FAYETTEVILLE - Trey Flowers had a career day at Auburn last year.
Flowers racked up 3 1/2 of Arkansas’ eight sacks on Auburn quarterbacks Kiehl Frazier and Clint Moseley as the Razorbacks posted their most complete game, a 24-7 victory, in an otherwise dismal 4-8 season.
The BCS No. 11 Tigers are in town Saturday and Flowers, a junior from Huntsville, Ala., is hoping to wreak a little more havoc on his home-state team.
“Most definitely I think about[the 3½ sack game], and I’m looking forward to doing some similar things this year, no doubt,” Flowers said. “I just want to make big plays and give my team a chance to win.”
Fellow Arkansas end Chris Smith, who had 1½ sacks in the same game and leads the Razorbacks with six this year, recalled Flowers’ big day in front of a big array of his family and friends.
“Three-and-a-half sacks,man,” Smith said. “Hopefully, I can have a game, my last one in Fayetteville, like he did last year.”
Arkansas broke a four game losing streak in which it had been outscored by 112 points when the Hogs whipped Auburn last year. This year’s Razorbacks are hoping to shed a five-game losing streak in which they have been outscored by 133 points when they kick it off at 5 p.m. on senior day at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
This year’s Auburn team, and most especially its offensive line, is a much different animal than the dispirited bunch who went 0-8 in the SEC last season.
“It’s a new year, they’ve got a whole new offense, a whole new type of scheme,” Flowers said.
“When you see Auburn’s offensive line compared to last year, it’s not even close,” Arkansas defensive coordinator Chris Ash said. “It’s not the same team. That film doesn’t help us out much right now.”
Arkansas defensive line coach Charlie Partridge said they’ve been better served by studying Auburn tape from 2011 - when Malzahn was in the last year of his three year stint as the Tigers’ offensive coordinator - than last year’s game at Auburn.
“Honestly we didn’t look at last year’s film,” Partridge said. “Just a completely different style right now, we’re really focused in on what they’re doing right now.”
Flowers’ play has been one of the highlights of the Arkansas defense this fall. His impact on the Rutgers game - a hurry on quarterback Gary Nova that resulted in Tevin Mitchel’s interception return for a touchdown and his sack and strip of Nova, leading to a Smith fumble recovery and quick touchdown for the Razorbacks - nearly led Arkansas to a road victory.
“What I love about Trey’s game is he’s relentless and every play is full go,” junior safety Alan Turner said.
“He’s a kid that plays with a tremendous upside, a great motor,” Coach Bret Bielema said. “He’s always been a powerful guy, but he’s been able to get off blocks better. He brought a new element to the game that I think is going to continue to grow here through the next couple of weeks.”
Smith said the way Flowers uses his hands and his intellect are his best attributes.
“That’s one thing I think a lot of people don’t know about Trey is how smart he is,” Smith said. “He’s a smart guy in the classroom, smart guy on the football field. Even me being an older guy, I ask him questions because I’m not as smart as Trey.”
Flowers, 6-4, 262 pounds, said he’s motivated every week against SEC competition because Arkansas was the only conference school to offer him a scholarship. He ranks second on the team with four sacks for 30 yards in losses, and his 8 1/2 tackles for 44 lost yards leads the club.
“I feel like I’ve done some good things, and I’ve got a lot of things to work on,” he said. “I’m just right now trying to get a ‘W.’ I don’t look into stats or nothing like that. We’re just trying to get the ‘W’ right now.”
Up next
NO. 11 AUBURN AT ARKANSAS
WHEN 5 p.m. Saturday WHERE Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Fayetteville RECORDS Auburn 7-1, 3-1 SEC;
Arkansas 3-5, 0-4 TV ESPN2 RADIO Razorbacks Sports Network
Sports, Pages 19 on 11/01/2013