ANDY SHUPE Northwest Arkansas Times Arkansas freshman receiver Joe Adams (3) carries the ball through the Western Illinois defense during the first half of play Saturday in Razorback Stadium.

Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino called the debut of Arkansas’ bevy of true freshmen Saturday night as a case of “downs and ups.”

“Down first,” explained the head coach after his Razorback debut. “Starting with the opening kickoff.”

The very first play of the game seemed to be a bad omen for Arkansas, which had to battle back in the final 2 minutes of the game for a 28-24 win over Western Illinois, a Football Championship Subdivision school.

True freshman Elton Ford hesitated, then bolted out of the end zone on the opening kickoff return. A big hit and lost fumble at the 15-yard-line quickly quieted a crowd of 70,537 looking for big offensive numbers from the Petrino era Razorbacks.

What resulted, however, was a shower of miscues and drops from the freshmen and the veterans. Even senior center Jonathan Luigs, last year’s Rimington Trophy winner, said he felt like a freshman at times on the field.

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“I felt like I was a freshman out there again, just from the new system and the way it went,” Luigs said. “I can just imagine what it was like for the rest of the guys.”

Dropped balls in the passing game came at some of the most inopportune times. Down 24-14, the Razorbacks went to the air looking for an offensive spark with 10:34 remaining. But then the drops happened.

Casey Dick found Lucas Miller for a 20-yard gain to the Western Illinois 40-yard line. But then true freshman Joe Adams made a drop, a false start occured one play after, and just as it seemed the Razorbacks offense was back on track, another true freshman at receiver makes a drop as Greg Childs drops a routine catch down the field.

But Dick went right back to the Childs and the other true freshmen. Childs caught a 5-yard pass and then, on the very next play, came back for a 26-yard touchdown catch to help get Arkansas within 24-21 with 7:58 left in the game.

“Those guys are going to be able to make big plays for us. Everyone is going to drop the ball,” Dick said. “I went right back to Greg Childs after he dropped it and he ended up scoring a touchdown. You’ve just got to go back to them and show them you’re going to keep feeding them the ball, and he made a great catch on the one he scored on.”

Childs, who echoed his quarterback and head coach’s sentiment of every player having faults, came up big again on Arkansas’ game-winning drive, catching 21- and 13-yard passes to keeps the Hogs’ come-from-behind hopes alive.

Childs ended up leading all receivers with six catches for 88 yards and 1 touchdown in his Razorbacks debut as Dick passed for 318 yards on 25-of-41 attempts.

“I really like the way he’s matured in the last couple of weeks,” Petrino said of Childs. “There was a lot of pressure on him here in this game. I think one thing you’ll see is — because we’re going to throw the ball a lot, because we throw it a lot in practice — we really try to minimize when someone drops the ball. We don’t make a big deal about it. We’re going to come right back to them and throw it to them again. They know they’re going to get enough opportunities and we have confidence in them to make the plays”

True freshman tailback De’Anthony Curtis also debuted, although he was hobbled and self-proclaimed as 80 percent recovered from a knee injury. Curtis led the Arkansas rushing attack with 36 yards on six carries, including an 18-yard draw play that garnered the loudest cheer from the crowd up until the 10:30 mark in the second quarter.

“I think that he’s going to be an excellent football player,” Petrino said. “He’s playing with only a week of practice. ... You didn’t see the full speed, live De’Anthony Curtis that you will later in the season. ... I’m sure he didn’t feel like he was as quick and had that same burst that he’s used to having.”

Petrino credited the crowd as much as anything for helping the Razorbacks stay in the game. The head coach opened his press conference by thanking the fans. Later on, he added that he had a keen ear on the crowd as the team was struggling to make any ground through the air, ground or on defense.

“I didn’t hear any boos and I wanted to boo myself one time,” Petrino quipped.

Which time?

“Which time?” Petrino smiled. “Thanks. Thanks a lot.”