Razorback Football Season Opener – What They’re Saying

 

The Razorback football season opener against the UL-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns is in the books with a win for the Hogs. Here is a wrap up of what sportswriters and analysts had to say about the game.

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Before kickoff, during ESPN’s College Game Day, analyst Kirk Herbstreit, ruffled a few Razorback bristles by picking the UL-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns to beat the Hogs in Fayetteville Saturday. Here was his Twitter response to some fans who were letting him have an ear full after the 34-14 victory for the home team.

[tweet https://twitter.com/KirkHerbstreit/status/374151499687141376]

ESPN’s SEC writer, Chris Low, hands out helmet stickers each week. Here is what Low said when handing his top helmet sticker this week to Arkansas’ offensive line:

Arkansas’ offensive line: There were several candidates on Arkansas’ offense in the Hogs’ 34-14 win over Louisiana-Lafayette. Running backs Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins each rushed for more than 100 yards. Quarterback Brandon Allen passed for 230 yards and three touchdowns and was sacked only once. When you’re putting up those kinds of numbers on offense and creating that kind of balance, then you’re obviously getting it done on the offensive line. The Hogs finished with 292 rushing yards, their most since churning out 326 yards against UTEP in 2010. First-year coach Bret Bielema is all about a physical running game and was especially complimentary of center Travis Swanson and the way he was able to pull on some plays.

And this is part of what Chris Low had to say about the Razorback game against the Ragin’ Cajuns:

Over and above the running game, one of the most promising things to come out of the opener for the Hogs was how balanced they were on offense. That’s a big reason Bielema hired Jim Chaney as his offensive coordinator.

Sophomore quarterback Brandon Allen was extremely sharp and finished 15-of-22 for 230 yards, no interceptions and three touchdown passes. He was on point all preseason with his accuracy and didn’t drop off any during game action.

Bielema said Allen has the “demeanor of a championship quarterback.”

Defensively, Arkansas had some shaky moments early, and the linebackers will continue to be a work in progress, but the Hogs should be able to hold their own with just about anybody in the defensive line.

From Team Speed Kills:

Arkansas, def. Louisiana-Lafayettee 34-14. It’s hard to tell how much you can take away from a game against a Sun Belt team, regardless of that team’s standing in its conference, but there are a few takeaways. First of all, the Arkansas fans who were saying Bret Bielema’s offense would still throw appear to be right. Brandon Allen was 15-of-22 for 230 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. But it’s also clear the Hogs will run: They ground out 292 yards on 51 carries. This ain’t going to be an Air Raid team. [Arkansas Fight]

From Tim Buckley of the Advertiser in Lafayette, La.:

“Offensively we executed really well at times,” UL coach Mark Hudspeth said. “(But) didn’t finish some drives that really would have helped our defense.

“After coming off the field, I really felt like if we could have done a little better offensively and stayed on the field a little bit longer and kept those young secondary guys off the field a little bit more we may could have been in better shape.”

The Razorbacks wound up outgaining the Cajuns 524-274 in total offense, including 292 yards on the ground for Arkansas, including 151 by Williams and 131 by Alex Collins

“Hats off to them two guys,” UL defensive back Sean Thomas, who finished with a career-high 13 tackles, one off linebacker Justin Anderson’s team-high 14. “They came with it. They ran the ball, made a lot of plays for them. But there’s nothing we can’t stop, so I look forward to moving forward next week.”

From Nate Allen, writing for the Baxter Bulletin in Mountain Home, Ark.:

“It’s my experience,” said Bret Bielema, now 7-0 in openers including 6-0 at Wisconsin, “that if you rush for over 200 and pass for over 200, you win a lot of games that way. That’s what we did to beat a good team today. It was very hot out there and I was very proud how we handled themselves.”

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“We’ve been calling them thunder and lightning all camp,” Ragin’ Cajuns Coach Mark Hudspeth said of trying to defend against Williams and Collins.

ULL cornerback Sean Thomas concurred.

“Hats off to them two guys,” Thomas said. “They came with it today.”

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“Our defense took awhile to get started,” Bielema said, “but settled down to do a nice job against a very good offense. The second half was the definition how I like to play games. We wore them down, forced some turnovers. People just don’t like to play football all four quarters all the time and our kids bought into it against a very good football team that was in a touchdown of beating Florida (27-20) a year ago.”

From David McCollum of the Log Cabin Democrat in Conway:

The Razorbacks dominated the team formerly known as Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday with a balanced wrecking ball in Bret Bielema’s coaching debut at the University of Arkansas.

The Hogs controlled the line of scrimmage, settled into a defensive rhythm, unleashed a double-barreled running back onslaught, threw a touchdown pass to the fullback, utilized the tight end in the passing game and powered to a 34-14 victory over the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns before 69,801 sweating and sun-baked fans at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

The Hogs, with backs Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins working the flanks behind sound blocking, rushed for 292 yards and passed for 230 behind nicely efficient quarterback Brandon Allen, who completed 15 of 22 passes for 230 yards and three touchdowns.

It’s the first time since 2008 against Kentucky that the Hogs have rushed the ball more than 50 times in a game.

“Teams I’ve been with in the past who have been great have been over 200 running and passing,” said Bielema. “So many people think if you run the ball, you can’t have an effective passing game. That opens things up for play-action.”

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“You saw what I see every day in practice,” said Bielema. “‘Jay Will’ will flourish in our system. Alex can change the game with one cut. On the big one with Williams, that was all him with a big cut with vision.”

From the Advertiser in Lafayette, La.:

The opponent rolled up 292 of its 522 yards in total offense on the ground.

But the issue of his secondary was UL coach Mark Hudspeth’s primary concern after his Ragin’ Cajuns opened their 2013 season with a 34-14 loss last Saturday at Arkansas.

“Our young secondary got exposed early,” Hudspeth said. “Just too many new faces in the secondary early.”

All it took was a strong Razorback run game – led by Jonathan Williams, who had a game-high 151 rushing yards, and Alex Collins, who had another 131 – to shed the cloak.

“You’ve got to put too many people in the box to stop the run against this team, and that leaves a lot of young DBs in 1-on-1 situations in the secondary,” Hudspeth said. “So you’ve got to choose your poison.

“Especially when you have to put so many people in the box to stop the run, they (Cajun defensive backs) don’t have a lot of underneath help, so they get on an island pretty quick. And they (the Razorbacks) were able to take advantage of those guys.

“We’ve got to answer some questions back there,” he added. “Right now I don’t know those answers.”

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“(Saturday’s game) was indicative that we’ve got a good team,” Hudspeth said. “We’ve just got to answer some questions in the back end. … We’ve just got to fix some things in the secondary. We’re still trying to find answers – who are best four are.”

From Madison.com:

Louisiana-Lafayette entered Saturday full of confidence, coming off back-to-back 9-4 seasons that included a pair of wins in the New Orleans Bowl and a near upset of Florida last season.

However, quarterback Terrance Broadway was harassed throughout the second half — when he was sacked three times — and finished 15-of-28 passing for 171 yards. The junior had an 11-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Maxwell to close the Arkansas lead to 27-14 in the third quarter, but that was as close as the Ragin’ Cajuns would come.

“I think they’re disappointed because I think physically they felt like they matched up with (Arkansas) pretty good,” Louisiana-Lafayette coach Mark Hudspeth said. “You’ve got to give Arkansas credit. They run right at you. They make you tackle them.”

Broadway also had a late interception as Louisiana-Lafayette ran into an Arkansas team that had plenty of confidence of its own under Bielema — who has spent much of the offseason ridding Arkansas of the memories of last season’s 4-8 disaster and instilling a new breed of physical football.