FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas offensive coaches felt they could run the ball on Vanderbilt, which ranked 13th in the league and No. 102 in the country in rush defense entering the weekend by allowing 195.4 yards per game.
They were right. The Razorbacks racked up 207 rushing yards, 35 more than their season average, against the Commodores.
Players of the week
RB Chase Hayden
Hayden, with the death of his grandmother fresh on his mind, ran for 70 yards, including a 38-yard touchdown, his first of the season. The sophomore from Memphis averaged 14 yards per carry.
LB De’Jon Harris and DE Randy Ramsey
Harris, a junior from Harvey, La., had a game-high 11 tackles, including 1 tackle for loss. Ramsey, a senior from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., posted 7 tackles, including one sack for a 10-yard loss.
However, Vanderbilt was even more productive on the ground, rushing for 250 yards in its 45-31 victory at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Sophomore Rakeem Boyd posted 113 rushing yards, his third 100-yard game in the last four weeks. The only game Boyd did not reach 100 in that stretch he rushed for 99 in a 23-0 victory over Tulsa.
Sophomore Chase Hayden posted a season-high 70 yards on 5 carries against Vanderbilt, including a 38-yard touchdown for his first score of the year.
"We thought we could run the football," Coach Chad Morris said. "When we went in, we thought we could get to the edge. Teams that have played them have done a good job running the ball against them.
"That was our game plan coming in. We knew we were going to have to pass the football, but we're not a very good football team when we have to throw the ball 36 times."
The Razorbacks struggled to slow Ke'Shawn Vaughn, who churned for 172 yards and 3 touchdowns on a career-high 26 carries.
Vanderbilt Coach Derek Mason made no secret that the Commodores were going to ride Vaughn, saying on Tuesday, "It's about your dudes touching the ball."
Sack situation
Arkansas posted three sacks against Vanderbilt to record nine in its last two games. The Razorbacks are up to 20th in the country with 23 sacks on the year and they are tied for 38th with 2.56 sacks per game.
Watts happened
Defensive tackle Armon Watts is having one of the best seasons for an Arkansas interior linemen in many years.
The senior from St. Louis posted half a sack against Vanderbilt to give him six on the season. Watts had sacks in each of the first three games and has at least half a sack in six of nine games. The 6-5, 298-pounder is tied for fifth in the SEC with Auburn's Nick Coe, behind Kentucky's Josh Allen (10 sacks), Mississippi State's Montez Sweat (8.5), Alabama's Isaiah Buggs (8.5) and Florida's Jachai Polite (7).
Harris on top
Linebacker De'Jon Harris reclaimed first place on the SEC tackles chart by notching a game-high 11 Saturday. The junior will enter the final three-game stretch with 93 tackles.
Vanderbilt linebacker Jordan Griffin had surpassed Harris by posting 18 stops in each of the last two games to lead 86-82, but he came away with only 5 tackles against the Razorbacks. Griffin has 91 tackles heading into the Commodores' open date.
Hoop sons
Both of Arkansas' touchdown passes were caught by the sons of former Razorbacks basketball players. Tyson Morris, the son of Isaiah "Butch" Morris (1990-92), caught his first career touchdown pass, an 11-yard grab in the fourth quarter.
Cheyenne O'Grady, the son of Larry Marks (1988-90), caught a 12-yard touchdown pass with 14 seconds remaining, his fourth of the season and the seventh of his career.
Going early
Both teams started fast with the early kickoff in the 11 a.m. game.
Arkansas scored a touchdown on its first possession of the game for the first time this season, driving 75 yards with the opening kick to go on top 7-0 on Rakeem Boyd's 5-yard touchdown.
The Commodores answered with just their second opening-possession touchdown of the year on Ke'Shawn Vaughn's 63-yard touchdown run at the 8:02 mark.
Vanderbilt had raced to leads of 17-3 against Nevada and 21-3 over Florida in its two previous 11 a.m. games.
No Cole
Sophomore quarterback Cole Kelley did not take a snap on Saturday, marking the first time this season he did not play in a game.
Asked why Kelley did not see action, Coach Chad Morris said, "I don't think we got into third and short."
The Razorbacks converted 6 of 12 third-down plays, including Chase Hayden's 2-yard run on third and 1 from the Vanderbilt 7 on Arkansas' first possession.
Arkansas had a third and 3 in the second quarter -- which went incomplete on Ty Storey's short pass intended for La'Michael Pettway -- and a third and 2 in the fourth quarter when Storey connected for 10 yards to Cheyenne O'Grady during the two-minute drill late in the game.
Arkansas averaged 6.25 yards needed on its third-down snaps.
Illegal set
Chad Morris was fuming on the sidelines and still unhappy during his postgame remarks when asked about an illegal formation penalty in the first quarter with Arkansas facing second and 8 from the Vanderbilt 44 in a 7-7 game.
"Critical," Morris said. "Wide receiver's not lined up on the line of scrimmage. We're right there and it's on our sidelines. He called it and we'll go back and look at it. Our guys went out there and stated that they were 'on' and that's the way we communicate with the officials. We'll look at it and move forward from there."
Stat chat
Arkansas will enter its open date ranked 12th in the SEC in both total offense and total defense. The Razorbacks are giving up 412.9 yards per game, a half a yard worse per game than Vanderbilt (412.4), and ahead of Missouri (414.8) and Ole Miss (497.8). Both teams allowed slightly more than their averages in the Commodores' 45-31 victory, with Arkansas gaining 447 yards to Vanderbilt's 442.
Arkansas now averages 378.4 yards per game, more than Kentucky (362.1) and Tennessee (350.6).
Passing 2,000
Vanderbilt's Kyle Shurmur became the second quarterback in school history to surpass 2,000 passing yards in three separates seasons during Saturday's game at Arkansas.
The senior passed for 192 yards against the Razorbacks to reach 2,037 for the season. He passed for 2,823 yards last year and 2,409 yards as a sophomore.
The only previous Vanderbilt quarterback to hit the 2,000-yard mark three times was Greg Zolman in 1999-2001.
Extra points
• Connor Limpert's 55-yard field goal in the third quarter was the seventh-longest in Arkansas history.
• Arkansas leads the all-time series against Vanderbilt 7-3, but the Hogs fell to 30-43 against SEC East opponents since joining the SEC in 1992. The Razorbacks' last victory over an SEC East team was their 31-10 upset of No. 11 Florida on Nov. 5, 2016, their first over the Gators as an SEC team.
• Arkansas scored 30-plus points for the third time in the last four games.
Sports on 10/29/2018