FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas defensive backs Montaric Brown and Simeon Blair said the timing was good to get secondary mates Jarques McClellion, Devin Bush and Joe Foucha back this week.
The Razorbacks (0-1) face No. 16 Mississippi State (1-0) in their road opener on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Quarterback K.J. Costello passed for an SEC-record 623 yards in the Bulldogs’ 44-34 upset of No. 6 LSU last week.
“It feels great,” said Brown, a junior who had the Razorbacks’ first interception last week in the first quarter. “Those guys are going to provide depth and rotate with the corners and help us a lot in the Mississippi State game.”
The redshirt freshman Bush and McClellion, a 12-game starter at cornerback last year, were slated to come back Monday and today, respectively, from a layoff that might have been related to covid-19 testing or contact tracing. Foucha had three tackles in the 37-10 loss to Georgia while playing sparingly behind Blair.
“Yeah, that’s going to help us a lot because they like throwing verticals and they like to throw the ball a lot,” Blair said. “So … it’s good that we’re getting that depth back at the right time when we’re playing this team who loves to throw the ball a lot.”
Costello completed 36 of 60 passes last week, when the Bulldogs called 65 pass plays and 11 running plays.
Burks’ breakthrough
Sophomore receiver Treylon Burks took his first college touchdown in stride. Burks got on the board with a 49-yard strike from Feleipe Franks midway through the first quarter on which the Warren product ran the final 22 yards after the catch.
“I’m not really worried about the touchdown,” Burks said. “When I scored it was a big hooray, but I was ready to get back to my teammates and get back on offense and start working.
“Rakeem and Feleipe, they’ve been pushing us the whole week just to get better at things we did wrong during the week of last week and during the game. It’s good to have them as team captains and big leaders.”
Bandwagon
Athletic department officials at Mississippi State rounded up a bandwagon on which to film Mike Leach and some members of the band for a promo video on Monday.
On the video, Leach says there’s room on the Bulldogs’ bandwagon, which is flying a maroon flag with a skull and crossbones, a reference to Leach’s fascination with pirates.
“They wanted a wagon, so we went over there to the stadium and climbed in,” Leach said. “That was fairly athletic if I do say so myself, getting on top of that wagon.
“It was kind of funny. So I climbed in the wagon using the hub and the spokes, like you see them do in Westerns, but they didn’t have the brake on, so that wheel starts turning and the wagon starts going backward. But it was an adventure, and I heard it turned out pretty cool.”
Sounds around
The Razorbacks, who played in front of 16,500 fans and piped-in crowd noise at a modified volume at Reynolds Razorback Stadium last week, will have a different experience Saturday.
Mississippi State fans are expected to be allowed to bring their cowbells to the game, which will also feature a greatly reduced crowd size. While the cowbells are artificial noise-makers that are banned by the SEC, the league makes an exception for the Bulldogs as long as their fans “ring responsibly” and not prior to plays.
The Razorbacks have incorporated a soundtrack that includes crowd noise and the bells at practice this week.
“Coach Pitt[man] has those sounds in practice when we run plays, so we get used to it,” cornerback Montaric Brown said. “It’s been going great.”
Added offensive guard Brady Latham, “I don’t think the noise will affect us that much. Just like last week when we played the [Georgia] fight song. You want to be locked in. That’s our opponent this week, that’s our challenge and we’re ready to go. The sound won’t affect us.”
Let it go
Folks in Starkville, Miss., are going bonkers for the Bulldogs after Saturday’s 44-34 upset of defending national champion LSU, but first-year Coach Mike Leach needs his players to keep their heads in check.
“The biggest thing is really just constant emphasis, and it starts in the weight room on Sunday,” Leach said. “The other teams have talked about the 24-hour rule — let it go after 24 hours — and we officially try to seal it up after our Sunday practice, and then constantly reinforce it and then also try to get some of your team leaders to reinforce it with the rest of the group. But you know just focus on the next task at hand which is watching film for Arkansas and preparing our game plan for this week.”
20-yard plays
Arkansas posted four plays of 20-plus yards, all in the passing game, during the opener.
The Razorbacks held Georgia to just three plays of 20-plus yards.
Arkansas’ pass plays of 20 or more yards came on Treylon Burks’ 49-yard touchdown from Feleipe Franks; De’Vion Warren’s 28-yard catch and run in the first quarter to set up the touchdown; Burks’ 27-yard catch on a crossing route in the third quarter; and Burks’ 20-yard catch late in the first half.
Big hitters
The Arkansas defense scored a couple of wow-factor hits in the season opener, starting with linebacker Bumper Pool’s two-armed blasting of quarterback D’Wan Mathis at the Arkansas sideline.
Mathis appeared to be cruising out of bounds on a third-and-9 play on Georgia’s first series when Pool laid a crushing hit at the end of a 5-yard run. On the Bulldogs’ next series, Mathis ran out of bounds a yard short of the first-down marker on a third-down scramble when it appeared he had room to reach the chain.
In the third quarter, safety Jalen Catalon laid a bone-jarring hit on Kearis Jackson on a slant route over the left side.