NO. 8 ARKANSAS VS. LOUISIANA-MONROE

Arkansas’ defense must mesh quickly

Arkansas defensive back Tevin Mitchel pulls down Jacksonville State running back DaMarcus James on Saturday night.

— Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Haynes said Jacksonville State threw the ball “a little more than we expected” during the Razorbacks’ 49-24 seasonopening victory.

Arkansas talked up Jacksonville State’s prowess in the option game and shut it down early. But the Gamecocks piled up 227 yards, 10 first downs and 2 touchdowns through the air, giving Louisiana-Monroe and other opponents an inducement to try their luck against Arkansas’ revamped secondary.

“As the game went on, the guys kind of got a little bit better,” defensive coordinator and safeties coach Paul Haynes said.

“We gave up a lot of shortgame, like slants,” safety Eric Bennett said. “You can’t give up slants in man coverage. Another thing, when the quarterback started scrambling, we weren’t used to that. When the quarterback starts scrambling, you have to get on top of your man and don’t look back.”

The Warhawks really don’t need any more encouragement to pass. Coach Todd Berry’s team threw for an average of 237.6 yards a game last season. Quarterback Kolton Browning, a redshirt junior whose first start came two years ago against Arkansas, ranked No. 39 nationally with 243.8 yards per game last season and can be dangerous with his legs.

“He does a great job of scrambling and finding the open guy,” Haynes said. “The receivers, you can tell, they already know he’s going to take off, so they’re sitting there coming back to the ball and you’ve got guys going up the field.”

Broken plays that turned into productive plays hurt the Hogs last week, such as Marques Ivory’s 10-yard touchdown throw to Alan Bonner with 8 seconds left in the half.

“On one play, we had the quarterback sacked and he got out of it,” Arkansas safety Ross Rasner said. “A receiver fell down in the end zone and he stands up and just hits him with the ball,”

Arkansas ranked No. 17 nationally last season in pass efficiency defense, but the Razorbacks will take a No. 48 ranking in that category into Saturday’s game against pass-heavy Louisiana-Monroe at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

“I feel like we definitely can get better on the back end, and this definitely is a week to prove that we are better than what people think we are on the back end of our defense,” cornerback Kaelon Kelleybrew said.

After losing several veterans in the secondary and changing schemes with the arrival of Haynes, some early hiccups could have been expected.

“It was probably a typical first game,” Haynes said. “You’ve got a lot of new starters out there. You’ve got a lot of new guys out there, some different positions, but our expectation is high.”

The personnel sorting will continue, particularly at the cornerback spot opposite Tevin Mitchel. Senior Darius Winston gave up a 31-yard pass on a third-and-5 that led to Jacksonville State’s first touchdown, and he was replaced by Kelleybrew.

“It’s a little bit of a senior that we need a lot of production out of and our expectation of him is high,” Haynes said of Winston. “He had a good camp.”

Haynes said the Kelleybrew-Winston battle would carry on all week and is “up for grabs” before a starter is named.

“Kelleybrew, he plays OK, he does a decent job, but Darius has to just step up now and earn that spot back,” Coach John L. Smith said.

Rasner led the team with 11 tackles. Mitchel had 6 tackles, redshirt freshman safety Rohan Gaines, who wound up playing 60-plus snaps, had 5 tackles, while Bennett and Kelleybrew had 4 each.

Kelleybrew said his first game action in two years was a rush.

“I just had to dust some of the cobwebs off and get back in the groove of playing,” he said. “Other than that, it was how I expected it to be.”

Arkansas held the Gamecocks to three points in the second half and 95 rushing yards, a figure that could have been stronger if not for a series that netted 50 yards on the ground late in the third quarter and another drive that reached the Arkansas 8 before a failed fourth-down play.

“Really, it’s never as good as it seems and it’s never as bad as it seems,” said Haynes, who has emphasized stopping the run first since his arrival last December.

Haynes said the biggest negatives were giving up a 75-yard touchdown drive in Jacksonville State’s two-minute drive before the half, and a few series late in the game.

“We gave up almost 70 yards in the last three series of the game,” he said. “There were three big plays there. So we’ve got to finish.”

Sports, Pages 15 on 09/06/2012