SEC Offensive Player of the Week and Arkansas RB Rawleigh Williams III answers questions about his life on and off the field.
Razorbacks’ fourth-quarter push downs Ole Miss for third straight year
Jared Cornelius scored on a 6-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter to lift No. 22 Arkansas to a 34-30 win over No. 12 Ole Miss on Saturday night.
The win is the third in a row for the Razorbacks (5-2, 1-2 SEC) over the Rebels, who have now lost three of their first six games a season after winning the Sugar Bowl.
Austin Allen was 19-of-32 passing for 229 yards and three touchdowns for Arkansas, giving the junior an SEC-best 18 touchdown passes for the season. Rawleigh Williams added a career-high 180 yards rushing on 27 carries for the Razorbacks, who bounced back following a 49-30 loss at home to No. 1 Alabama a week ago.
“I told the guys, `Let’s do whatever we have to do to protect this house,” Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said. “They never wavered and needed help from the crowd, and they delivered.”
Chad Kelly accounted for 342 yards of total offense for Ole Miss (3-3, 1-2), throwing for 253 yards and rushing for 89 more. The senior also threw for a touchdown and ran for two more.
Evan Engram led the Rebels with seven catches for 111 yards and a touchdown.
The two teams played an overtime thriller a year ago in Oxford , a game in which Arkansas completed a miraculous fourth-and-25 on its way to a 53-52 victory.
They also entered Saturday with the two most efficient quarterbacks in the SEC, and neither Kelly nor Allen disappointed. The duo combined for 571 yards of total offense.
It was Cornelius, however, who had the final say with his 6-yard touchdown run with 2:20 remaining.
Ole Miss had one more drive following Arkansas’ go-ahead score, but Kelly fumbled on a fourth-and-16 scramble that came up short.
“We’re in the games and competing,” Rebels coach Hugh Freeze said. “We’ve got to see the big picture, even though it’s hard to right now, sitting here.”
Notes
Ole Miss: The Rebels entered the game 102nd in the country in total defense, allowing 449.4 yards per game. They once again struggled on Saturday by allowing 429 total yards to Arkansas, a number that was more than 450 before the Razorbacks purposely took several large losses while running out the clock on the game’s final drive.
Arkansas: The Razorbacks still have offensive line concerns after allowing three more sacks of Allen, but they moved the ball consistently through the air and on the ground — giving them renewed hope with only SEC games remaining this season.
In the Rankings
Arkansas was in danger of falling out of the rankings, but now it’s likely to once again push its way into the top 20 — perhaps even surpassing the Rebels. The Razorbacks’ only losses this season are to No. 1 Alabama and No. 6 Texas A&M.
Next Week
Ole Miss: The Rebels are on the road for the second straight week, traveling to Baton Rouge to face LSU.
Arkansas: The Razorbacks play for the eighth straight week to open the season, traveling to No. 23 Auburn next week.
12th-ranked women get top five finish at national invitational
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — In its final meet of the regular season, the 12th-ranked Arkansas women’s cross country team posted a top-five team finish at the Pre-National Invitational, besting 37 teams from across the country including No. 7 Stanford, No. 16 Eastern Michigan and No. 22 Virginia.
“We had a great race, our athletes ran really well,” head coach Lance Harter said. “I thought if we could be in the top five [here] we could make a run for a top-10 finish at nationals or higher. When you lose an ace like Dominique Scott, you rework some things and we are operating now with true team running.”
Leading the way once again for the Razorbacks was sophomore Devin Clark who crossed the finish line among the top-10 best individual performers of the day, completing her first 6K of the season in 20 minutes, 20 seconds.
Clark was consistent with her performance in the race from start to finish, maintaining stride with the lead pack, including meet winner Erin Finn (Michigan) through the majority of the competition.
“Devin [Clark] is establishing herself quite well and making a strong case to be a frontrunner at the national level,” Harter said.
Not the sole underclassman making an impact for Arkansas, Clark was joined by freshmen Taylor Werner (27th) and Abby Gray (52nd) inside the top 60 in a field of 284 runners.
Werner set a new 6K PR of 20:44.40 as the only other Razorback to record a sub-21-minute performance at the LaVern Gibson cross country course.
Arkansas’ top five was completed by All-American middle-distance runners Nikki Hiltz (65) and Therese Haiss (74) who completed the race in 21:07.40 and 21:14.20, respectively.
“Taylor Werner has really high goals and she is certainly on schedule,” Harter said. “She ran brilliantly. Abby [Gray] ran with our pack and maybe stayed a little too long but when she took off they all started taking off and making moves and Therese [Haiss] and Nikki [Hiltz] held us on.”
Razorback captain Valerie Reina captured the 6K open race title in 21:32.40. Reina was joined inside the top-10 by Sydney Brown (2), Rachel Nichwitz (5) and Maddy Reed (10).
The Razorbacks compete next on their home course as they host the 2016 SEC Cross Country Championship on Friday, Oct. 28.
Top Five Team Results
1. #2 Colorado, 93 (2-12-17-26-36)
2. #9 Oregon, 154 (6-13-34-48-53)
3. #13 Michigan, 179 (1-22-49-51-56)
4. #5 Portland, 196 (9-28-39-50-70)
5. #12 Arkansas, 225 (7-27-52-65-74)
Arkansas Results (6K Blue Overall Finishes)
7. Devin Clark – 20:20.00
27. Taylor Werner – 20:44.40
52. Abby Gray – 21:01.40
65. Nikki Hiltz – 21:07.40
74. Therese Haiss – 21:14.20
95. Carina Viljoen – 21:22.60
117. Regan Ward – 21:36.90
Arkansas Results (6K Open)
1. Valerie Reina – 21:32.40
2. Sydney Brown – 21:34.90
5. Rachel Nichwitz – 21:44.70
10. Maddy Reed – 22:10.70
2016 Cross Country Schedule
Thurs, Sept. 1 – Cowboy Duals (Stillwater, Okla.) | 1st of 6
Sat, Sept. 17 – Southern Stampede (Joplin, Mo.) | 1st of 2
Sat, Sept. 17 – Riverside Invitational (Riverside, Calif.) | 1st of 20
Sat, Oct. 1 – Chile Pepper Festival (Agri Park) 10:20 a.m. | 1st of 18
Sat, Oct. 15 – Pre-Nationals (Terre Haute, Ind.) 10:00 a.m. | 5th of 42
Fri, Oct. 28 – SEC Championship (Agri Park) 11:00 a.m.
Fri, Nov. 11 – NCAA South Central Regional (Agri Park) 10:00 a.m.
Sat, Nov. 19 – NCAA Championship (Terre Haute, Ind.) 10:00 a.m.
Bold denotes a home event.
Rebels enter game a heavy favorite over Arkansas
No. 12 Ole Miss has a 77 percent chance to beat No. 22 Arkansas on the road, per ESPN’s FPI. The Rebels’ stronger offense is expected to pull away and win by an average of 10 points.
Sprinkle named to midseason list for top tight end award
NEW YORK, N.Y. — Less than a week after setting the Arkansas record for touchdown receptions by a tight end, Jeremy Sprinkle has been named to the 2016 midseason watch list for the John Mackey Award, which is given annually to the most outstanding collegiate tight end, the Friends of John Mackey announced Wednesday.
Sprinkle, a senior from White Hall, Arkansas, is joined by five others from the Southeastern Conference (SEC) on the list of the top 30 tight ends in the nation.
A preseason All-SEC choice by the league’s media and coaches, Sprinkle has caught 18 passes for 194 yards and four touchdowns this season. Among tight ends, his 194 yards rank third in the SEC, while his four touchdown catches tie for the SEC lead and tie for third in the FBS.
Sprinkle has reeled in a touchdown pass in four of six games this season and has totaled eight through his last nine contests dating back to 2015. Last Saturday, Sprinkle made three receptions for 37 yards and a touchdown, surpassing 2010 John Mackey Award winner D.J. Williams to become Arkansas’ all-time leader in touchdown receptions by a tight end with 11.
Sprinkle returned to Arkansas for his senior campaign after a 2015 season that saw him catch 27 passes for 389 yards and lead all SEC tight ends with six receiving touchdowns, good for a tie for ninth among FBS tight ends. All six scoring grabs came during the final seven games of the season. Against Mississippi State, Sprinkle equaled the program single-game record and tied for the most touchdowns by an FBS tight end in 2015 with three.
For his career, Sprinkle has caught 56 passes for 735 yards and 11 touchdowns. Of Sprinkles 56 receptions, 38 have resulted in either a first down or a touchdown for a conversion rate of 67.9 percent. His 11 receiving touchdowns are tied for the SEC’s active career lead among tight ends.
Last season, consensus first-team All-American Hunter Henry became the second Razorback to win the award, following 2010 recipient Williams. Arkansas is the only school to produce multiple John Mackey Award winners.
The 2016 John Mackey Award recipient is selected by vote of the John Mackey Award Selection Committee. The award recipient will be announced on Dec. 7 and then presented live on Dec. 8 at The Home Depot College Football Awards Red Carpet Show on ESPNU.
This one could have been worse, regardless how you try to spin it
In the post-mortem of yet another loss to Alabama, Bret Bielema wanted to talk about what Arkansas did wrong.
He kinda has to.
The actual truth of the matter is, well, not something he wants to dive into publicly, even though it’s not really his fault.
Without Bielema and a staff that has gotten Arkansas to over-achieve for the past couple of years, the top-ranked Crimson Tide would have probably won this one by some sort of ridiculous number.
Oh, yes, it could have been worse. Much worse.
Don’t forget Alabama went down the field without much hindrance from the Razorbacks’ defense the first couple of times they had the ball.
That wasn’t due to a lack of planning by the coaches or effort by the players.
When Alabama plays focused and on top of it’s game, nobody in the country may be able to beat them.
Certainly not Arkansas.
“Well, I think you get to a certain level where you have a base pool of players that you know are developed in a way and recruited in a way that you know they have these certain talents,” an obviously disappointed Bielema said later. “You have a lot of them, and you have coaches that are very, very good.”
To decipher that coach-speak, for really just the second time since he’s been the Arkansas coach (in four meetings), Bielema faced a focused Crimson Tide team and the difference in the talent level became alarmingly clear.
“That combination and the ability to roll people through and have the depth that you do, it’s a very good position to be in,” Bielema said.
In the 247Sports.com composite recruiting rankings, Alabama has signed 58 4 and 5-star players over the last three-year recruiting cycle. Arkansas, for comparison, signed 16 4-stars and one 5-star.
Don’t tell me that the stars don’t matter. It doesn’t mean a player can’t develop from a 2-star to a 5-star, but nobody can develop enough of those to compete against that kind of talent disparity.
“[It’s] one we’re going to strive to get to every day,” Bielema said.
The last two years, particularly the 14-13 Bama win in 2014, the Crimson Tide helped the Hogs as much as the Hogs helped themselves.
On Alabama’s first possession you got the idea it might happen again.
The Crimson Tide drove 80 yards in eight plays, taking 6:47 of the first quarter before Joshua Jacobs coughed it up at the 1 when Dre Greenlaw hit him in a pile of players and De’Andre Coley got it at the 1.
Except the Razorbacks could only muster a first down before punting it back, the Crimson Tide got a 57-yard run by Damien Harris to set up a 5-yard scoring run by Jalen Hurts and it was 7-0 in a flash.
Then Arkansas fumbled on the ensuing kickoff and a 6-yard run by Hurts made it 14-0 in a span of two minutes.
“Obviously that kickoff return that we fumbled was huge,” Bielema said.
The Razorbacks answered with Austin Allen leading a 75-yard drive in seven plays, mostly through the air, that cut it to 14-7 on a 24-yard pass to tight end Jeremy Sprinkle.
Arkansas’ defense followed with a stop, but then the Tide’s aggressive defense forced a fumble by Allen on a passing play that Tim Williams picked up and ran in from 23 yards out and it was 21-7 with 12:25 to go in the second quarter.
At that point it was over for all intents and purposes.
Later, it was spin control, which is always expected. Bielema talked about problems setting the edge.
“Just an old-school defensive thing,” he said later, explaining it. “On every play you’ve got to have contain, cut back, reverse. At different times it might be a defensive end, it might be a backer in support, it might be a DB in support, and what we don’t want to do is set an edge but also widen it so that there’s a gap up inside.”
We’ve seen this before. The problems with edge control led to Texas A&M running repeatedly down the middle of the field. Alabama saw the same thing on film and proceeded to tweak it and do the same thing.
“There was a play where we did have the edge set, but a gap between two of our defenders, and that’s a problem within itself, as well,” Bielema said.
And it’s not all physical.
“A little bit of that is attitude, but I think we have to make a special hard look at ourselves defensively,” he said. “If we’re asking guys to do that that can’t physically do it, and if that’s the case, obviously we’ve got to change up the look.”
Based on that, the guess here is the look will get changed.
With the Hogs’ solid interior linemen, teams aren’t going to try and block straight ahead. The run may appear to be a straight-ahead run, but the blocking gets those linemen moving and the running back knifes into the natural holes it leaves.
Linebackers have to fill that and, well, that ain’t happening. Good tackles are usually the result of good positioning. It’s not really complicated … if you’re not in position, you can’t make the tackle.
While the Hogs’ linebackers are young men of good character, there aren’t any All-Americans back there.
TCU showed the flaw, Texas A&M exploited it and Alabama wore it out.
How it’s handled is the interesting question, and it won’t get easier.
“Sundays are never good after a loss,” Bielema said. “They’re just not a real fun day because coaches got to take ownership in how their kids performed, me as a head coach obviously, and then make some corrections and adjustments, and then change the personnel if we need to, change some schemes, and get ready to jump into Ole Miss.”
As he said, though, next is Ole Miss and the Rebels coaches can be excused for giggling a little when they see the film on the Alabama game.
While the Hogs have some strong points, their defense past the front four isn’t one of them.
And Bielema knows the talent isn’t there to really do anything about it unless Ole Miss is as benevolent as they were a couple of years ago in a 30-0 whitewashing.
But the odds are long on that one happening again.
Looking at the Hogs’ numbers in 49-30 loss to top-ranked Alabama
FAYETTEVILLE — Even with a 473-yard offensive output, led by Austin Allen’s 400 yards passing, No. 16 Arkansas was unable to top No. 1 Alabama Saturday night, falling 49-30, inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Despite the setback, Allen threw for more than 200 yards for the fifth straight game and connected with his receivers for three touchdowns. Allen’s career-best 400 yards on 25-of-48 passing in the game is his second 300+ yard game this season, both outings occurring in Southeastern Conference play (Texas A&M).
With his performance Saturday night, Allen became the first Razorback to throw for 200 or more yards in five of the first six games of a season since Tyler Wilson in 2011 and totaled the most passing yards against Alabama in school history.
He also became the first Arkansas quarterback and one of five SEC quarterbacks to throw multiple touchdown passes in each of the first six games of a season.
Jared Cornelius led all Arkansas receivers with a career-high 146 yards on five catches, including a long 57-yard reception in the first half. It was Cornelius’ third straight game of 100 yards or more receiving.
Wide receiver Keon Hatcher and tight end Jeremy Sprinkle pulled in the touchdowns for the Hogs. Hatcher hauled in two touchdown catches of 16 and 10 yards in the second and third quarter. It marks his second career multi-TD game, his first of the season.
As for Sprinkle, his touchdown grab came back in the first half that, at the time, made it just a 14-7 Alabama lead. Allen was able to connect with Sprinkle from 24 yards out for Arkansas’ first touchdown of the game and was Sprinkle’s fourth touchdown of the season.
With the score, Sprinkle now has 11 touchdown catches in his career, passing D.J. Williams for the most scoring grabs by an Arkansas tight end in school history. Sprinkle is also now tied with Ole Miss’ Evan Engram for the most touchdown catches by an active tight end in the SEC.
Defensively, senior linebacker Brooks Ellis led the team with eight tackles, four as solo stops, as well as one pass breakup. As a whole, Arkansas’ defense forced three turnovers, but gave up 517 yards of offense as Jalen Hurts passed for 253 yards with two scores. On the ground, Alabama was led by Damien Harris, who carried the ball 13 times for 122 yards.
Arkansas kept the game within one score after the first quarter with some help from the Sprinkle touchdown catch. However, Alabama scored two more times before the midway point of the second quarter, one coming off a 23-yard fumble return. Arkansas was only able to kick a field goal and the first touchdown from Hatcher to cut the lead to 35-17 before halftime.
Both offenses slowed in the second half as the Crimson Tide scored one touchdown in the third and fourth quarters and got its second defensive touchdown of the night when Allen was intercepted in the end zone by Minkah Fitzpatrick, who, in turn, took it back 100 yards for the score.
The Razorbacks kept grinding in the fourth quarter to try and make it a two score game after Rawleigh Williams III scored on a 3-yard rush, making it 49-30, but with under three minutes remaining, the Hogs couldn’t get in the end zone again before time expired.
Quick Notes
• Attendance: 75,459, fifth-largest crowd in Razorback Stadium history and the largest crowd since Sept. 25, 2010 (76,808 vs. Alabama)
• With 473 yards of total offense, Arkansas has now totaled 400 or more yards of total offense in each of the last five games.
• The 400 passing yards for quarterback Austin Allen is the most by an Arkansas quarterback against Alabama in school history and tied for the ninth-most in school history.
• Allen became the fourth different Arkansas quarterback (Tyler Wilson, Brandon Allen, Ryan Mallett) to pass for 400 yards or more in a single game.
• Allen became the first Arkansas quarterback since joining the SEC (1992) to throw 15 touchdown passes through the first six games of a season.
• Austin Allen had a streak of 146 passes without an interception snapped Saturday against Alabama. He passes Barry Lunney Jr. (1992-93), Clint Stoerner (1997-98), Brandon Allen (2014-15) and Ryan Mallett (2009), for second place in school history for the most consecutive passes without an interception.
• Wide receiver Jared Cornelius has 100 yards or more receiving in three straight games, joining joins Anthony Eubanks (1996) and Mike Reppond (1971) as the only three players in school history to top 100 yards in three straight games.
• Keon Hatcher has hauled in a touchdown pass in 14 career games, the second most among active SEC players.
• Hatcher passed Greg Childs and moved into a tie for 7th place all-time in school history with his 15th and 16th career touchdown receptions.
• With 1.0 tackles for loss against Alabama, Taiwan Johnson has now recorded at least 0.5 tackle for loss in three straight games and six of his last seven games. He now has 16.0 career tackles for loss, third-most among active Arkansas players.
Up Next
The Razorbacks are back at Donald W. Reynolds Stadium next week when they No. 14 Ole Miss in another SEC Western Division matchup. Kickoff will be either at 6 p.m. on ESPN.
Morgan talks about matchup with Crimson Tide on Saturday
Arkansas wide receiver Drew Morgan visited with the media to talk about the matchup with Alabama on Saturday.
Trailer for ESPN ’30 for 30: Hit it hard’ that will debut Nov. 1
ESPN’s acclaimed series of documentaries has finished with one on former PGA golfer John Daly from Dardanelle.
It will make it’s debut Nov. 1.
Bielema on supporting his team, both on the the field and off
Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema discusses flying to Minnesota following the death of Frank Ragnow’s father.
