Another one of those “super seniors” took the blame for giving Texas A&M some hope in the second half Saturday.
“That was completely my fault,” sixth-year linebacker Grant Morgan said later. “The way we handled it was I came over to the sidelines and said, ‘that was on me … everyone’s doing their job, that’s one play out of 60 that they’ve got so far … we are beating their butts every single time.'”
Morgan is one of a trio of experienced linebackers along with Bumper Pool and Hayden Henry that have taken over the defense along with safety Jalen Catalon.
“We knew we had to take a step forward and say this our game now,” Morgan said. “We had to be able to look at the leaders of this group and say this our game now, we have to win it.”
The Hogs’ defense, behind another masterful game play by Barry Odom, really shut down the Aggies. The numbers didn’t tell a completely accurate story.
A&M finished with 121 yards. Do the math. Take away Spiller’s 67-yard run and it’s just 54 yards Arkansas allowed the No. 7 team in the country.
“They ran just a simple zone read,” Morgan said. “If I see the end crash down through a crease, I have to read out of a gap. They blocked it really well. Me and Eric (Gregory) ended up being in the same gap. I was unblocked and didn’t make the play.”
It didn’t help the Hogs showed A&M quarterback Zach Calzada he wasn’t really ready for prime time yet. Odom was “very familiar” with Calazada because he had tried to recruit him when he was coaching at Missouri.
And the Hogs’ defense didn’t change a whole lot.
“The key was just being us,” Morgan said. “We have a one-play mentality where we’re only going to worry about one play at a time. So we did.”
That means the Hogs weren’t going to dwell on Spiller’s big run that could have changed the entire momentum of the game. It cut the Hogs’ lead to 17-10 with 3:53 left in the third quarter.
In recent past that would be the defining moment when things would start heading downhill for Arkansas in these Southwest Classic matchups in AT&T Stadium.
“They had one good play against us on that long run,” Morgan said. “After that we had to know we have that one-play mentality to be able to clap that off and go to the next one.
“So we did. We went back to our basics. We knew what they were going to do. Our coaches did a really good job of preparing us and they did exactly what we thought.”
It is Arkansas’ first 4-0 start since 2003.
“I don’t know what it means to the program,” Sam Pittman said later.
“Wins like this are why you come back,” Morgan said. He took advantage of the bonus year because of the COVID pandemic and he’s making the most of it. “We saw what this could be.
“There’s not a single ‘super senior’ in that room right now that says ‘I should have left.’ I’m excited to be part of this group that’s changing the momentum of Arkansas football and we’re starting a new path.”
And it also means a little more with two of those four wins over the biggest schools in the Lone Star state.
“We own Texas now, I guess,” Morgan said. “It’s exciting. We went 2-0 on the Texas teams.”
Now they have to do it again with a road trip to Georgia next week.
“Our job is not done,” Morgan said.
