Razorbacks report

3 starters sidelined for Hogs

Arkansas Coach John L. Smith and Texas A&M Coach Kevin Sumlin first met when Smith visited Sumlin’s Houston staff to study kicking game material.
Arkansas Coach John L. Smith and Texas A&M Coach Kevin Sumlin first met when Smith visited Sumlin’s Houston staff to study kicking game material.

— Arkansas Coach John L. Smith said Thursday three starters — tight end Chris Gragg, safety Eric Bennett and cornerback Tevin Mitchell — have been ruled out for Saturday’s game at Texas A&M.

Gragg took a hard shot to his lower left leg in the first quarter of Saturday’s loss to Rutgers and did not return, while Bennett missed playing time last week and in practice this week because of an unspecified injury.

Mitchel has been out since sustaining a concussion from a helmetto-helmet collision with a teammate in a Sept. 8 loss to Louisiana-Monroe. Mitchel also had gall bladder surgery while recovering from the concussion.

“He’s probably weeks away,” Smith said.

Austin Tate will start at tight end for Gragg. Alan Turner is the projected starter at Bennett’s safety spot, with Jerry Mitchell behind him.

Aggieland

Running backs coach Tim Horton is one of the few members of the Arkansas program who has experience at Kyle Field in College Station, Texas.

Horton played on Arkansas teams that lost a road game to the Aggies in 1987 (14-0) and beat them in 1989 (23-22).

“It’s definitely an upperechelon SEC atmosphere,” Horton said. “When you talk about LSU and Florida and Alabama and Tennessee, hey, Texas A&M’s as good as it is. They’ve got great fans, they’ve got great support, they’ve got the best band in the country.”

Coach John L. Smith said the Razorbacks should be energetic about playing in College Station because they might be the only Arkansas team in a while to play there with the series scheduled to go back to Cowboys Stadium for another run beginning in 2014.

Remember the 510

The last time the Razorbacks played Texas A&M, they rallied from a 35-17 halftime deficit for a 42-38 victory behind Tyler Wilson’s school-record 510 passing yards and Jarius Wright’s then-record 281 receiving yards.

“It was fun ... because you don’t ever let your foot off the pedal,” Wilson said. “You keep going. The ball in that particular game was always in my hands, it seemed like, late in the game because we were trying to make a comeback.”

Third-down ills

Arkansas converted just 2 of 11 third-down plays last week, notably missing a third-and-2, then a fourthand-2 from the Rutgers 24 with a 3-0 lead in the first quarter.

“We had probably six third-down conversions that we just kicked ourselves right in the butt,” offensive coordinator Paul Petrino said. “It should have been easy conversions when you go back and watch the tape of what our call was to what they were in.

“It was just a guy here or there, but that’s what offense is, execution, all 11 guys doing their job.”

Coach John L. Smith said Arkansas’ 28.9 percent thirddown conversion rate, which ranks No. 113 in the NCAA is “not anywhere close to our goal.”

Texas A&M’s defense ranks No. 3 nationally, allowing just 19.6 percent conversions on third down.

Smith-Sumlin ties

Arkansas Coach John L. Smith visited Kevin Sumlin’s Houston staff a couple of years ago to study some kicking game material.

“We’ve been able to help each other in the past and yet now we’re opposition,” Smith said.

Sumlin, Texas A&M’s first-year coach, said Boise State and Washington coaches also attended the special teams gathering.

“In those deals, you learn something from everybody,” Sumlin said.

Smith and Sumlin first became acquainted in 1989, when Smith took over as Idaho’s coach and Sumlin got his first college job as a graduate assistant at Washington State.

Coach patch

Many coaches across the country, including the staffs at Arkansas and Texas A&M, will be wearing special arm patches in this weekend’s games as part of “Coach to Cure MD” week and to raise awareness for Duchenee muscular dystrophy, the most common fatal childhood genetic disorder.

All SEC coaching staffs whose teams are playing this week are scheduled to participate in this, the

Making progress

Arkansas’ defense has been hit hard by injuries while struggling to slow opponents, but Coach John L. Smith said the group has shown improvement this week.

“I don’t want to shoot us in the foot, but I think we’ve had a real good week of practice and our coverage has been tighter,” Smith said. “We’re knocking on wood that that will be the case.”

Let it rain

The weather forecast calls for a 90 percent chance of rain Saturday morning in College Station, Texas.

“Looking forward to it, yeah,” Arkansas Coach John L. Smith said. “I think that suits us. ... The muddier, the better.”

Smith added that the more Arkansas can possess the ball, the less chance the Aggies have of scoring.

Worth noting

The Aggies defense posted 11 three-and-outs against South Carolina State last week, prompting defensive coordinator Mark Snyder to say, “if you can do that against A&M Consolidated that’s a good day.”

Arkansas punter Dylan Breeding has been named a semifinalist for the NFF National Scholar-Athlete Awards and the William V. Campbell Trophy. The senior from Hoover, Ala., ranks fifth in the SEC and is tied for 19th in the NCAA with a 44.9-yard punting average. Candidates must be a senior or graduate student with a 3.2 grade-point average or better.

Missouri at Central Florida, 11 a.m.

Arkansas at Texas A&M, 11:21 a.m.

Tennessee at Georgia, 2:30 p.m. South Carolina at Kentucky, 6 p.m. Towson at LSU, 6 p.m. Mississippi at Alabama, 8:15 p.m.

SATURDAY, OCT. 6 Arkansas at Auburn, 11 a.m.

Miss. State at Kentucky, 11:21 a.m. LSU at Florida, 2:30 p.m. Texas A&M at Mississippi, 6 p.m. Georgia at South Carolina, 6 p.m. Vanderbilt at Missouri, 6 p.m.

fifth year of the partnership between Coach to Cure MD and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA).

Sports, Pages 22 on 09/28/2012

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