Arkansas Ground Game Pounds Tennessee, 24-20

Hogs Get Two 100-Yard Rushers In SEC Victory

  • Saturday, October 3, 2015
  • Larry Fleming
Arkansas running back Alex Collins rushed for 154 yards -- his third straight 150-yard game -- and two touchdowns to lead the Razorbacks past Tennessee, 24-20, Saturday. Pursuing Collins is Vols defensive lineman Corey Vereen.
Arkansas running back Alex Collins rushed for 154 yards -- his third straight 150-yard game -- and two touchdowns to lead the Razorbacks past Tennessee, 24-20, Saturday. Pursuing Collins is Vols defensive lineman Corey Vereen.
photo by Dennis Norwood

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – At least Tennessee didn’t blow a double-digit lead late.

Arkansas wiped out the Vols’ 14-0 lead in the first half in front of 101,265 fans at Neyland Stadium and went on to dump Tennessee, 24-20, Saturday night in Southeastern Conference football action.

It was Tennessee’s second straight loss and the win snapped the Razorbacks’ three-game skid.

“Really, at the end of the day, we just weren’t able to make big plays at big moments of the game,” Tennessee coach Butch Jones said.

“I give (Arkansas) credit. They were able to do that.”

Arkansas had lost their last 10 games decided by seven points or less and nine of those setbacks happened on coach Bret Beliema’s watch. He came to Arkansas from Wisconsin in 2013.

“At some point in your life as a man,” Beliema said, “you’ve just got to finally take what the world wants to give you. You can’t keep giving it away. Our guys really played well today. There wasn’t going to be anything but full throttle for four quarters.”

It was Beliema’s first road win at Arkansas.

“We’ve been wearing these little bracelets all week just to teach our guys to win on the road is a big deal,” Beliema said. “We call it code red because you’ve got to persevere, you’ve got to be locked in. I think our guys came over here with the idea to win a game.”

That four-quarter thing haunted the Vols against Oklahoma and Florida when they frittered away two-touchdown leads, losing to the Sooners in double overtime and to the Gators when they scored on a 63-yard pass play in the final 86 seconds.

The loss to Florida brought a flood of criticism to Vols coach Butch Jones for the play-calling and late-game clock management. After Saturday’s setback, things won’t be a lot easier for the third-year Tennessee coach this week with another tough assignment on the horizon.

Tennessee will next face an angry bunch of Georgia Bulldogs (3:30 p.m., CBS), who were rudely knocked from the unbeaten ranks, 38-10, by Alabama on Saturday afternoon. After the Georgia game, the Vols take a week off before traveling to Tuscaloosa to tangle with the Crimson Tide.

That’s followed with a trip to vastly improved Kentucky and a home game against South Carolina.

By that time, if the Vols don’t get their act together, bedlam will overtake the program, and not even a patsy like North Texas on Nov. 14, will soothe all the bad vibes gnawing at Big Orange country.

“I mean, these losses are tough, but everyone loves to play football,” Vols defensive back Brian Randolph said. “No one is going to have a problem coming in and correcting what we need to correct.”

Jones added, “Our character is being tested. Our fortitude is being tested. All you can do is keep working, and work your way through it. I know (the players) hurt. We all hurt. It’s tough on all of us. I love these kids, but our competitive spirit is being tested.”

What’s Jones’ answer to fixing the close-loss syndrome?

“You win one of these games,” he said.

Arkansas churned out 494 yards of offense with 275 coming from its vaunted ground game. Alex Collins gained 154 yards – he’s gained at least 150 yards in three straight games – on 27 carries and scored twice while Rawleigh Williams picked up 100 on 14 tries.

“It feels good (to win),” Collins said. “We always believed in ourselves. It feels good seeing my teammates happy, to see everybody excited and celebrating.”

The Hogs also got a 110-yard receiving effort from Drew Morgan, who had five catches.

Tennessee’s Jalen Hurd ran 19 times for 90 yards, just one in the second half.

Quarterback Joshua Dobbs went 20-of-35 for 232 yards, but only 92 yards came in the second half when Arkansas took control of the game. But when the Vols needed one last drive, Dobbs and his offensive teammates could not produce.

“We have to do a better job when we have the ball and especially when we’re in the red zone,” Dobbs said. “And not kicking field goals, but scoring touchdowns.”

Tennessee finished with 365 yards of offense, but it wasted two red-zone opportunities and saw a long punt return for a touchdown by Alvin Kamara wiped off with a penalty.

“I got some key blocks (that) allowed me to get to the outside and break it – minus the call, the block in the back,” Kamara said.

Tennessee (2-3, 0-2) found lightning in a bottle when Evan Berry returned the game’s opening kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown. It was the first such play for Tennessee since Willie Gault shocked Kentucky with a 92-yard return in 1980.

Berry had another kickoff return for a score earlier in the season. One more and he ties Gault’s school record in that category.

The Vols pushed the lead to 14-0 with an 11-play, 89-yard drive that took 3 minutes, 23 seconds off the clock – Dobbs found the end zone from 7 yards out.

Arkansas (2-3, 1-1) cut the deficit in half with a 75-yard march in just four plays and a snappy 2:09 with Collins scoring from the 4.

The Vols later tried a field goal, but Aaron Medley’s kick hit the left upright and fell harmlessly to the ground.

The Razorbacks, now 2-6 in Knoxville, used another quick-strike drive to tie the game at 14-14. Quarterback Brandon Allen hit Dominique Reed with a 33-yard touchdown strike, capping a four-play, 80-yard drive that used only 1:31.

“We weren’t going to back down (when the Hogs trailed 14-0,” Allen said.

In the second quarter, a Tennessee possession fizzled at the Razorbacks’ 17, but Medley salvaged it with a 35-yard field goal, giving the Vols a 17-14 advantage with 9:54 left in the period.

Later, Kamara appeared to have a 71-yard punt return for a score, but a block-in-the-back penalty nullified the play.

“We can’t take seven points off the board on a punt return,” Jones said. “We need those seven points.”

With 3:15 remaining in the first half and the Vols at their own played as if they were just trying to get to the locker room and meekly punted while the partisan crowd rained boos from the stands.

Arkansas wisely used the final 1:27 and drove 60 yards on nine plays and Cole Hedlund calmly kicked a 26-yard field goal as time expired to knot the game at 17-all.

The Razorbacks carried that momentum over into the third quarter and dominated the Vols throughout the second half, outgaining Tennessee, 141-4, on the ground

Tennessee only had four possessions in the second half, all in terrible field position.

“We only had the ball for eight minutes in the second half,” Jones said. “We started at the minus-24, the minus-6, the minus-7 and the minus-14.”

The Razorbacks got the second-half kickoff and went 80 yards in 10 plays, mostly on the ground, and Collins scored a touchdown on a 1-yard run, giving the Hogs a 24-17 lead.

On the Vols’ next possession, Medley closed the deficit to 24-20 with a 45-yard field goal – the ball hit the crossbar and skipped through – with 6:41 left in the quarter.

SCORING

Arkansas                          7 10 7 0 – 24

Tennessee                       14 3 0 0 – 20

First Quarter

TENN – Evan Berry 96 kickoff return (Aaron Medley kick), 14:48

TENN – Joshua Dobbs 7 run (Medley kick), 8:06

ARK – Alex Collins 4 run (Cole Hedlund kick), 5:57

Second Quarter

TENN – FG Medley 35, 9:54

ARK – FG Hedlund 26, 0:00

Third Quarter

ARK – Collins 1 run (Hedlund kick), 9:12

TENN – FG Medley 45, 6:41

Attendance: 101,265

YARDSTICK

                                            ARK                      TENN

First Downs                        23                           19

Rushes-Yards                    50-275                    33-133

Passing Yards                    219                         232

Comp-Att-Int                       11-24-0                  20-36-0

Plays-Total Yds                 74-494                    69-365

Fumbles-Lost                     0-0                          2-1

Punts-Avg                          5-41.8                     4-46.5

Penalties-Yds                    3-20                        4-39

INDIVIDUALS

RUSHING – Arkansas: Alex Collins 27-154, Rawleigh Williams 14-100, Brandon Allen 6-23, Drew Morgan 1-8, Adam McFain 1-3, Team 1-minus 13; Tennessee: Jalen Hurd 19-90, Alvin Kamara 7-36, Joshua Dobbs 7-7.

PASSING – Arkansas: Allen 11-24-0 219; Tennessee: Dobbs 20-36-0 232, Jauan Jennings 0-1-0 0.

RECEIVING – Arkansas: Morgan 5-110, Hunter Henry 3-62, Dominique Reed 1-33, Kendrick Edwards 1-13, Rawleigh Williams 1-1; Tennessee: Hurd 3-51, Kamara 4-40, Josh Smith 2-34, Ethan Wolf 1-31, Von Pearson 3-30, Preston Williams 2-19, Josh Malone 3-17, Jennings 2-10.

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

 

 

For most of Saturday's SEC game between Arkansas and Tennessee, Vols defenders tried to chase down Razorbacks runners, like a laid-out Todd Kelly Jr., is doing against the Hogs' freshman Rawleigh Williams, who gained 100 yards.
For most of Saturday's SEC game between Arkansas and Tennessee, Vols defenders tried to chase down Razorbacks runners, like a laid-out Todd Kelly Jr., is doing against the Hogs' freshman Rawleigh Williams, who gained 100 yards.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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