FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas will be at Razorback Stadium on Saturday to play host to UAB.
The Hogs are looking to move to 2-1 on the season. They had an excellent chance to beat No. 16 Oklahoma State Saturday in Stillwater, but collapsed in the second half. The Hogs will move into SEC play after Saturday's game.
Two Standouts on Defense
Two players who didn't get enough credit for their play on Saturday was linebacker Xavian Sorey Jr. and safety TJ Metcalf. Sorey, a transfer from Georgia, had 13 tackles, seven solo and two for loss. Metcalf, who is a true sophomore, had 12 tackles including six solo. Sam Pittman took notice of their play.
"Very pleased," Pittman said. "Both of them. TJ Metcalf has just continued to get better and better and better. He is a great tackler. I mean, he had some open-field tackles that a lot of guys don’t make. Sorey was everywhere. Now he did make some mistakes, but he was everywhere. He was fast, running down guys, played physical. Missed a tackle here-and-there. Going to do that, but he’s a really good player. Both of them. Sorey can be really, really good."
No Sacks
Arkansas had no sacks on Saturday and at times it seems OSU quarterback Alan Bowman had time to read a book before throwing. Going forward, Arkansas has got to be better getting pressure on the opposing quarterback.
"I think if you talk about the game and you’re going, ‘Defensively, where can we get (better?)’ We can get better everywhere, but you’re going, ‘What happened?’" Pittman said. "We didn’t get to him. Now, part of that is they’ve got a good protecting offensive line. But we’ve got to be better than that. The guy was pretty clean for the entire game. Now, going into the game, we said that he gets rid of the ball extremely fast, so we said, ‘Hey, don’t get frustrated if we’re not tagging him, if we’re not sacking him.’ But he held the ball… We also said the first game that he held the ball a lot longer than what he ever did last year, so we thought, ‘Well, maybe we can get there because he’s not throwing it so fast.’ That’s one area and I’ve already addressed that with Deke (Adams) yesterday that we’ve got to win one-on-ones up front and we did not on Saturday."
Missing in Action
Cornerback Marquise Robinson is the starter at the cornerback opposite Jaylon Braxton. But he was missing against OSU. Robinson was part of a South Alabama team the previous season that downed Oklahoma State 33-6 in Stillwater.
"Yeah, got a stinger in pregame and went numb," Pittman said. "You know, a lot of times that’ll come back pretty fast. It did not, and so he’ll be out at practice today. He’ll be in a green. We’ll stay away from him. It just was unfortunate. Hit the wrong way and it went numb on one side or the other. But he’s going to be back, but that’s what happened."
Slow Start For Edge Landon Jackson
Edge Landon Jackson chose to return to Arkansas for his senior season instead of entering the 2024 NFL Draft where he was projected to be a pretty high pick. After just one tackle against UAPB, Jackson followed that up with two on Saturday. What is the reason for the slow start?
"I think what's happening with him, I think you're seeing that he's getting chipped a bunch," Pittman said. "This team slid to it a lot in pass protection, which means you basically are double teaming him. When they didn't, they were coming off and chipping him. So, until we somebody else sparks, you know, that people go, 'Man, I got to really worry about that guy. they're going to continue to do that. Now T-Will (Travis Williams) can take some pressure off him with some internals and do some things like that. It's just like Oklahoma State with their kid. They were twisting him inside and all that, trying to get him away from that action, those doubles, those chips. We've done some of that with him as well. But he's played really good defense against the run. He just hasn't got to the quarterback yet, but I think that's coming."
Arkansas and UAB will kickoff at 3:15 on Saturday with the game televised on the SEC Network.