FAYETTEVILLE -- It's Arkansas-Texas week and the hype hasn't been the usual for the game.
Arkansas (2-8, 0-6) has obviously stumbled since beating Arkansas State in Little Rock. Who knew that might be the last time Arkansas would win a game this season? Texas (7-3. 4-2) is obviously having a better season than Arkansas, but not a good one by their standard and expectations entering the season. Many predicted Texas to win a national championship and Arch Manning win the Heisman. Neither is happening and it's looking more and more likely Texas won't get into the College Football Playoffs.
On Saturday in a 23-22 loss to LSU the Hogs were only successful on 2 of 4 trips to the red zone. Bobby Petrino was asked Monday other than the red zone failure what's causing this offense to be so inconsistent?
"Yeah, I think you can’t “besides the goal line trips” because those are the ones we really needed,' Petrino said. "We had the opportunities to score and win the game. But the other were the negative plays, the penalties, getting us more times behind the chains than you want to be. It’s hard to get back second and 14. And I think we had a third and 17. We actually even converted when we had a third and extra long, then went for it on fourth. But we were just in way too many negative situations and behind the chains. It’s not what we normally have done offensively. Taylen (Green) can’t take a sack one time that really hurt us. He’s got to be able to throw the ball away. So that really caught up to us."
Turnovers have hampered this team for both years that Petrino served as offensive coordinator. Green suffered two interceptions against LSU and Mike Washington dropped a pitch from Green that led to a fumble.
"You have to take care of the ball," Petrino said. "We had situations where… We blew one play. We work that play all the time. Mike has done it all year long and somehow he thought he was taking a handoff and it’s a flip, it’s not a handoff. And then the one that’s really disappointing to me on Taylen is the naked. When you come out, the tight end’s No. 1 on the progression and he’s wide open and we didn’t throw him the ball. I’m not sure why. That’s something that cannot happen."
Petrino said he talked to Green about that play.
"Yeah, we talked to him about everything," Petrino said.
Petrino has done a great job of keeping the players to buy in and stay positive. Does it get harder to stay positive as the losses pile up?
"It feels like it’s harder, you know?," Petrino said. "I think it feels like it’s harder because you’re so disappointed after the game and after the loss. You know, I told the guys last night how proud I am of them, by their attitude and being good teammates and sticking together. There's no reason to stop now. We might as well continue what we’re doing. Continue competing hard. It’s kind of a really weird anomaly where we do this deal with offensive, defensive team wins. Four of those games should have been wins from that sheet, and then they’re not, but that’s an outlier. Every one of them is an outlier, so it’s like, what the heck? I don’t know. We’ll just keep battling away."
Since Jalen Brown went down for the season against Notre Dame, Raylen Sharpe has been inserted into the starting lineup. Share has been outstanding. He has caught34 passes, good for second on the team, for 492 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also has carried the ball 4 times for 61 yards.
"Yeah, I’ve thought he's had a really, really good season," Petrino said. "You know, he came in in spring ball and he did a great job of helping everybody else in that room learn the offense, and was outstanding. And then he got injured in camp, and he didn't even start the first game of the year. But then he ended up keep getting going and starting. And he's really smart. He's extremely quick, changes directions real well, and he's done a nice job of running after the catch. The play he made on that long third down to get extra yards after the catch is what allowed us to go for it on fourth down. So I think he's played really well for us. He's a really good kid to be around. He's very, very mature, and he's had his life in line. He knew what he was going to do like five years ago. He's pretty amazing."
Arkansas and Texas will kickoff at 2:30 p.m. Saturday and televised on ABC.