After an open date last weekend, Tennessee is back in action this week as they host Arkansas in an SEC matchup at Neyland Stadium.
Here’s a look at the Arkansas Razorbacks ahead of a crucial SEC matchup.
More From RTI: Who Is Announcing Tennessee vs. Arkansas? Broadcast Details For SEC Matchup
How The Razorbacks Got Here
Arkansas opened up the season with lopsided wins over both Alabama A&M and Arkansas State. The Razorbacks gave Ole Miss a great game on the road before coming up a score short. That was the start of a slow decline Arkansas this season.
The Razorbacks blew an 18-point lead against Memphis the next week before fumbling the game away in the red zone to end the game. Then Notre Dame obliterated Arkansas, 56-13, scoring touchdowns on all six first half drives.
The blowout loss to push its losing streak to three games led to Arkansas firing head coach Sam Pittman and promoting Bobby Petrino to interim head coach. Arkansas fired its defensive coaching staff last week and enters Saturday’s matchup coming off an open date.
Arkansas Strengths
Rarely is it as easy to divide up a team’s strength and weaknesses as it is for Arkansas. Put simply, Arkansas is very good on offense and very bad on defense.
Arkansas is averaging 36.4 points per game so far this season, a mark that 22nd nationally and fifth in the SEC. Taylen Green and the passing offense gets most the headlines and it’s been good, averaging 300 yards per game— a mark that ranks 18th nationally and fourth in the SEC.
But it’s the running game that’s been all the more impressive this season. Arkansas ranks second in the SEC in rushing offense and it’s been pretty consistent through all five games this season.
The Razorbacks have been good in the margins too. They’re converting 57.9% of third down attempts this season which ranks fifth nationally. They’ve also scored touchdowns on 17 of 19 trips to the red zone. Tennessee’s red zone defense has not been very good this season to this point in the year.
Arkansas Weaknesses
Arkansas’ offense is good. Its defense? Not so much. Let’s take a look at all those numbers we just rolled through in the reverse.
The Razorbacks are allowing 30 points per game, the worst mark in the entire SEC. Their passing defense ranks 113th nationally and 15th in the SEC. Their rushing defense has been even worse, allowing 168 yards per game for the lowest rank in the entire SEC.
Opponents are converting on 47.7% of third downs this season, ranking 125th nationally and last in the entire SEC. Arkansas has allowed scores on 17 of 19 trips to the red zone including touchdowns on 14 of those drives.
Arkansas is minus-two in turnover margin to this point in the season, a mark that ranks 12th in the SEC. It’s not a crazy weakness but is key to note at this point.
Razorbacks To Know
QB Taylen Green
Green showed serious flashes in his first year at Arkansas and he’s taken a serious step forward in his second year in Bobby Petrino’s system. The 6-foot-6 signal caller has completed 62% of his passes for 1,398 yards, 12 touchdowns and five interceptions.
He’s also a serious threat with his legs, leading Arkansas with 441 rushing yards and two touchdowns. Green is up Joey Aguilar with one of the most efficient quarterbacks in the SEC.
WR O’Mega Blake
Charlotte transfer O’Mega Blake has been Green’s go-to receiver for the first month of the season, catching 30 passes for 399 yards and three touchdowns.
Blake has been incredibly consistent game-in and game-out, catching at least five passes for at least 60 yards in all five games.
DE Quincy Rhodes Jr.
Rhodes has been Arkansas’ best pass rusher, totaling 19 tackles and ranking second in the SEC with five sacks to this point in the season. He also leads Arkansas’ defense with an 86.7 PFF grade.
CB Julian Neal
Cornerback Julian Neal has played at an All-SEC level despite all of Arkansas’ defensive deficiencies. He’s totaled 30 tackles with five pass deflections and two interceptions. His interceptions came against Memphis and Arkansas State.
What Josh Heupel Said About The Razorbacks
Opening statement
“Playing Arkansas, football team that obviously has had some changes with their staff, but it’s a really good football team too. I know the outcome against Notre Dame certainly wasn’t what they wanted, but you look a couple of weeks previously, they were in a one possession game, with four minutes to go in the fourth quarter, against Ole Miss football team that’s a really good football team too. So defensively, huge task in front of us with their quarterback, he’s playing extremely efficient and creating big plays in the pass game but obviously has a chance to be a huge part of the run game as well. We got to do a great job of bottling him up during the course of the afternoon and defensively with changes they’ve made. You don’t know exactly what you’re going to see. The success that they had in their three down, three safety stuff from last year, we got to be prepared for. And that’s kind of where we’re pointing our emphasis and then react to whatever else we see and be able to adjust during the course of the football games.”
On deep diving Arkansas staff, who is responsible for that
“You’re looking at everybody that they have, the changes that they’ve made, the history of what they’ve done, and it’s everybody on our staff taking a look at it.”
On emphasis on containing Arkansas QB Taylen Green’s legs
“You got to play gap sound. You got to get off the blocks. He’s dynamic. He’s got great long speed. You got to be able to tackle him. So in the different structures that we’re playing, our gap integrity is going to be important. When they’re dropping back and rolling, you can’t just sit back and pat the ball either. You got to apply pressure. But you got to have great lane integrity as you’re doing that. So those will all be points that will be really important for us defensively.”
On traits of typical Bobby Petrino coached teams
“Bobby’s done it at a really high level for a really long time. He’s done it inside the scope of this league. It’s a good football team. I said that at the very beginning of this press conference. They’ve played well. They’ve maybe been on the wrong side of the scoreboard here a little bit, but it’s a really good football team. And I think for everybody inside of our program, you understand that we’re going to get their best and their best is really good so we got to get prepared and go play really good football.”
