FAYETTEVILLE — Tonight, this Arkansas Razorbacks defense strives to hear what it has never heard after consecutive games:
“Keep up the good work.”
Until last Saturday’s 24-7 victory at Auburn, there had been no good work for this defense to keep up, especially in SEC games. The Razorbacks, 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the SEC West going into tonight’s SEC game against Kentucky at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, were outscored 110-10 in their previous two SEC games. Alabama thumped them 52-0 in Fayetteville and Texas A&M routed them 58-10 in College Station, Texas.
Nonconference underdogs Louisiana-Monroe and Rutgers passed them by after some shaky defensive moments in the 49-24 season-opening victory over lower-division Jacksonville State.
Louisiana-Monroe quarterback Kolton Browning threw for 412 yards and three touchdowns in the 34-31 overtime shocker in Little Rock. Rutgers quarterback Gary Nova threw for 397 yards and five touchdowns in the Scarlet Knights’ 35-26 triumph in Fayetteville.
Texas A&M redshirt freshman quarterback Johnny Manziel outdid them all with 558 yards of total offense, including 453 passing with three touchdowns.
Those quarterbacks all established themselves against Arkansas.
Finally, Arkansas established itself against struggling Auburn quarterbacks Kiehl Frazier (Shiloh Christian) and Clint Moseley. Arkansas’ front pressured Auburn into throwing three interceptions,and with good coverage compelling Frazier and Moseley to hold the ball, Arkansas sacked them eight times.
It marked Arkansas’ first showing this season with team defense encompassing front to back and back to front.
“It was awesome,” defensive coordinator Paul Haynes said after the game. “We challenged them, and they responded.”
Opportunity knocks for Arkansas to repeat that performance against Kentucky (1-5, 0-3 SEC).
Kentucky has three established quarterbacks, but two are injured and one, former senior starter Morgan Newton, is a 2012 backup still recovering from 2011 shoulder surgery.
Maxwell Smith, out since sustaining a severe ankle injury Sept. 29 against South Carolina, sizzled until sidelined.
“He was second in the league in passing at the time and had thrown for close to 1,000 yards in three games,” Kentucky Coach Joker Phillips said. “I don’t know if we’ve thrown for 300 for the last three games.”
Patrick Towles, Kentucky’s touted freshman quarterback, was injured last week against Mississippi State.
Another true freshman, Jalen Whitlow, starts now. He’s only 23 of 50 with 0 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.
Of course, freshmen - like Arkansas cornerback Will Hines, who had an interception and fumble recovery against Auburn - can come of age at any time.
Whitlow certainly could, too.
Haynes said last week’s defensive success needs to breed a sense of confidence that it can be repeated, but it’s no sure thing that it will be repeated.
“To me, the big thing is forgetting about last week,” Haynes said. “We’ve got to have momentum from that, but we can’t continue to focus on that. We have got to continue to play better.”
There are no givens for a defense going into Game 7 that is still waiting to hear “keep up the good work” for the first time.
Sports, Pages 20 on 10/13/2012