mark in four games this season, and his career night comes a week after a two-carry, 8-yard performance against Alabama.

“We felt that Derrius deserved more touches,” Orgeron said. “Obviously, Derrius is a very good running back and we wanted to share the carries.”

THE TAKEAWAY

So much for the Alabama hangover for LSU, which had lost in two straight years to Arkansas. Both of those games came after physical matchups with the top-ranked Crimson Tide, but the Tigers were clearly the dominant team from their first possession — when they went 75 yards on nine plays for an opening touchdown.

POLL IMPLICATIONS

Despite last week’s loss to Alabama, the Tigers remained in this week’s rankings and they’re likely to rise significantly after such a dominating win on Saturday. The Razorbacks, meanwhile, lost any good will they had with voters following last week’s 31-10 win over Florida and likely have to win out to return to the rankings this season.

UP NEXT

LSU returns home to host Florida in the makeup of the hurricane-postponed game from last month.

The Razorbacks are on the road for their final two regular-season games, starting next week at Mississippi State.

Bielema, coaches will find different schemes won’t really help

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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In the post-mortem following LSU’s boot-kicking 38-10 win Saturday night, Brett Bielema stomped all around one particular issue.

Without specifically mentioning it, he made it pretty clear Arkansas is short on talent when it comes to stopping the best teams in the SEC West.

“I thought we prepared very, very well,” he said later. “Probably been some of our best preparation from Sunday to Saturday.”

To decipher that bit of coach-speak, the Razorbacks simply didn’t have the talent to implement the planning. For coaches, that is the biggest head-scratcher they ever have to face.

It didn’t help the Tigers changed head coaches. For the past two years, LSU lost to Alabama, then proceeded to lose a few more in the hangover following that loss.

Les Miles was a lot of things good as a head coach. But he also tended to suffer the same emotional letdowns his players did.

Miles probably wasn’t fired because Alabama beat them every year. He was fired because that loss caused two or three losses.

Ed Orgeron wasn’t going to suffer the same fate.

“They were very motivated and played very well today,” Bielema said. “However they came about that I’ll leave that to them to comment.”

“We had heard all the stuff,” LSU coach Ed Orgeron said after the game. “This is a new team, a new mindset. We do things different, we act different and you saw that tonight.”

As it usually does, talent proves itself in the final result.

Over the last four recruiting classes, Arkansas has placed sixth in the SEC West, according to the 247Sports.com composite rankings. Ignore the national rankings. It only matters how well you recruit within your own conference division.

LSU has finished second.

The four teams Arkansas has lost to this year were higher. Ole Miss was fourth over that time frame and Arkansas won that game.

Next year might be different.

Rebels coach Hugh Freeze feels he’s now lost to Arkansas three straight years when his team had the better players and he wasn’t able to get them focused for any of those games.

The flip side to that is the Hogs have lost four years in a row to Mississippi State, this week’s opponent that more or less showed up and went through the motions against an Alabama team that may be among the best ever in college football.

All week long in Starkville, you got the impression Dan Mullen wasn’t going to let a loss to the Crimson Tide cost them the game against Arkansas. For whatever reason, Mullen and his staff have had a good read on Bielema the last three years.

What Bielema may be coming to the realization is that what he wants to accomplish at Arkansas isn’t possible without him making some adjustments in his thinking.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

Nick Saban said two weeks ago that his philosophy has changed dramatically over the last four years. The evidence is a mobile quarterback that can make plays with his feet in addition to his arm.

The Crimson Tide are doing it this year without a superstar running back, a freshman quarterback that only makes plays and a defense that is built on speed.

Speed is becoming a necessity now to win in college football. Many of the players that made up his 2009 national championship team would not even be recruited by the Tide now.

Speed is the first ranking, size is second.

The lack of it is costing the Hogs.

“We definitely have to look at what we’re doing,” Bielema said.

With all of the NCAA restrictions on time coaches can keep players at practice, a lot of the work on fundamentals gets left out. To make up for that, coaches like Saban and Urban Meyer in particular have discovered that speed makes up for a lot of mistakes.

Never was that more evident for Arkansas than Saturday night when LSU running back Derrius Guice broke free on a 94-yard scoring run. Arkansas defensive back Santos Ramirez gave chase but the only thing he accomplished was watching Guice’s No. 5 get smaller as he ran away.

Bielema may not say it, but that should never happen.

At the worst, the defensive back should be able to get close enough to dive at his feet. Ramirez, who never gave up, simply couldn’t get close enough to do that.

In the areas Bielema can consistently get players from — Arkansas and Texas — the best available players are fast, but not big. They have played in a spread-type offense and the best quarterbacks are mobile quarterbacks.

It might be the direction Bielema may have to start considering.

Stepping back and looking at the big picture, he was just beaten by the guy who replaced the most recent SEC coach that refused to change from a straight-ahead approach.

Miles averaged 10 wins a year for 11 years. He was fired because of a lack of improvement (oh, you can argue particular specifics, but that’s the bottom line). The trendline was not good.

Bielema’s trend line is dropping this year. In the SEC, his win totals are 0-2-5 in his first three years. The best he can do this year are 4 wins.

In today’s world of college football, you know what you have in 3-4 years with a coach and his system. What you have at the end of year four is pretty much what you’ve got going forward unless there is a radical change in something.

Fort Wayne coach Jon Coffman wanted a challenge for team

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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Video from WholeHogSports.com

Bielema talks about win over Florida, upcoming game against Tigers

ESPN Arkansas News Services
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