FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema plopped on his couch to decompress from the frustration of the Razorbacks' 45-32 loss to Georgia last Saturday when a comment on TV riled him up again.
"I sat down, and on the SEC Network one of the commentators made reference to 'blowout Saturday in the SEC' and I was angry," Bielema said. "Because it was like we didn't get blown out now."
Bielema pointed out the lopsided scores across the SEC last week during his weekly news conference, then noted how Arkansas rallied from a 38-6 halftime deficit against the No. 10 Bulldogs to make things interesting.
"Our guys responded in the second half and took the fight to them, and we capitalized really on every opportunity," he said. "Still didn't play a complete, clean game in the second half, but played very well and were able to outscore an opponent that is very good 26-7.
"That doesn't happen if you have a team that is quitters or doesn't have the desire to have success, so it's another great indicator of why I know what's coming."
Big Hogs
Alabama-Birmingham Coach Bill Clark followed in a line of Arkansas opponents this season to marvel at the size of the Razorbacks.
Arkansas touts its offensive line, featuring 6-10 left tackle Dan Skipper and 340-pound guard Sebastian Tretola, as the nation's largest.
"I've never seen a 6-10 offensive lineman," Clark said. "They are just massive humans."
Eyeing 4-0
Arkansas will try to improve to 4-0 in nonconference games when it plays Alabama-Birmingham on Saturday, and a victory would give the Hogs their first unbeaten run against nonconference teams since 2011.
The Razorbacks have won all of their regular-season nonconference games nine times since joining the SEC in 1992. The Razorbacks followed an unbeaten nonconference season with a bowl victory four times in that span: 1999, 2003, 2009 and 2011.
2 to remember
UAB has a 2-21 record against SEC teams, with the victories coming against LSU (13-10 in 2000) and Mississippi State (27-14) in 2004.
The Blazers lost at Missouri (31-28 in 1999) and at Texas A&M (56-19 in 2009) before those schools joined the SEC.
All of those games have been on the road except losses to Mississippi State in 2006 and 2011. The Blazers are playing an SEC school for the 13th consecutive season.
Russian game
The Razorbacks made it a point to clear up pass-protection issues that cropped up while Brandon Allen was sacked seven times in the past two games.
Allen landed on the ball during a sack and missed a snap in the first quarter and was on the ground 11 times against Georgia.
"You're just playing Russian Roulette there if you let your quarterback get hit," Coach Bret Bielema said. "You know what I need to see? I need to see some urgency out of them. That, hey, I got beat and my quarterback's on the ground, I better be back there helping him up and letting him know it ain't going to happen again."
Offensive coordinator Jim Chaney said he's hoping the Hogs don't have to throw it as much as they've done the past couple of weeks.
"If we do, we feel like we've corrected a few little things ... to clean up that," he said. "I've worked with B.A. about getting the ball out of his hand a little quicker on some route structures, and we'll see if that all pays off in protecting the quarterback a little better."
Sports on 10/24/2014