FAYETTEVILLE -- Chad Morris said the Arkansas Razorbacks were eager to start writing their own story for the 2018 season after hearing everyone else offer opinions.
From a quarterback perspective, sophomore Cole Kelley was the starter and finisher during the first chapter of the Morris era, while junior Ty Storey created a Storey-book middle section in Arkansas' 55-20 season-opening victory over Eastern Illinois on Saturday.
Players of the week
Offense
QB Ty Storey
The redshirt junior came off the bench to complete 12 of 17 passes for 261 yards and 3 touchdowns. Storey also rushed for a 2-yard touchdown to account for the first four scores of his college career. The Charleston product was 10-of-13 passing for 214 yards and 3 touchdowns in Arkansas’ 28-point second quarter.
Defense
LB Dre Greenlaw
The senior racked up a game’s worth of statistics in the first quarter, his only action of the game after suffering an ankle injury. Greenlaw posted 10 total tackles and 3 solo tackles during the first 24 defensive snaps of the game. He also notched a career-high 2 tackles for loss and forced a fumble.
When the Panthers did a good job of committing personnel to cram the Razorbacks' run game, Storey and his veteran receivers got to work in the second quarter.
Storey's 214 passing yards in the second quarter included two touchdown passes to La'Michael Pettway and one to Jordan Jones after the Razorbacks displayed great clock management just before halftime.
A 48-yard strike to Pettway came with 1:20 remaining in the second quarter, and a 57-yard pass to Jones came on the first play after a change of possession with 45 seconds left in the half.
Jones was asked about the Razorbacks' decision to strike deep to make Eastern Illinois pay for creeping its safeties toward the line of scrimmage.
"Me, I'm always talking about the deep ball," Jones said. "I was just telling them to put one up, let's take a couple shots, and Pettway did a good job with the vertical routes, too, so if they're going to play down and not respect it, then we've got to go out and make those plays."
Ten in one
Eastern Illinois ran 19 plays in which a player was tackled during the first quarter Saturday, and University of Arkansas linebacker Dre Greenlaw was involved in 10 of them before leaving the game win an ankle injury.
Greenlaw posted a game-high 10 tackles and forced a fumble in his 15 minutes.
"I mean, he was all over the place," Arkansas Coach Chad Morris said.
"Yeah, that's just Dre," linebacker De'Jon Harris said of Greenlaw's big first quarter.
Greenlaw notched the 12th double-figure tackles game in his career in his 31st start.
A source close to Greenlaw said an X-ray taken on his foot showed no broken bones and that he's believed to have a sprained ankle.
"We're going to try to get the guys like Dee Walker and Bumper [Pool] that are behind Dre, get them ready on the early preparation for Colorado State," Harris said. "We don't want to be without Dre.
"We've had some ups and downs throughout his career here, but we hope things are all right with him and we can get him back as fast as we can."
Greenlaw has had surgeries on both of his feet during his Arkansas career.
On his back
La'Michael Pettway made Ty Storey's first college touchdown pass a notable one, as he caught it flat on his back after the ball caromed off his face mask.
The 14-yard touchdown came on a play-action pass with Storey moving to his left and Pettway mirroring him going right to left through the middle of the end zone. Storey's pass was behind the junior wideout.
"I was kind of like trying to throttle, and as I noticed the ball was away from me, I tried to adjust to it and I lost my footing and kind of fell, as y'all saw," Pettway said, laughing.
"That was a great catch," Storey said. "I probably should have put it in front of him a little more, made it a little easier for him. I tried to kind of sit him down but there was no reason to. He made a great play."
0-2 Rams
Colorado State has opened 0-2, with a 43-34 home loss to Hawaii on Aug. 25 followed by a 45-13 setback against Colorado in the Rocky Mountain Showdown on Friday.
Coach Mike Bobo, who was in the hospital for 10 days during training camp after suffering numbness in his feet, coached the opener from the press box. He was on the field in Denver for Friday's loss, but clearly walking with pain on the sideline.
Colorado quarterback Steven Montez completed his first 12 passes Friday before an underthrown pass was intercepted by Colorado State's V.J. Banks on the first play of the second quarter.
2 No. 1s
The Razorbacks drew a costly penalty on the second play of the second quarter when cornerback Chevin Calloway remained on the field for an Eastern Illinois punt as Jared Cornelius came on to field the punt on fourth and 5 from the Panthers' 42.
Calloway and Cornelius both wear jersey No. 1, so the Razorbacks were penalized for an illegal defense, a 5-yard penalty that gave Eastern Illinois a first down. The Panthers, trailing 10-0 at the time, wound up taking the drive to the Arkansas 12 before Matt Severino missed a 29-yard field goal.
"You plan for everything, but that was the one thing I guess we didn't plan for," Coach Chad Morris said. "Normally our corner comes off, and he stayed on. So that was some things we've got to get cleared up right there.
"Jared Cornelius is our punt returner, and Chevin just stayed out there. And really we should have caught that. I should have called timeout. That's a lot of the firsts that you work through."
Sack attack
Both of Arkansas' sacks resulted in strips that were recovered by the Razorbacks and led to touchdowns.
The biggest was Armon Watts' mangling of quarterback Harry Woodebery, with an assist by Jamario Bell, in the end zone late in the first quarter. The resulting fumble was recovered by Briston Guidry for his second touchdown in the past three games.
D'Vone McClure forced the second sack-strip, a hit on quarterback Johnathan Brantley after a muffed snap on fourth and 1 in the third quarter. Bumper Pool returned the fumble 60 yards, with cornerback Ryan Pulley running alongside him most of the way, to the EIU 5-yard line. Ty Storey scored on a 2-yard touchdown run two plays later.
More complex
Ex-Razorback Kim Dameron, the fifth-year Eastern Illinois coach, laughed when a reporter asked whether Reynolds Razorback Stadium looked a little different than when he finished his playing days in 1982.
"Just a little," Dameron said. "The north end zone is not exactly the Frank Broyles Complex anymore. I went through it yesterday -- I snuck in there. But the whole stadium is really impressive.
"It's a great place to play, and I was really fired up about being able to come back here and bring my team here, and I'm still really glad we did it. I'd have liked for us to have played much better, especially offensively, but we put up some rushing yards, we put up some passing yards, we actually scored some points late when we'd get out of our own way. I was proud of the way my kids fought."
For openers
The Razorbacks won their 12th consecutive home opener and improved to 98-23-4 in season-opening games. They have won 20 of their past 22 season openers. The losses were a 50-14 setback against Southern California at Razorback Stadium in 2006, and a 45-21 loss at Auburn in 2014.
Extra points
• Arkansas threw four touchdown passes in a game for the first time since Brandon Allen threw a school-record seven in a 51-50 loss to Mississippi State in 2015.
• The 28-point second quarter was the first for the Razorbacks since scoring 28 in a 63-28 victory over Tennessee-Martin in 2015.
• Arkansas kicker Connor Limpert went 2 of 2 on field goals and is now 6 of 6 in his career on kicks between 30 and 39 yards.
Sports on 09/03/2018