BATON ROUGE -- University of Arkansas football players said the transition to interim Coach Barry Lunney Jr., coupled with an open date, helped the Razorbacks take a fresh approach, and a solid start, in Saturday's 56-20 loss at No. 1 LSU.
"I thought we came out with a lot of energy and intensity in the first half," Arkansas linebacker De'Jon Harris said.
"The last two weeks we had together [Lunney] was just trying to bring everybody back tighter. We felt like we lost some heart as a team the way the season had went. It was just basic as a message. As an interim coach he just wanted to keep things basic and just go out there and show we had some heart and fight."
Lunney said he was proud of the grit the Razorbacks showed during preparation for the game and in the early going, when the Razorbacks pulled within 7-6 with 9:43 left in the second quarter on Connor Limpert's 47-yard field goal.
The Razorbacks, speaking publicly Saturday for the first time since the firing of Coach Chad Morris on Nov. 10, were complimentary of the work Lunney and the coaching staff did in the lead-up to the LSU game.
"He's done a great job just by handling all the stuff that's been going on," tailback Rakeem Boyd said. "He's done it right. We're behind him."
Added safety Kamren Curl, "It's been cool. Coach Lunney has been here as long as I've been here. He's a good coach. I'm behind him 100 percent. I feel like these final weeks of the season we're in good hands."
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Burks goes big
Arkansas wide receiver Treylon Burks led the team with three catches for 80 yards to pass a milestone.
Burks became the fourth Arkansas freshman to surpass the 400-yard receiving mark when he hauled in a 31-yard pass from KJ Jefferson over two defenders in the first quarter.
Burks, a 6-3, 223-pounder from Warren, is third on the team with 28 receptions and first with 469 receiving yards.
Tiger talk
LSU became the first SEC team ever with a 4,000-yard passer, two 1,000-yard receivers and a 1,000-yard running back when tailback Clyde Edwards-Helaire cracked the rushing milestone on his 89-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Earlier in the game, quarterback Joe Burrow, who threw three touchdown passes, pushed his season total to 4,014 passing yards.
The Tigers amassed 612 yards to break their school single-season record with 6,172 yards total offense and still have a minimum of three games to pile on to that total
Bowl drought
The Razorbacks, who at 2-9 are ineligible for the postseason, will have their first three-year bowl drought in 25 years.
The last time Arkansas did not receive a bowl invitation came from 1992-94, the program's first three seasons in the SEC and interim Coach Barry Lunney Jr's first three years as an Arkansas quarterback. The Razorbacks broke that dry spell by winning the SEC West in 1995 and qualifying for their first SEC Championship Game in Coach Danny Ford's third season at the helm.
Arkansas also went without a bowl from 1972-74 under Coach Frank Broyles, even though the Razorbacks did not have a losing record in that span.
The Hogs had a four-year span without a postseason invitation from 1955-58, but that was well before the proliferation of bowl games.
2 of 3
LSU got off to a rousing start by scoring a touchdown on its first series. The Tigers tallied on quarterback Joe Burrow's 37-yard pass to Ja'Marr Chase on the game's sixth snap.
However, the Razorbacks held LSU on its next two series, including a three-and-out on the Tigers' second sequence, which led to an Arkansas field goal.
"We started out slow," Burrow said. "Two of our first three drives didn't end in points and that's not like us. We've been scoring on our first five, six, seven drives. So that was a little disappointing. We got it going in the second quarter and the second half, and we had a really good two-minute drill, so that was exciting for our team."
Asked what happened to slow the Tigers, Burrow said they were hurting themselves.
"We had penalties on one drive and then missed assignments on the other," he said. "We just got those cleaned up and we got back to business as usual."
Tiger stop
One week after allowing 402 rushing yards to Ole Miss in its 58-37 victory over the Rebels, LSU limited Arkansas to 114 rushing yards, including 26 lost yards in sacks, on Saturday.
The Razorbacks tried to get freshman quarterback KJ Jefferson on the edge, especially early in the game, but the Tigers made adjustments to their schemes after Ole Miss quarterback John Rhys Plumlee ran for 212 yards and 4 touchdowns last week.
"They ran the same plays that Ole Miss ran, and obviously I thought we stopped them now with the same type of quarterback," LSU Coach Ed Orgeron said. "Obviously I don't think this quarterback was as good as Ole Miss' guy, but we made some corrections.
"In fact, the first play was the same play that hurt us and we did a great job on it, so I'm proud of our defensive staff."
Sports on 11/25/2019