FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas moved up to No. 3 in the NCAA rushing rankings after shredding Texas Tech for 438 yards on the ground in its 49-28 victory on Saturday.
The Razorbacks, who were leading the nation with 9.39 yards per carry entering the game, dropped down to 7.93 yards per carry and fell behind Georgia Southern (8.17) to second in the country.
PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
Offense
Offensive line
• The Hogs’ front blew open huge holes for the tailbacks to slam through. Starters Brey Cook, Denver Kirkland, Mitch Smothers, Sebastian Tretola and Dan Skipper paved the way for Alex Collins to run for 212 yards and 2 touchdowns and Jonathan Williams to get 145 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Defense
LB Martrell Spaight
• Spaight, a senior from North Little Rock, had a team-high 11 tackles, including 8 unassisted. He had his first career interception and a 30-yard return to the Texas Tech 12 to set up a Jonathan Williams touchdown and a 28-21 Arkansas lead just before halftime.
Arkansas' 14 rushing touchdowns trails Georgia Southern's 15.
Sophomore Alex Collins rushed for 212 yards against the Red Raiders and vaulted to No. 10 in the nation with an average of 137 yards per game. Collins is third in the SEC behind Georgia's Todd Gurley (164.5) and Auburn's Cameron Artis-Payne (144.5).
Junior Jonathan Williams ran for 145 yards on Texas Tech and moved to No. 26 nationally with 107.3 yards per game.
Williams and Collins, who each scored 4 rushing touchdowns last season, have 6 and 5, respectively, after 3 games. Williams is tied for third nationally in rushing touchdowns and Collins is tied for eighth.
Arkansas' opponent on Saturday, Northern Illinois, ranks No. 8 with 325.3 rushing yards per game.
13 balls
Arkansas broke up 11 passes on Saturday, including two by corner Tevin Mitchel on the first series, a contrast to its zero breakups in the season opener at Auburn. Add in the interceptions by Martrell Spaight and Henre' Tolliver, and the Razorbacks got hands on 13 passes by Davis Webb, 28.9 percent of his 45 attempts.
Brooks Ellis had four breakups, as Arkansas' linebackers played well in coverage to help take away intermediate crossing routes, and the sophomore could have picked off two passes.
"I definitely have to work on those hands a little bit," Ellis said.
"I was giving Brooks a hard time," defensive coordinator Robb Smith said. "He had a few pass breakups, but as you guys know now he had a few CTOTTY's too, catch the ones they throw you. ... But it was great to see them in the right position."
Gaines pain
Safety Rohan Gaines perfectly timed a hit on Texas Tech's Reginald Davis early in the second half, smashing into the 5-11, 192-pound receiver for a pass breakup that left Davis woozy for several moments on the field.
"I thought he played it well," defensive coordinator Robb Smith said. "There's a lot going on in football now with targeting and everything.
"The guy did exactly what we asked. He came up, he wrapped up, he tackled the guy, he separated him from the football. That's a good football play. I'm excited to see that from Rohan. Excellent stuff."
'Legs' Allen
Brandon Allen completed 6 of 12 passing for 61 yards, but two other called plays turned into quarterback scrambles for 26 yards, including a 21-yard pickup that set Arkansas' second touchdown.
Allen's second scramble was a crusher for Tech, however, as the Red Raiders diagnosed the third-and-goal play call, a screen for Jared Cornelius, and pressured him all the way back to the 18-yard line before Allen beat a defender around left end, ball faked a couple of Red Raiders and scored untouched for a 5-yard touchdown.
"We got pressure up the middle, and couldn't get the screen off," Allen said. "I was actually looking for a place to dump the ball, just to get it out of my hand. ... I kept drifting, drifting and they kind of let me go so I decided to run.
"They had two guys on our screen guy, who kept running, so I pump-faked them and walked into the end zone."
Third downs
Arkansas converted 8 of 12 third-down plays, a 66.7 conversion rate that included a third-and-9 pass to Jonathan Williams for 10 yards and a third-and-9 catch by Keon Hatcher for 16 yards.
The Razorbacks were 2 of 2 on fourth-down conversions and punted once. One of their failed third-down plays was Brandon Allen's kneel down at the end of the game.
"I think when you look at the ballgame and you're trying to win situational offense, we were very good on third down again and we were very good on fourth down and we've been very good in the red zone," offensive coordinator Jim Chaney said. "When you're doing those three things and you're playing physical football with our style, we feel comfortable we'll have an amount of success."
Bonehead
Offensive coordinator Jim Chaney shouldered the responsibility for the ill-fated Alex Collins pitch on a reverse to Keon Hatcher from the Texas Tech 11.
"It was a wonderful drive until we got to my bone-headed reverse call," Chaney said. "Thank goodness Martrell [Spaight] saved our bacon there, got the interception back and we went down there and scored quickly thereafter.
"I shouldn't have called the play. Let's start right there. If I had to do it all over again, I'd take that one back and go downhill with it and keep going. Other than that, we just didn't execute well."
Collins got quick pressure from a defensive lineman that threw off the timing of his pitch for Hatcher, which was recovered after a 16-yard loss by Tech's Justis Nelson.
Mash, mosh
Arkansas offensive line coach Sam Pittman was fired up leaving the field at Jones AT&T Stadium, shouting out "That's what we do, baby!" after the Hogs mashed Texas Tech with 438 rushing yards.
Arkansas ran the ball 68 times, its highest number of carries since rushing 71 times in its 71-63 victory over Kentucky in seven overtimes in 2003.
The Razorbacks increased the average size of their offensive line starters to 6-6, 328 pounds with the addition of Sebastian Tretola, 6-5, 350, at guard, well above a Texas Tech front that averaged 268 pounds per starter.
"We really wanted to mosh them inside and he's obviously a big body," Coach Bret Bielema said of the 350-pound Tretola. "I know we were really big, but he gave us another 30 pounds that we added to everybody. So we got gigantically bigger I guess."
Sports on 09/15/2014