A tight deadline and a wild finish kept me from going into much detail on Arkansas wide receiver Joe Adams on Saturday night.
But the sophomore deserves a little extra attention a day later after his jarring night in Baton Rouge.
Adams was on the receiving end of two vicious hits from LSU safety Chad Jones. The first came in the first half. The second was in the final minutes of regulation, on a bone-jarring hit that you could practically hear from the press box in Tiger Stadium.
It was amazing Adams was able to get up off the ground after the second shot, which knocked his helmet off. It was even more amazing that Adams was back on the field a few plays later and hauled in a 14-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ryan Mallett for the go-ahead score.
“He’s a beast,” Mallett said. “He gets knocked silly and he comes in and catches the go-ahead touchdown. That shows his character right there.”
Jones’ second hit on Adams yielded a personal foul penalty because it was a helmet-to-helmet blow. It’s hard to fault Jones for delivering a big shot, though. If it didn’t try to knock the ball loose Adams was going to haul in a touchdown pass on the play.
Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino was asked about Adams, who missed three games earlier this season after suffering a minor stroke, and said “you hate to see that on anybody.”
He also was asked about Jones, who was a valuable member of LSU’s national championship baseball team last spring. Petrino’s response: “He’s a good football player. There’s no doubt about it. He’s a pretty good baseball player, too.”
Adams wasn’t on the field in overtime, held out after feeling the effects of the hit. But there’s no doubt he earned some respect Saturday. As if Adams hadn’t already earned enough with what he has already been through this season.
“That shows a lot of toughness and courage,” offensive coordinator Paul Petrino said. “He got hit real hard. He came back and made that great catch to give us a chance to win. Unfortunately we didn’t, but we’ve got to give him a lot of credit and toughness for coming back and making that play.”
