FAYETTEVILLE -- The Hot Seat Bowl was no contest.
Mississippi State bludgeoned the sluggish Arkansas Razorbacks with a record-setting running game and dealt the Hogs a 54-24 defeat on homecoming before an announced crowd of 52,256 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday.
University of Arkansas Coach Chad Morris billed the final month as a November to remember, but his Razorbacks (2-7, 0-6 SEC) were dismembered on the way to the program's 17th consecutive conference loss. The Razorbacks tied their longest SEC losing streak, a 17-game skid from 2012-14 in which a 17-10 loss at No. 1 Mississippi State was the final setback. Arkansas will face current No. 1 LSU in three weeks with that 17-loss SEC streak on the line.
Morris, listed as owning the second-hottest seat in the country by the website CoachesHotSeat.com, fell to 0-14 against SEC teams as the Razorbacks lost their sixth consecutive game. Arkansas opened the season with bowl hopes but were eliminated from postseason eligibility while falling to 2-3 at home.
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"I was extremely disappointed," said Morris, who lost by 30-plus points for the seventh time in his 21-game Arkansas career. "Nothing about today's performance was a part of any part of our practice this week. We had great energy. There was great attention to detail. The meetings were really good. Very disappointing."
Mississippi State (4-5, 2-4) snapped a four-game losing streak by beating Arkansas for the seventh time in eight games. The Bulldogs amassed 640 total yards and 460 rushing yards, both school records vs. an SEC opponent.
"We weren't tackling well, and we weren't setting our edge well, so they basically just took advantage of it," Arkansas defensive tackle McTelvin Agim said.
Arkansas linebacker De'Jon Harris, the Crip Hall Award winner as the top senior on homecoming, said the Bulldogs ran exactly what the Hogs practiced against all week.
"We just didn't make the plays or make the tackles, period," Harris said. "We just tackled poorly today. This was probably one of our worst tackling games we've had, and we've been poor basically all year, really."
Mississippi State Coach Joe Moorhead, who was No. 1 on CoachesHotSeat.com, improved to 2-0 against Arkansas by a combined score of 106-30.
"I challenged our kids at the beginning of the week to do all the little things right off the field and to be great with our accountability," Moorhead said.
The Razorbacks have been outscored 153-41 in their past three games in losses to Auburn, Alabama and Mississippi State. The combined margin of 112 points ranks as the second-worst three-game sequence since Arkansas joined the SEC, behind only a 117-point three-game losing margin against Florida, Alabama and South Carolina in 2013.
The game was not a complete disaster for the Razorbacks, with young players showing the fans a glimmer of hope for the future.
Freshman quarterbacks John Stephen Jones and KJ Jefferson led touchdown drives in the second half after senior Ben Hicks played most of the first half.
Jefferson, in particular, provided a spark with a five-play touchdown drive on his first series in the fourth quarter. He ran for 21 yards on a keeper on his first snap, completed a 32-yard pass to Treylon Burks to reach the Mississippi State 5, then charged into the end zone on the next play to draw the Razorbacks within 48-24.
Jones directed a 59-yard touchdown drive on Arkansas' second possession of the second half. The series ended with his perfectly thrown fade ball to Mike Woods for an 11-yard touchdown on fourth and 7.
Burks provided 180 all-purpose yards, including five kickoff returns for 134 yards.
Mississippi State, subdued offensively much of the past four weeks, racked up a 640-285 advantage in total offense. Kylin Hill ran for a career-high 234 yards and three touchdowns to spur the Bulldogs' rushing effort. Second-team tailback Nick Gibson added 129 yards and a breakaway 47-yard touchdown. Hill averaged 11.1 yards per carry, and Gibson had 10.8.
Tommy Stevens, who had previously been the Bulldogs' "passing" quarterback, made his first start since Oct. 12 and rushed for 74 yards and passed for 172 yards and 2 touchdowns.
"The success of our offense comes with our ability to run the ball successfully," Moorhead said. "When that happens, teams have to support the run with secondary force, linebacker force or pressure, and that creates one-on-ones on the perimeter and allows us to take some shots up field.
"We did a great job getting movement at the line of scrimmage being physical, and I thought the running backs ran behind their pads, and I thought Tommy and the quarterbacks did a great job of getting the ball to the players it needed to go to."
Mississippi State won the turnover battle 2-1. Safety Marcus Murphy returned an interception off Hicks for a 32-yard touchdown to cap the Bulldogs' 21-0 run to end the first half with a 38-10 lead.
Arkansas went with Hicks at quarterback and came out sluggish on offense to match their early listlessness on both sides of the ball. Hicks was 4 of 13 with 1 interception for 44 yards.
Rakeem Boyd had 114 rushing yards and a touchdown on 11 carries to average 10.4 ypc.
Mississippi State scored on its first three possessions and led 17-0 less than a minute into the second quarter.
Arkansas got off the deck on its fourth series. The sequence started with Hicks' 9-yard comeback pass to Trey Knox on which cornerback Cam Dantzler got away with lifting and slamming Knox to the ground right in front of the protesting Arkansas bench.
On the next snap, Boyd headed for the left edge and was sprung by blocks from left tackle Myron Cunningham and Burks to reach the secondary. He slipped out of a diving tackle attempt and raced 52 yards to make it 17-7.
Other than a muffed punt, the Bulldogs owned the rest of the half with their dominating run game.
Morris said he expected the Razorbacks to hold the rope despite being eliminated from postseason eligibility.
"We've got three games left," he said. "We've got two games in front of our home crowd. It's about having some pride, and playing and responding."
Sports on 11/03/2019