FAYETTEVILLE — Colorado State will enter Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday with one of the most prolific offenses in the nation.
The Rams, with junior quarterback Collin Hill leading the way, rank No. 7 in the FBS with 385 passing yards per game and No. 13 in total offense with 545 yards per game.
The 6-4 Hill is No. 6 in the nation with 370 passing yards per game and No. 25 in passing efficiency with a rating of 173.9.
“He is an NFL quarterback,” Arkansas defensive coordinator John Chavis said. “There’s no question about that.”
Hill has completed 56 of 79 passes (70.8%) for 741 yards, with 7 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
“They look, obviously, much improved from a year ago,” Arkansas Coach Chad Morris said. “These guys are definitely playing extremely well.”
Colorado State freshman receiver and return man Dante Wright and junior tailback Marvin Kinsey Jr., are both in the top 20 in all-purpose yardage. Wright ranks eighth with 164.5 yards per game, while Kinsey is 19th at 145 yards per game.
“They’re going to be more physical this year,” Arkansas linebacker De’Jon Harris said. “They look better on film. More athletic. We know they’re going to come out with their best A-game and we’ve just got to come with ours.”
3rd down talk
The Razorbacks were identical in their third-down conversions the first two weeks, going 5 of 15 against both Portland State and Ole Miss.
The 10 of 30 conversion rate (33.3%) is tied for 100th among FBS teams, and in the SEC only Vanderbilt (31%) has a worse rate.
Colorado State enters Saturday’s game having converted half (13 of 26) of its third downs to tie for 29th nationally.
Blocking out
Cheyenne O’Grady’s first action of the year last week included three catches for 46 yards and a couple of other missed opportunities, but his work in the run game was rusty.
“Honestly, I was really frustrated with how I blocked the last game,” O’Grady said. “I thought I was very soft and wasn’t using my hands like I thought I should. It was really sloppy fundamentals. This week I’m working on it every day, even in my off-time, working on shooting my hands to get them inside and not outside where I can get controlled by the defender.”
Chad Morris said O’Grady looked like a guy playing in his first game of the year.
“I thought there were some things he did well,” Morris said. “Obviously he made the great catch across the middle. But I also thought we weren’t as physical in the run game as we want to be with him.”
Takeaway trends
Colorado State has just one takeaway this season, defensive end Jan-Phillip Bombek’s forced fumble and recovery last week. The Rams have six turnovers of their own, including four lost fumbles, giving them a minus-2.5 turnover margin. That rate ties for 126th in the nation with Purdue, ahead of only Hawaii, New Mexico State and Virginia Tech, who are at minus-3 per game.
“Protecting the ball would be No. 1,” Colorado State Coach Mike Bobo said when asked what areas the Rams needed to improve the most. “We’re awful in the turnover ratio.”
The Razorbacks are closer to the other end of the spectrum with a plus-1.5 turnover margin per game to tie for 12th in the country. Arkansas has five takeaways, including two each from safeties Kam Curl and Joe Foucha. In the SEC, only Alabama and Mississippi State at plus-2.5 rank better.
CSU vs SEC
Colorado State is 3-13 against teams currently in the SEC. The Rams won 18-17 at LSU in 1992, defeated Missouri 35-24 in the 1997 Holiday Bowl when the Tigers were in the Big 12, and defeated Arkansas 34-27 last season in Fort Collins, Colo.
The Rams split two games against the SEC last season when they lost at Florida 48-10 the week after beating Arkansas.
‘Mountain’ to climb
The Razorbacks are entering a danger zone in their next two games, even if they’re at home, by facing Mountain West opponents Colorado State and San Jose State.
The Mountain West leads all 10 FBS conferences with six victories (a 6-5 record) against Power 5 leagues through two weeks. The SEC is 5-3 against other Power 5 opponents.
The Razorbacks have a 14-2 record against current Mountain West clubs, including 3-1 vs. Colorado State.
Taking hits
Arkansas quarterback Nick Starkel said the hits in an SEC game are little harder, and he likes it that way.
“That’s part of the game,” said Starkel, who transferred in from Texas A&M. “Shoot, if I carry out my run fake good enough they’re going to hit me every time. If I didn’t want to get hit I wouldn’t play football.”
Coach Chad Morris isn’t as excited about his quarterback taking a hit as Starkel.
“I don't really like him getting hit,” Morris said. “But I do think it's part of his job to carry those fakes out and try to pull someone with him.”
Go West young men
Colorado State’s depth chart is loaded with players from the South.
It’s it’s not a surprise considering Rams Coach Mike Bobo is from Thomasville, Ga., played quarterback at Georgia and was an assistant coach with the Bulldogs for 14 seasons.
“It’s got a lot to do with relationships of where you’ve been and who you know,” Bobo said. “In recruiting, the coaches and their parents want to send their players and sons to someone they know and trust.
“A lot of people I know are in the South, so the people that are going to vouch for my character are in those areas.”
Of the 44 players on the Rams’ two-deep, 27 are from Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Maryland. Ten of those players are from Georgia.
“Just the contacts there have helped us get some, and then we get guys on visits, they see how beautiful Colorado is and Fort Collins,” Bobo said. “I’ve said this a thousand times, but a reaction I usually get is, ‘This isn’t what I was expecting when I came on this trip.’“
One of those nights
Senior Connor Limpert’s placekicking has been a bright spot for Arkansas the past three seasons, but he struggled at Ole Miss last week.
Limpert, who came into the game having hit 29 of 35 field goal attempts since 2017, went 1 of 2 against the Rebels and nearly missed both. His 36-yard try in the second quarter hit the right upright and bounced over the crossbar, then his 43-yard kick was wide right.
“Connor’s been very reliable and very dependable for this program,” Coach Chad Morris said. "I have no other indication that he won’t continue to be that way. It was just one of those nights.”
Bobo and Chavis
Colorado State Coach Mike Bobo will face Arkansas defensive coordinator John Chavis for the 23rd time Saturday.
Bobo was a quarterback at Georgia, then a graduate assistant and assistant coach for the Bulldogs the first 21 times his team went against Chavis at Tennessee or LSU, then last season as the Rams’ coach he faced the Razorbacks
“I know Coach Chavis really well,” Bobo said. “He’s got his defense playing extremely hard. I’ve gone against him several years as a player and as a coach. There are slight changes, but still very similar. He’s going to play the run and blitz their guys and he’s going to try to cause your quarterback to be unsettled.”
Bobo was 0-4 against Chavis’ teams as a player from 1993-97, 0-2 as a graduate assistant from 1998-99, 6-5 as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator from 2001-2014 and is 1-0 as a head coach.
Call crew
The SEC Network crew assigned to the Arkansas-Colorado State game are Dave Neal on play by play, DJ Shockley as analyst and Dawn Davenport as sideline reporter. The same crew worked the Razorbacks’ season-opening 20-13 victory over Portland State.