Razorbacks Rewind

Nicholls add up in 4 quarters

Arkansas running back Alex Collins heads to the end zone through the Nicholls defense during the second quarter Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014, at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas vaulted to No. 11 nationally in rushing offense after trampling FCS foe Nicholls State with 495 yards in its 73-3 victory over the Colonels on Saturday.

Arkansas averaged a school-record 12.4 yards per carry, breaking the previous record of 11 yards per carry in a 53-0 victory over Pittsburg (Kan.) State in the 1936 season opener.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Offense

RB Jonathan Williams

RB Alex Collins

• Williams led the Razorbacks with 143 rushing yards, including a 90-yard scoring run, and averaged 35.8 yards per carry. Collins rushed for 131 yards and a career-best 3 touchdowns and averaged 10.1 yards per carry.

Defense

NG Taiwan Johnson

• The undersized nose guard is off to a solid start as the man in the middle. Johnson had 2.5 sacks for 22 lost yards and 3 tackles for 24 lost yards among his four stops. Johnson leads the Razorbacks with 3 sacks.

Arkansas' 324 rushing yards per game is third in the SEC behind Auburn, which is No. 9 nationally with 330 yards per game, and Georgia, which is 10th with 328 yards per game.

The Razorbacks rose 60 spots in the rushing rankings and 65 spots in total offense, from 96th to 31st with 506 yards per game. Arkansas jumped from 89th in scoring to 14th and now averages 47 points per game.

Defensively, the Razorbacks moved from 114th to 89th and are now allowing 418.5 yards per game.

Raiders ahead

Defensive end Trey Flowers, one of the few veteran links to Arkansas' 11-2 season of 2011, said the Razorbacks were elated to end their 10-game losing streak, but he advised caution.

"We just understand that we've still got to take care of business next week," Flowers said of Arkansas' road trip to Texas Tech. "We've still got something to prove. We don't want to get too high on this victory, because we know we've got a bigger opponent coming up."

Lubbock bound

Arkansas will travel Saturday to take on a 2-0 Texas Tech team that went on the road to defeat Texas-El Paso 30-26 in a game that finished after 1 a.m. on Sunday morning.

Davis Webb threw three touchdown passes to Bradley Marquez to lead the Red Raiders at the Sun Bowl in El Paso. Justin Stockton led Texas Tech with 139 rushing yards on eight carries, including a 75-yard touchdown.

Arkansas' last game against Texas Tech was a 38-21 loss in Lubbock on Nov. 9, 1991, in the Hogs' final season in the old Southwest Conference.

Explosive

The Razorbacks racked up 20 plays of 10 or more yards, 13 in the running game and 7 through the air.

Six Arkansas players had runs of 10 or more yards, including receivers Keon Hatcher (82) and Jared Cornelius (11). Alex Collins had 5 such runs, Damon Mitchell added 3 and Jonathan Williams had the day's longest run, and the third-longest in school history, on a 90-yard touchdown in the second quarter.

Six players had 10-yard plus catches, led by Hatcher's 50-yard touchdown catch in which he eluded a tackler to reach the end zone in the second quarter.

Second-chance TD

True freshman receiver Jared Cornelius was hard on himself for not scoring on an end-around in the first half, so he was determined to score on a shovel pass on the second snap of the second half.

Cornelius ran around left end on the short pitch from Brandon Allen and went 38 yards for his touchdown.

Cornelius had stepped out of bounds on an end-around that looked clear for a touchdown run in the first half, a long play that was shortened to an 11-yard gain by Dan Skipper's holding penalty.

"I could have scored on the first one, but I was thinking about the TD and I stepped out," Cornelius said. "I was looking inside and I wasn't paying attention to the sideline, so I stepped out. ... It feels good getting that touchdown out of the way."

Cornelius is the third Arkansas player this season to score on his first college catch, joining tight end AJ Derby, who did it on a 17-yard catch against Auburn, and Drew Morgan, who scored on a 22-yard tackle-breaking hitch play against Nicholls State.

Gotta have it

Reserve quarterback Austin Allen took his share of shots, including a few sneak plays and his 5-yard touchdown run, on which Allen lowered his shoulder and dove the final couple of yards to break the plane.

The touchdown put Arkansas ahead by the final margin of 73-7 and led to the question of why Allen would risk his health for an add-on touchdown with 3:33 remaining.

"I wanted a touchdown out there," said Allen, who twice earlier drove the Razorbacks inside the Nicholls State 10, leading to an interception and a field goal.

"We got down there about three times, four times and I just couldn't make the play there one time and the other time, same thing, I just wanted a touchdown in my first game."

No Jojo

Arknasas has played 12 true freshmen, but Jojo Robinson has not been one of them. Robinson has had to deal with injuries during the early portion of the season.

Robinson, from Miami, Fla., had a minor hamstring injury early in camp, a rib problem that kept him out of the season opener and a third ailment last week.

"We wanted to play Jojo today but he got stepped on in practice and he's not overly big to begin with, so he got stepped on and he's not quite healed up yet."

Extra points

• The 56 first-half points were the most for a Bret Bielema-coached team.

• Arkansas had four players catch a touchdown pass in a game for the second time ever and the first since the Razorbacks' rain-shortened 49-7 victory over Kentucky in 2012.

Sports on 09/08/2014