FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas football team has a lot of mistakes to fix and not much time before opening SEC play.
The Razorbacks (1-0) play their first SEC game at Ole Miss (0-1) on Saturday night after hanging on to beat Portland State 20-13 in the season opener.
It's only the second time in the past 10 years Arkansas has played an SEC opponent in its first two games. Auburn beat the Razorbacks 45-21 in the 2014 season opener.
Arkansas was a 28-point favorite against Portland State, a Football Championship Subdivision team from the Big Sky Conference which fell to 1-19 against teams from Power 5 conferences.
"Now, you may not have played as well as you want to play, and we didn't at all," Arkansas Coach Chad Morris said. "But we won. And we're going to be able to correct off of this.
"We're going to come back in here and see this football team improve going into a big game next week in Oxford. We've got a lot of stuff we've got to correct. We played a lot of young guys, but that's part of it."
Ole Miss opened with a 15-10 loss at Memphis, which returned 14 starters from an 8-6 team and was a preseason pick to win the American Athletic Conference Western Division.
"We understand that Memphis is not a bad team," Arkansas defensive tackle McTelvin Agim said. "So even though Ole Miss lost, they didn't lose to a bad team.
"[The Rebels] have got a good coaching staff and they have good players. So we understand what we're getting ourselves into."
The Rebels and Razorbacks, picked to finish sixth and seventh respectively in the SEC West in preseason polls, were a combined 1-15 in conference play last season when Ole Miss rallied to beat Arkansas 37-33 in Little Rock.
Arkansas held a 33-24 lead in the fourth quarter, but the Rebels scored two unanswered touchdowns and put together a 97-yard drive for the game-winning score.
Rakeem Boyd had seven carries for 109 yards in the first half to help Arkansas take a 27-17 lead, but he didn't play in the second half because of a tailbone injury.
"Really, this game is for redemption," Boyd said. "This year we just have to finish."
Arkansas' last SEC victory was 38-37 at Ole Miss on Oct. 28, 2017 when Connor Limpert -- now a senior -- hit a 34-yard field goal with four seconds left.
The Rebels jumped out to a 31-7 lead in the second quarter.
"I feel like we can't go down there and start off slow down by 30," Razorbacks linebacker De'Jon Harris said. "We've just got to start off fast and it will be fun against those guys."
Arkansas quarterback Ben Hicks, a graduate transfer from SMU, will play against Ole Miss for the first time.
"We're 1-0 going into Oxford and that's all we can ask for," Hicks said. "I don't think we played great offensively, but we got the win. We'll be ready to go next week. I promise you that."
Morris said game experience will be big for the Razorbacks going to Ole Miss.
"You can practice until you're blue in the face," Morris said. "Until you put them in a game and [the coaches] get off the field and put another opponent out there that's making adjustments and playing hard, too, that's when you really grow."
Sports on 09/02/2019