FAYETTEVILLE — Penalties continue to plague the Arkansas Razorbacks.
Through five games, the University of Arkansas is ranked 124th nationally out of 130 FBS teams in most penalty yards per game at 83.2.
The Razorbacks (4-1, 1-1 SEC) were penalized 13 times for 101 yards in their 37-0 loss at No. 2 Georgia on Saturday.
It’s the fourth game Arkansas has been penalized at least nine times, and it could have been much worse, considering Georgia declined three penalties and twice flags on the Razorbacks were negated because the Bulldogs were penalized on the same play.
Arkansas also was penalized 13 times for a season-high 117 yards in beating Rice 38-17 to open the season.
The Razorbacks did a nice job of reducing their penalties in a 40-21 victory over Texas, when they had four for 40 yards. They beat Georgia Southern 45-10 despite having nine penalties for 93 yards and beat Texas A&M 20-10 with 10 penalties for 65 yards.
“Well, we’ve just got to keep working on it,” Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said after the Georgia game when asked about the latest rash of penalties. “We had a lot of pass interference calls, we had a lot of jumping offsides on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“I mean, we have officials at every practice. We’re going to have to emphasize it a little more, I guess.”
When a player commits a penalty in practice, he usually goes to the sideline.
“We’ll have to do something instead of just bringing them out on the practice field,” Pittman said. “Do something different, because obviously if we knew how to stop it, we would have already been doing it.”
Arkansas plays Saturday at Ole Miss, which ranks even worse than the Razorbacks in penalty yards per game.
The Rebels (3-1, 0-1) are 129th with an average of 93.8 penalty yards per game. They’re averaging 10.6 penalties, though they had seven for 55 yards in losing at No. 1 Alabama 42-21 on Saturday.
Ole Miss had 14 penalties for 125 yards in the opener against Louisville, then 12 for 130 against Austin Peay and nine for 65 against Tulane.
First things first
Georgia essentially had Arkansas beaten in the first quarter when the Bulldogs jumped out to a 21-0 lead.
The Bulldogs were the first opponent to score in the first quarter this season against the Razorbacks, who had a 34-0 edge in their first four games.
“We came in here wanting to start fast, take their crowd out of the game, and the opposite happened,” Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said. “It put us in a hole and we never could climb out of it because of their physicality.”
Georgia has outscored its opponents 91-6 in the first quarter this season, including 35-0 in a 62-0 victory at Vanderbilt. South Carolina managed two field goals in the first quarter of its 40-13 loss to the Bulldogs.
Still ranked
Despite Arkansas’ lopsided loss at Georgia, the Razorbacks remain ranked in The Associated Press (No. 13), USA Today coaches (No. 16) and FWAA Super 16 (No. 15) polls released Sunday.
Ole Miss, the Razorbacks’ opponent Saturday, is ranked No. 17 in both the AP and coaches polls.
Alabama and Georgia remain ranked No. 1-2 in all three polls.
Texas, which fell out of the polls after losing at Arkansas, is ranked No. 21 in the AP poll and No. 23 in the coaches poll. Texas A&M is no longer ranked in any polls after back-to-back losses to Arkansas and Mississippi State.
Not special
Georgia’s blocked punt Saturday was the first for the Bulldogs since last season’s opener at Arkansas when they won 37-10.
Running back Zamir White was involved in both plays. He recovered Saturday’s block in the end zone for a touchdown after partially blocking a punt by George Caratan last season that went just 9 yards and gave the Bulldogs possession at the Arkansas 24 to set up a touchdown.
Arkansas punter Reid Bauer was in the end zone Saturday when Don Jackson rushed up the middle from off the line of scrimmage to get the block.
Coach Sam Pittman said it was a look the Bulldogs hadn’t shown previously this season.
“They got home on it,” Pittman said. “Had too many guys up the middle. We only had two and they had four running by us.”
Other special teams issues for the Razorbacks against Georgia included Cam Little’s first missed field-goal attempt of the season after he had started 8 for 8; AJ Green fumbling a fair-catch attempt on a kickoff return that was recovered by teammate Bryce Stephens, but resulted in a drive starting at Arkansas’ 7 instead of the 25; and Green returning a kickoff to the Arkansas 17 rather than making a fair catch.
“Do we have the right personnel? I think we do,” Pittman said of the special teams issues. “There’s just a lot of stuff we have to fix.”
One plus for Arkansas on special teams was Vito Calvaruso sending the opening kickoff deep into the end zone for his 25th touchback this season on 30 attempts.
Big push
Georgia’s offensive line gave the Razorbacks problems blocking up front and as well as pushing from behind as the Bulldogs rushed 53 times for 273 yards.
“As soon as we’d stand up the running back, their O-line would come in and push,” Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan said. “They would get an extra 3, 4, 5 yards every single play.
“We’ve got to do a better job tackling. It starts with me. It starts with everyone. We’ve got to do a better job of just running and hitting.
“That’s our motive, right? Running and hitting. So we’ve just got to do a better job of that.”
O-line struggles
Arkansas’ veteran offensive line was a strength during a 4-0 start, but the group struggled with penalties and trying to block Georgia’s defensive front.
The Razorbacks were held to 162 yards in total offense on 45 plays — a 3.6-yard average — and the Bulldogs had four sacks for 25 yards in losses.
“We were incredibly frustrated at our lack of performance, and we’re going to do a much better job next week,” senior tackle Dalton Wagner said. “We just didn’t play like ourselves and play like we should have. We’ve just got to get better.”
Tip of Stetson
Georgia senior quarterback Stetson Bennett is 2-0 against Arkansas as a finisher and starter for the Bulldogs.
In last season’s opener, Bennett came off the bench in the second quarter and helped rally the Bulldogs to a 37-10 victory after starter D’Wan Harris was ineffective and Arkansas jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Bennett completed 21 of 29 passes for 211 yards and 2 touchdowns without an interception.
On Saturday, Bennett started in place of JT Daniels — who has a lat injury — and was efficient in completing 7 of 11 passes for 72 yards, rushing 3 times for 16 yards and not turning the ball over.
“Bennett, he’s a hell of a football player,” Arkansas linebacker Grant Morgan said. “He’s been that way. He was that way last year. It’s not that he’s head and shoulders worse than JT Daniels. They’re both really good quarterbacks.”
Players of the Week
Offense: The Razorbacks didn’t do much offensively, but redshirt sophomore quarterback KJ Jefferson managed to complete 8 of 13 passes for 65 yards and had a 14-yard run. He was pressured much of the game and sacked 3 times, but didn’t have a turnover.
Defense: Senior linebacker Grant Morgan had a team-high 12 tackles and had 1 tackle for a 1-yard loss.