Hog Calls

UA goes whole Hogs in victory over Tech

Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema is all smiles after his offense scored a TD against Texas Tech in the 4th q during their game at Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock Saturday on Sept. 13, 2014.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Coach Bret Bielema has stressed how important it was for Arkansas to avoid another second-half collapse like the one it suffered in a 45-21 season-opening loss at Auburn.

Saturday, Arkansas did to Texas Tech in the second half what Auburn did to Arkansas on Aug. 30 -- it dominated.

The Razorbacks followed up their 73-7 rout of hapless Nicholls State and rolled from a 28-21 halftime lead to a 49-28 victory over the Big 12's slightly favored Texas Tech Red Raiders at Tech's Jones Stadium.

Routing Nicholls State certainly helped Arkansas' psyche. It ended a school-record string of 10 consecutive defeats, which included losing the final nine games last season.

Getting that Nicholls victory and learning from the loss at Auburn proved pivotal for an Arkansas team prepping for its second road trip.

These Hogs went into Lubbock, Texas, with a whole-Hog approach.

They knew they were the physically dominant team that could and would impose their will. And they certainly did.

"I think this was the blessing of the Auburn game to be quite honest," Bielema said afterward. "Obviously we wanted to win that game. We battled hard but we didn't play four quarters. I think our guys knew coming into today that we were going to play two quarters, we were going to come into the locker room and talk about it and come out and play another two and that's exactly what happened."

The Razorbacks dominated the clock as well as the scoreboard in the second half against Tech, hogging the ball for 12:45 of the third quarter's 15 minutes. They held it for 11:10 of the fourth quarter while outscoring Tech, 14-0.

Limiting a no-huddle, uptempo team to six offensive minutes for a half is like presenting a 6-year-old boy a room full of toys and yanking the toys away before he can play.

All second-year Tech Coach Kliff Kingsbury could do Saturday was watch helplessly as Arkansas rushed 68 times for 438 yards and 7 touchdowns while using more than 40 minutes of the 60-minute clock.

Kingsbury might be innovative -- he was Texas A&M's offensive coordinator for Johnny Manziel during his 2012 Heisman season -- but there's not much you can do without the football.

"I used to always enjoy watching games when you are playing [against] a no-huddle offense and you see that coach over there pacing around the sidelines because he just wants that ball back," Bielema said. "And if you kind of say, 'Hey, hey I got it, you can't have it,' it's a lot of fun."

It was fun for Bielema during his seven vintage years at Wisconsin, and it was fun for him Saturday, as he enjoyed his first vintage Arkansas victory over a power-conference opponent.

Sports on 09/15/2014