FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas' youth, its future on the offensive side of the ball, was on full display Saturday afternoon in Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
For the second consecutive week, a freshman led the Razorbacks in receiving. Trey Knox finished with six catches for 88 yards in Week 2 at Ole Miss, and this weekend, he and Treylon Burks, who totaled a team-high 92 yards on four catches, shared the spotlight in Arkansas' 55-34 win over Colorado State.
The duo combined to bring down 10 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown, helping the Razorbacks match their win total from a season ago. Quarterback Nick Starkel threw their direction early and often. Knox was targeted 10 times and Burks 5.
Dating back to the start of the second half against the Rebels, Starkel has thrown their way 23 times, and for good reason.
"It just shows the confidence level that Nick has in those guys," Arkansas coach Chad Morris said. "Obviously their playmaking ability has shown up over and over and over. It doesn’t surprise me they’re able to make plays. Really proud of them.
"Again, I think they’ve got a great future ahead of them. We’ve got to keep getting them better and clean up some of the mistakes that were made. But they’re giving everything they’ve got, and that’s all you can ask."
Knox, who turned in a career-high 90 receiving yards and his first touchdown catch in the win, and Burks wasted no time impacting the Razorbacks' offense, which showed great balance in racking up 520 total yards. Starkel connected with both players for explosive plays on Arkansas' first drive of the game.
His first completion went to Burks for 38 yards to the Colorado State 37. Four plays later, Starkel trusted Knox and his 6-5, 205-pound frame with a 50-50 ball at the goalline. The play resulted in a 24-yard score.
"I told them before the season the SEC doesn't care how old you are," said Starkel, who completed 20 of 35 passes for 305 yards and three touchdowns in his first start since December 2017. "There's no age restriction in the SEC. It doesn't matter. They're freshmen. They can go out there and make plays like everybody else can.
"They go up and get the ball and I like (them) doing that. So, I like throwing to them."
Late in the fourth quarter, Knox and Burks were the only Razorbacks pass catchers with more than 14 receiving yards. Mike Woods, fresh off a career-best game at Ole Miss last weekend, had only two catches for 10 yards and Tyson Morris one for nine yards.
Then, with Arkansas up 41-34 with six minutes to play, tight end Cheyenne O'Grady joined the big-play party with an early candidate for play of the year for the Razorbacks.
After catching a wheel route from Starkel good for first-down yardage, he broke away from and bounced off of five would-be Colorado State tacklers and found the end zone for a 62-yard touchdown.
Burks caught three passes for 54 yards in the second half, two going for 17-plus yards, while Knox had four grabs after halftime for 49 yards. Rams coach Mike Bobo said Arkansas' aggressiveness in the passing game stood out on Saturday, as did the Razorbacks' star freshmen.
“They were going to come out and throw the ball and go after our corners and they did a good job," Bobo added. "You could tell that was the plan. They have two receivers that are big, they have a big tight end and (Chase Harrell) is a weapon."