FAYETTEVILLE — In the University of Arkansas’ revitalized passing game, veteran receivers Treylon Burks and Mike Woods have taken turns breaking out.
Burks notched three 100-yard receiving games in his first four games, including a career-high 11 catches for 137 yards in a 33-21 win over Ole Miss.
Burks added two more 90-plus yard games. The 6-3, 232-pounder from Warren has a team-high six touchdown catches after not getting into the end zone as a true freshman in 2019.
Top Targets
Treylon Burks and Mike Woods have proven to be the top targets for Feleipe Franks in the Arkansas passing game. Burks had 100-yard games against Georgia, Ole Miss and Texas A&M, and Woods had 100-yard games against Florida and LSU. A look at their season stats:
Burks: 39 rec., 598 yards, 6 TDs, 15.3-yard avg.
Woods: 27 rec., 553 yards, 5 TDs, 20.5-yard avg.
In the past two games, Woods has broken into the spotlight with back-to-back career highs bolstered by a jaw-dropping 44.8 yards per catch.
The passing game has gotten a boost from first-year offensive coordinator Kendal Briles conceiving and calling the plays, and veteran quarterback Feleipe Franks executing them.
Arkansas entered the weekend ranked seventh in the SEC with 252.5 passing yards per game. Franks is fourth in the conference with 252.1 ypg, and although he’s spread the ball around to a good array of pass catchers, Burks and Woods have emerged as his top targets with two games remaining for the Razorbacks (3-5).
Burks joined Eddie “Boo” Williams as the fastest Razorbacks to 1,000 receiving yards with his five catches for 90 yards against LSU last Saturday. He hit the 1,000-yard milestone in his 18th game, just as Williams did in his two-year stint with the Razorbacks (1999-2000), when he racked up 80 catches for 1,123 yards and 11 touchdowns in 19 games.
The sophomore will enter his next game with 68 receptions for 1,073 yards and 6 touchdowns in his first 18 games. He has scored a touchdown in five of the seven games in which he has played this fall, including a pair against Texas A&M.
His 65-yard catch from Franks in the first quarter gave Arkansas a 7-3 lead against LSU, the Razorbacks’ first advantage in the Battle for the Golden Boot since posting a 31-14 upset over the Tigers in Baton Rouge in 2015.
Woods, a 6-1 junior from Magnolia, Texas, has found deep releases down the right sideline to his liking in the past three games, beating one cornerback after the other for huge plays.
“I feel good, I feel confident, but I’ve always felt that way,” Woods said after the Razorbacks’ 27-24 loss to LSU. “I’m glad now that it’s clicking, but we’ve got to get the win at the end of the day.”
Burks and Woods are the only Arkansas pass catches who have more than 20 receptions. They are the only healthy Razorbacks with more than 200 receiving yards, now that senior De’Vion Warren (15 catches, 278 yards, 3 TDs) is out for the season due to a torn knee ligament.
Woods torched a couple of different LSU cornerbacks for 50-yard catches during Arkansas’ scoring drives, and he also drew a big pass interference call against Jay Ward that led to a Franks’ touchdown run.
The prior week, Woods raced beyond Florida corners Kaiir Elam and Chester Kimbrough for touchdowns of 47 and 82 yards. His last 6 catches have resulted in 269 yards and 2 touchdowns, leading to the nearly 45 yards per-catch figure. His season average of 20.48 yards per catch trails only Alabama’s John Metchie (21.4) among SEC pass catchers.
“Well, he’s a competitor, you know,” Coach Sam Pittman said. “He really has good hands. It takes a good receiver to win against a good corner, a good press corner. Mike’s big and he’s long and so he’s able to do that, so really proud of him.”
Woods is not satisfied with his improving personal statistics.
“We’ve got to go back to work,” he said. “I’ve got to go back to work, because I’m sure there’s things I can get better at. I’ve got to watch the film and keep improving.”
The same thing could be said for Burks, who appeared to play with some tentativeness against LSU, both on a couple of early runs and in not fielding some short punts that rolled deep into Arkansas territory.
Pittman was supportive of his star wideout earlier this week while also critiquing his inability to field a couple of LSU punts.
“He’s such a wonderful person,” Pittman said. “Just such a wonderful kid, and he has such a special skill set. And he’s big, and has big hands … those things.”
Pittman said Burks needs to become a more engaged practice player.
“That’s not a negative,” he said. “That’s just, we have a lot of guys that have to become better practice players. For us to reach where we need to get, we’ve got to have a little bit more urgency at practice.”
Without pointing out Burks by name, Pittman said in an evaluation of special teams play against LSU, “We have to field punts. We have to put somebody back there that’s going to field the punt. You can look at it however you want. We lost 39 yards in letting the punt land. Whether we return it a yard or not, if we just catch the ball that’s plus-39 yards.”
Nathan Parodi came into the game late against LSU to field punts, and Pittman said the coaches could scout for other returners.
“We’ll look at some guys on punt returns,” he said. “Obviously, some of the balls were kicked short and different things of that nature, but we’ll look at some guys and we’ll get our best guy back there that we feel like could have some production there.”