The Razorbacks had a dominating performance against Western Carolina on Saturday. The box score showed an overwhelming victory but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Here are the position grades for Arkansas’ first game of the year.
Quarterbacks: A+
One of the most anticipated storylines of this season was watching how KJ Jefferson developed under Dan Enos, and boy, has he ever. Jefferson connected with his first 12 targets and finished 18/23 for 246 yards and 3 touchdowns. He looked crisp and fluid in his movements, and more importantly, made great reads down the stretch. He also rushed for 15 yards (34 before sacks) and one score.
Jefferson wasn’t the only QB to get some playing time, however. Morilton native and UNC transfer Jacolby Criswell also looked spectacular in his limited reps. He connected on both of his passes, including a touchdown to true freshman Davion Dozier.
Running Backs: B-
Inverse to the QBs, however, the RBs performance was a bit disappointing. Not a single back rushed for more than 42 yards. The position leader was Raheim Sanders with 42 yards on 15 carries for an average of 2.8 y/c. He did manage to score two touchdowns, on the other hand.
All other backs had 4 or fewer carries for no more than 22 yards. The one silver lining was the performance of Isaiah Augustave in his small amount of playing time. At one point the true freshman needed just one yard for a first down but decided to carry the entire WCU defense for another seven.
Wide Receivers: A
Worries about whether Arkansas’ new receiving corps being able to handle the heat in the SEC have quelled a little since Saturday. All WRs—in particular the transfers outside of the FBS ranks—looked as athletic as any other receiver in the SEC. They ran clean routes, consistently got separation, and didn’t drop passes. Of course, it’s just Western Carolina. But they did what every other SEC-caliber receiver should do, dominate.
Three WRs (Jaedon Wilson, Andrew Armstrong, and Isaac TeSlass) gained over 60 yards and caught one touchdown pass. Six other pass catchers tallied at least one catch, including two running backs. As a group, they managed to record 274 yards total and four touchdowns
Probably the most disappointing position of the day was the offensive line. With Sam Pittmanas the head coach, one would expect a dominant line year in and year out, but the line that showed up on Saturday was anything but that, especially in the run game. Seldom did the OL get more than a couple of yards of push. It created an extremely long day for the running backs as there was usually nowhere to go.
On the other hand, the group was down a veteran starter in Brady Latham. It was also painfully obvious what Western Carolina was trying to do on defense. They put seven guys in the box for nearly the entire game to stop the run. When Arkansas starts SEC play, their opponents won’t do that now that Jefferson has shown his abilities in the passing game. And if they do, Arkansas will drop 350 yards on them through the air .
Defensive Line: B
The defensive line did a very good job stuffing the run. WCU gained just 64 yards on the ground and was responsible for five of Arkansas’ TFLs. In the passing game, the DL pressured the QB often and was a big reason WCU’s QBs collectively completed just 25 of their 40 attempts. Even WCU’s first play of the game was a QB hurry that led to him falling for a loss of a yard.
With all that success, the Hogs only sacked the QB twice. In a conference game, you would take that every day and twice on Sundays. But against an FCS opponent with the level of talent Arkansas returned, you would think that there would be more.
Linebackers: B+
When Bumper Pool and Drew Sanders left for the NFL, the linebacker’s position seemed like a huge hole to fill. Arkansas managed to do that seemingly impossible task with a mixture of underclassmen moved up and transfers.
One such transfer, Jaheim Thomas, led the defense in total tackles with eight. Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr. had five but left the game early with a targeting penalty. In coverage, the group played exceedingly well. True freshman Brad Spence even took an interception back to the house for the final score of the game for Arkansas.
Defensive Backs: A-
With nowhere else to go but up, Arkansas’ secondary played very well against the Catamounts. Three separate DBs pick off WCU’s QBs: Dwight McGlothern, Hudson Clark, and Jayden Johnson. Johnson also forced a fumble that was recovered by true freshman TJ Metcalf. Georgia transfer and former five-star Jaheim Singletary led the position with 6 total tackles. The group allowed a respectable 227 yards through the air and never gave up a touchdown.
Special Teams: A+
Arguably the most improved aspect of the game for the Hogs. In the past, Arkansas has had trouble with procedure/pre-snap penalties on special teams. Not one was called on Saturday. On punt team, Max Fletcher was, at best, inconsistent last year. Against WCU he averaged 49 yards a punt with a long of 52 and nailed two of his five punts inside the twenty-yard line.
The most exciting aspect is probably the emergence of Isaiah Sategna as the punt/kickoff returner. He averaged 25.5 and 23 yards, respectively. His average would’ve been even higher as a 50-yard kickoff return was called back due to an illegal block in the back.
Coaching: A
Coach Pittman’s game plan was easy this week. Just dominate at every position, and if they sell out to stop the run, pass it. There wasn’t many decision in-game that Pittman had to make, but the one that this writer thought he could done better was when to take the starters out of the game. The starters played into the fourth quarter and backups like Jacolby Criswell received just one drive. Other than that, it was an excellent coached game.
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