FAYETTEVILLE — Before wide receiver Marcus Monk was injured this summer, Arkansas offensive coordinator David Lee made a bold prediction to Coach Houston Nutt.

“I remember telling Houston that [ Marcus ] Monk would catch 12 balls in the first game,” Lee said Saturday following the Hogs’ 46-26 season-opening victory over Troy.

Monk caught zero passes in the Arkansas opener as he continued his recovery from two arthroscopic surgeries to repair cartilage in his right knee. Yet Monk, a preseason All-SEC choice, is still tied with teammates London Crawford and Robert Johnson in total catches and only one behind receiving corps leaders Crosby Tuck, Reggie Fish and Carlton Salters.

There were only three catches made by Razorbacks wideouts in the high-scoring opener. Salters’ catch came on a pass from backup quarterback Nathan Emert after the outcome was decided, and Tuck’s 42-yard touchdown grab was a product of the WildHog package, with running back Darren McFadden throwing the pass.

That means quarterback Casey Dick completed just one pass to a receiver — a 9-yarder to Fish — in going 11 of 20 for 108 yards.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I wanted to give [Casey ] some confidence, get the ball to the backs with the shorter routes,” Lee said. “The problem is, when the half is over, they’re the only ones with any catches at all.” In his Sunday news conference, Nutt put it succinctly: “The receivers, we’ve just got to get the ball to them a little more.” Nutt said the original goal was to throw 25 to 30 passes in the opener. The Razorbacks attempted 22, but nine of the 13 receptions were by the running backs. Fullback Peyton Hillis led the team with six catches for 39 yards and had a couple more passes thrown his way that went incomplete.

There were other factors at work that limited downfield passing.

Dick checked out of at least four pass plays, based on the defensive looks, and audibled into running plays.

“We didn’t put the ball in the air much [Saturday ]. Then again, we didn’t need to,” Fish said.

“If you can run it, why not run ? The passing, it will come.” Arkansas has what is generally regarded as the best group of running backs in the country — McFadden, Felix Jones, Hillis and Michael Smith — and against Troy, they got the ball on 58 of Arkansas’ 72 offensive plays.

Without throwing long passes, Arkansas still had 507 total yards in a 20-point victory.

“I know a lot of people would like to see the ball more to the wideouts, and we will do that,” Nutt said. “But we did want to start out getting the ball to the backs early and then get it to the receivers. But for whatever reason, it didn’t work out that way, but it will happen.”