FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas will return back to Fayetteville this weekend to host Kent State.
The Razorbacks opened the season with a 56-13 win over Western Carolina on Saturday in Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium. Kent State fell to UCF 56-6 in their season opener this past Thursday.
One thing that was impressive on Saturday was the chemistry quarterback KJ Jefferson had with his receivers, most of whom are new this year. Jefferson finished by completing 18-of-23 passes for 246 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed five times for 11 yards and another touchdown.
"Well, I think over the … you know the rules have changed where you can throw a little bit more in the summers and then they can on their own and all that kind of stuff," Pittman said. "But I felt the trust. To be perfectly honest with you, those guys catch everything. And so, you know, what did we have the first six passes to different receivers? Was it seven? They’ve earned his trust.
"I mean he … But we’re catching the ball really well, contested balls really well. I know Andrew (Armstrong) and (Isaac) TeSlaa especially. We need to get (Tyrone) Broden going. Need to get him going. He only caught one pass. Man, how valuable is he as a gunner on the punt team and all those things. But he came here to catch balls. We’ve got to get him going a little more too."
TeSlaa came from Hillsdale (Mich.) College, Armstrong previously played at Texas A&M-Commerce and Broden was at Bowling Green. Armstrong led the Hogs with five catches for 78 yards and a touchdown. TeSlaa caught three passes for 66 yards and one touchdown. Broden had a 3-yard catch. The tight ends are virtually all new as well and true freshman Luke Hasz caught two passes for 19 yards.
This year the backup quarterback is former Morrilton standout Jacolby Criswell who came in from North Carolina at midterm. Criswell completed 2-of-2 passes for 28 yards and a touchdown. He found true freshman wide receiver Davion Dozier for a 14-yard touchdown with 7:55 remaining in the game.
"Wasn't that awesome?" Pitman said. "Yeah, it was going to the left and that wasn’t an easy throw. He threw it to who, Dozier? That was so awesome. I mean the young kid being able to score a touchdown. But he threw a dart out there. Yeah, it’s huge for us to have two maybe three really, really good quarterbacks. Then, so I was real proud of him. And that’s building confidence and things of that nature."
Criswell also got a strong endorsement from Jefferson for the job he did on Saturday and since he arrived at Arkansas.
"Extremely proud," Jefferson said. "I told him, once Coach (Dan) Enos told me I was done, I went over there to him and told him, ‘Just play your game. We’ve been prepping for it this whole week. They’re doing the same thing, so go out there, play off your instincts, trust yourself, have fun.’ That’s the main thing — having fun. Once I did see him go out there, he went 2 for 2 and a touchdown, so that’s a great stat. Just to have him go out there and build that confidence and knowing that he’s from Arkansas and it’s a big deal playing for the Razorbacks and for him to go out there and throw a touchdown was big for him. I was proud of him."
It appears that Arkansas will get left guard Brady Latham back this week from an undisclosed injury that forced him to miss Saturday's game. Also, TCU transfer cornerback Kee'yon Stewart was suspended for Saturday's game following an arrest for unsafe driving on Friday morning.
"He’s got five events that he needs to go, community service-wise and things of that nature," Pittman said. "And obviously he wasn’t at the game, we suspended him for Saturday’s game. But, he’s back, he’s back now. He’s got a few things to complete but he’s back on the team."
The Hogs struggled to run the ball on Saturday. The Hogs finished with 105 yards on the ground in 36 attempts scoring three touchdowns. Raheim "Rocket" Sanders led the Razorbacks with 15 carries for 42 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
"I think their game plan was, ‘We’re going to make KJ beat us with his throwing the football,'" Pittman said. "I’m pretty sure they knew our game plan wouldn’t be to run KJ. You know what I mean? So they were going to stop Rocket and the running backs, and things of that nature. And to be honest, a lot of plays were made by their safeties. Again, we addressed about the double teams and things of that nature. I mean, we had a couple of pin-and-pulls, if we just … We wasted two on one. If we just clear it and hit first force with the guard coming out and let Beaux (Limmer) clean up the front-side backer, I mean, we’re going to have some explosive runs. And we just didn’t."
Arkansas will be at home on Saturday to host Kent State at 3 p.m. and televised on the SEC Network.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
