Loss Would Have Told Hogs Fans More of a Story Than Win
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — There will be some Arkansas fans that read way too much into Saturday's 56-13 win over Western Carolina. You can go either positive or negative with that because there was evidence on both sides of the fence. Either way, it's having too much of a knee-jerk reaction to one game.
There were plenty of room for coaches to issue praise and correction because while there were some good performances, there were snatches of things here and there during the game to cause pause. Nothing's as good as it looks at times or as bad was basically the way Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman summed it up later.
Most of it won't look the same way in November than it did Saturday. We saw consistency where we thought was going to be there with KJ Jefferson at quarterback, then Jacolby Criswell behind him. Western Carolina was selling out to stop Raheim "Rocket" Sanders and AJ Green running the ball, but they did about as we thought.
There were times the offensive line made me think Cody Kennedy better get this fixed with Brady Latham coming back and some of the other spots. If the Catamounts weren't just bouncing off KJ, it would have been different. The SEC will present different challenges.
At wide receiver, there were signs that group will be okay if they can get open against better opponents. Western Carolina's secondary had the effort, but simply couldn't keep up with the Hogs' receivers. Several wideouts showed they can catch the ball very well.
Andrew Armstrong, Isaac TeSlaa and Jaedon Wilson stood out to me on that. Apparently Jefferson noticed that trio, too, completing 11 of his 18 passes to them. It wasn't particularly new to Pittman, who's been telling us since spring he could do that.
"Today’s about building confidence in the team and confidence in yourself, but more importantly confidence in your teammate. The team already had it, but to go show it on a Saturday, I think that helps everybody. I’m proud of those guys."
TeSlaa also had a dandy little backflip thing (he does need to work on sticking the landing a little, though), but the coaches and Jefferson didn't appear to be concerned and you can usually tell when they are just talking or really believe it.
"Their performance today was outstanding," KJ said later. "Those guys being able to play fast and understand what the defense is doing, taking easy access throws and running great routes and stuff like that ..." There are a lot of sentences that don't get finished talking to coaches and players.
The bottom line is it was the first game of the year against an FCS team that's not going to be moving up the ladder from that anytime soon. Nobody should read too much into it other then see some things that looked good from a quick impression standpoint and others that are going to need a lot of work. If a team plays it's best game of the year right out of the gate you can bet nobody is going to be happy in November.
The next chance for improvement comes pretty quickly. Kent State is next in the home opener for the Hogs on Saturday at Razorback Stadium. The game will kick off at 3 p.m. on the SEC Network at fuboTV.
