Hog Calls

Gleaning positives from opening loss

Arkansas wide receiver Treylon Burks (16) carries the ball after the catch on Saturday, September 26, 2020 during the second half of a football game at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. Check out nwaonline.com/200927Daily/ for the photo gallery.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Encouragement accompanying a 37-10 season-opening defeat describes how low this Arkansas Razorbacks football program plummeted recently.

Two fired head coaches combined 1-23 in the SEC from 2017-2019 render the Coach Sam Pittman Arkansas era debuted with last Saturday's 37-10 loss to the nationally No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs marking improvement.

These by four touchdowns underdog Hogs, despite first-half field position mostly equivalent to a cliff's edge, somehow led Georgia, 7-5 at half. They even led 10-5 at 8:23 in the third quarter before devoured by the Bulldogs' bite and their own offensive and special teams miscues.

Contrast that to Arkansas' first halves last year vs. then No. 1 Alabama, then No. 11 Auburn and finally No. 1 eventual national champion LSU. Those Razorbacks of the consecutively 2-10 overall/0-8 in the SEC 2-year Chad Morris regime trailed, 17-0, 41-0 and 28-6 at intermission of 51-10, 41-0 and 56-20 routs.

Defensively under new defensive coordinator/former Missouri head coach Barry Odom there is something on which to hang these Hogs' hats.

"We definitely have confidence," Arkansas fifth-year senior middle linebacker Grant Morgan said after making a game-leading 13 tackles.

Confidence not only intangibly felt but that Razorbacks fans could see whether at Reynolds Razorbacks or home on TV.

"If you (media) would have all asked yourselves if we would have been in that game the way we were at halftime you would have said, 'No!" Morgan said. "It's different than last year because anyone who watched that game can tell we can be a good football team. It shows that we can do things that we're not expected to do by the outside world."

While this remaining entirely SEC Arkansas schedule comprises a murderer's row, these Hogs know they just played against the nation's best rushing defense. Arkansas senior running back Rakeem Boyd, a 1,133 yard rusher last year, isn't again apt to have no room to run like the 21 yards on 11 totes last Saturday.

Combine Saturday's defensive performance with both sophomore receiver Treylon Burks, 7 catches catches for 102 yards with a 49-yard touchdown, and Boyd simultaneously clicking minus the offense's three turnovers Saturday undoing Arkansas' defensive handiwork, and maybe this now 20-games Arkansas SEC losing streak will be snapped by year's end.

"We're not satisfied with we didn't get blown out," Morgan said. "We're ready to go win."

Candid that Arkansas' offense and special teams did not play well enough to win and that defense in the second half wore down, Pittman nonetheless viewed his team more confident during the game and hungrier to win after the game.

"What I like to see they were hurting after the game mentally because we lost the football game," Pittman said. "If we didn't feel that way, we'd be in major, major trouble. But I think our guys understand we can have a pretty good football team if we keep working."