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Five players soar to double figures in ULM victory
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
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
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
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How Jen Bielema surprised Bret when he got home from Florida win
One thing most people can agree on is that it is pretty good to be Bret Bielema. So good in fact, that he has his own TV show called “Being Bret Bielema”. It wouldn’t shock us to see what transpired last night after the Florida win included in the upcoming series.
Bielema tweeted today that he had quite the surprise waiting on him when he came home last night…
Awesome surprise from @jenbielema last night coming home after #WoooPig WIN!
Also #Thanks to designer Brian White pic.twitter.com/nXDb6s0uYO
— Bret Bielema (@BretBielema) November 6, 2016
Some people get a Razorback coffee mug from their wives. Our coach got a customized Razorback wrought iron fence.
Note to my bride for our next residence……
Bielema gets run defense — and offense — fixed for this game
Bret Bielema had two weeks to stew over the way Auburn ran roughshod over Arkansas two weeks ago.
“Coming out of that Auburn game, I didn’t care what we had to do, we were doing to stop the run,” he said Saturday after the Razorbacks held Florida to just 12 yards on the ground and came away with a 31-10 win.
The margin of victory probably wasn’t as surprising as how dominate Arkansas was over the No. 11 (or No. 10, depending on what poll you use) team in the country.
It helped that Rawleigh Williams ran for 148 yards and the Hogs as a team got 223 on the ground. That was against the No. 2 defense in the SEC.
“Our offense — especially the run game — did the things we asked them to do,” Bielema said later.
Maybe the thing that helped the most was the bye week that let some offensive linemen heal a little.
“I’ve had a lot of good offensive line coaches, and Kurt Anderson might be the best I’ve had,” he said of the first-year coach who had the fans chirping at him for two weeks. “We don’t have a lot of depth there.”
Arkansas faced an opponent that, well, really didn’t seem that interested in playing.
Gators coach Jim McElwain apologized afterwards to the fans for “having to sit through that.”
“I just feel horrible for the Gator Nation,” he said. “Just the way everything kind of played out.”
You got the impression from the outset that Florida just wasn’t that into the game. Nothing they did was very crisp or inspired.
“I thought they were prepared,” McElwain said when he was asked if he saw that coming.
He didn’t try to sugarcoat the Razorbacks’ domination on both sides of the line, either.
“Look, they just took it to us upfront,” he said. “I think the line of scrimmage on both sides was a definitive win for the Razorbacks.”
It’s the kind of game Bielema likes, running the ball, winning the game in the trenches.
Still, the final motivational message came from wide receiver Drew Morgan.
“Basically, I told them they are giving us the game,” he said later. “We are peeing down our own legs.”
Yes, the Hogs won this game by dominating the line on both sides of the ball. It’s not a qualifying statement to say Florida just didn’t seem that interested. It’s a fact.
That’s not something to be discounted.
Arkansas has caught some breaks with that in scheduling in recent years and have also had it work the other way, too.
Let’s face it, it would be better to play Alabama the week after they played LSU or somebody like that, although getting the Tigers the week after they play the Tide has worked to the Hogs’ advantage the last couple of seasons.
Now the schedule sets up where Arkansas could end up 9-3. As they say about the Presidential election, there is a clear path for them to do that.
LSU will come to Fayetteville next week after their annual bloodletting with Alabama. It’s a game that has left the Tigers in a mood of disinterest for the Razorbacks.
That plays into Bielema’s hands.
On paper right now, the Hogs should be favored in two of the three, although let’s not forget Mississippi State has found a way to beat Arkansas four years in a row now and seem to have the lucky rabbit’s foot in that game.
Forget Missouri. That one shouldn’t be close.
That’s the path to 9-3, which should never be the goal for the Hogs or the fans. Sorry, maybe I’m living too far in the past, but anything less than 10 wins should not be acceptable for the Arkansas program.
That’s not possible now, though. Getting to 9-3 is the best option possible.
And in the post-mortem following the Auburn debacle, nobody had that thought in their mind.
At least those being honest.
Five things to know as Hogs meet Florida on Saturday afternoon
Following a bye week after playing eight straight games to open the season, Arkansas returns to Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday for a 2:37 p.m. CT showdown against No. 10 Florida on CBS.
Kickoff: Saturday, Nov. 5 at 2:37 p.m. CT
Location: Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium (72,000)
TV: CBS
Game Notes: Complete PDF
#RazorFacts
• Arkansas will host SEC Nation, the SEC Network’s traveling college football pregame show. It marks the third straight year SEC Nation has made its way to Fayetteville. Hosted by Maria Taylor, who is joined by analysts Tim Tebow, Marcus Spears and Paul Finebaum along with reporter Laura Rutledge, SEC Nation will be live from 9–11 a.m. CT on the lawn at Old Main.
• Florida will make its fourth trip in program history to Fayetteville and first since 2008. The Gators have been ranked in eight of the 10 previous all-time meetings against Arkansas.
• Saturday’s contest will be the first meeting between the two schools since 2013. Florida owns a 9-1 advantage in the all-time series. Arkansas won the inaugural meeting 28-24 in 1982.
• Behind seven multi-passing touchdown games, quarterback Austin Allen is tied for the SEC lead with 18 passing touchdowns.
• Senior linebacker Brooks Ellis was named an NFF National Scholar-Athlete and one of 12 finalists for the 2016 William V. Campbell Trophy on Tuesday. Considered by many to be the “Academic Heisman,” the award recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation. Ellis also was named a semifinalist for the 2016 Wuerffel Trophy and earned a spot on the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-District Football Team for District 6 on Thursday.
Five Key Storylines
• With 11 wins over its last 15 games dating back to last season, Arkansas will look to open the month of November with a win over a ranked team for the second consecutive season. The Razorbacks’ 11 wins over their last 15 contests are the second-most in the SEC during that span. Arkansas is also 6-2 in the month of November over the past two seasons.
• Coming off a loss at No. 21 Auburn, Arkansas looks to return to its winning ways when it hosts Florida. The Razorbacks defeated No. 12 Ole Miss 34-30 in their last game at home. Arkansas has won eight consecutive games following an SEC loss dating back to the 2014 season.
• Arkansas will face its sixth ranked opponent this season, including its fourth straight. Florida will be the Razorbacks’ ninth ranked SEC opponent since the start of the 2015 season. Saturday’s contest will also mark the 24th time head coach Bret Bielema has faced a ranked opponent in 47 career games at Arkansas.
• The Razorbacks’ three losses this season have come to No. 10 Texas A&M, No. 1 Alabama and No. 21 Auburn. Each of those three teams are currently ranked in the top 11 of the Associated Press Top 25 and have combined to post a 21-3 record. Their opponents’ three losses have come against current No. 1 Alabama, No. 7 Texas A&M and No. 3 Clemson.
• Allen and sophomore running back Rawleigh Williams III have been one of the nation’s top QB-RB tandems this season. Allen is averaging 256.0 yards per game through the air, while Williams is averaging 100.9 on the ground. Allen and Williams are one of just four QB-RB duos in the Power 5 conferences averaging at least 250 yards passing and 100 yards rushing per game this season.
