The University of Arkansas defense showed Mississippi State quarterback K.J. Costello that playing in the SEC isn’t as easy as he made it look a week ago.
The Razorbacks held Costello to 310 fewer passing yards and four fewer touchdown passes than he had last week in his SEC debut at LSU as Arkansas beat the Bulldogs 21-14 on Saturday night at Davis-Wade Stadium in Starkville, Miss.
Arkansas kept Costello — a senior graduate transfer from Stanford — in check much better than defending national champion LSU, which he torched for an SEC-record 623 passing yards and five touchdowns in the Bulldogs’ 44-34 upset victory at Tiger Stadium.
Costello completed 43 of 59 passes for 313 yards against Arkansas, but for just 1 touchdown while being intercepted 3 times in Coach Mike Leach’s “Air Raid” offense.
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“It’s a testament to Coach Odom,” Arkansas junior linebacker Bumper Pool said in praising defensive coordinator Barry Odom. “Our game plan was perfect. We just went out there and executed.”
The game plan called for the Razorbacks to go with just three defensive linemen — nose guard Jonathan Marshall, and ends Zach Williams and Eric Gregory started — and drop eight players into zone coverage.
Gregory recorded the Razorbacks’ only sack of Costello after LSU sacked him five times, but the Tigers stubbornly continued to play man-to-man defense.
“It was a great game plan, and it looked good on Monday,” Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said of Odom’s work. “It did. It looked good on Monday.
“We thought we could execute it and all that, then put a little twist in it here and there. Barry Odom, he’s a good football coach. Barry’s really got those guys playing hard.”
Odom’s game plan looked even better Saturday night than it did Monday.
“We were so prepared,” Pool said.
Pool led the Razorbacks with 20 tackles, senior linebacker Grant Morgan had 15 and redshirt freshman Jalen Catalon had 13.
“We knew with the game plan we would have to make a lot of tackles, because we were letting them have the underneath routes,” Pool said. “So as a unit we did a phenomenal job of getting to the ball fast and making plays.”
Sophomore nickel back Greg Brooks Jr. got the Razorbacks off to a good start when he had a 69-yard interception return for a touchdown on a second-and-7 play from the UA 34 on Mississippi State’s first possession.
“That just jump-started the whole defense,” Pool said. “If we had a fast start, we knew we could stay with what we had. I think it worked out pretty well.”
Sophomore safety Joe Foucha, who played off the bench for Arkansas, had two interceptions. His first interception came with 1:18 left in the first half. The Bulldogs had a first and 10 at the Arkansas 34 when Foucha intercepted Costello again with 14:20 left in the game.
Foucha and Morgan also were credited with stopping Mississippi State running back Jo’Quavious Marks for a 2-yard loss on fourth and 2 from the Arkansas 7 with 4:39 left.
“Joe had missed a few days of practice … and he just stayed with it, man,” Pittman said of Foucha not starting. “He knew he was going to get in the game, and he came up big.
“I’m so happy for him, so proud of him because it was bigger than him. It was about the team, and he tried to go get his job back. He just made it about the team.”