By Robbie Neiswanger
Arkansas News Bureau • rneiswanger@arkansasnews.com

FAYETTEVILLE — At first glance, Arkansas’ defensive performance in the season opener was pretty impressive.

Two days later, Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino continued to hand out compliments to the group after reviewing film of the performance Sunday.

“I was impressed with our defense,” Petrino said. “We have a better understanding of what we are doing which really allows us to play faster and not hesitate. We did a nice job of tackling and getting guys to the football and being aggressive. It was a good opening game.”

The Razorbacks didn’t allow a touchdown for the first time in coach Bobby Petrino’s tenure. They also surrendered 187 yards which, once again, was a low for his tenure. Arkansas turned in a goal line stand in the first half, collected 10 tackles for losses, and controlled the game with strong play in the trenches.

It was a good start. But the Razorbacks expect more when they play Louisiana-Monroe in War Memorial Stadium.

“I feel like it was dominant, but we always could do better,” Arkansas linebacker Jerico Nelson said. “Going back and looking at the game film, everything wasn’t perfect. We still had some missed assignments.

“In a different game, different situation we probably could have given up a big play.”

One item that stood out Saturday was the fact Arkansas’ defense did not force a turnover after having tremendous success last season. Nelson said it’s a stat that can be corrected if Arkansas “swarms” to the ball better.

There were some missed tackles. Most notably, defensive tackle Lavunce Askew and linebacker Jermaine Love missed a sack on the same play, allowing a 39-yard completion that resulted in TTU’s only score. But Petrino said the overall tackling was pretty solid Saturday.

“We did not miss a lot of tackles,” Petrino said. “And we are hard on them. If they got close and got an arm (on the ballcarrier) we counted it as a missed tackle.

“But we did a nice job of tackling. We are faster and when you are faster you tackle better.”

Petrino wants to see the performance continue, though.

“We’ll have a much tough opponent coming up this week,” Petrino said. “A team with more speed and athleticism. … So we will find out how much more we improved.”

Kicking Plan
Petrino said the Razorbacks had a kicking plan for the fourth quarter of the opener, but it never came to fruition because Arkansas was held scoreless the final 15 minutes.

Freshman Zack Hocker, who handled place kicking duties, and senior Alex Tejada, who handled kickoffs, were going to switch roles last Saturday.

“We don’t want to have too many kickoffs by Tejada,” Petrino said. “A few years back (at Louisville) we probably had one player kick off too many times and his leg got sore and he was never the same.

“So we had a number in mind. Once we hit that number we were going to switch the two.”

In the end, Petrino said he was disappointed Arkansas never attempted a field goal. There was an opportunity late when the Razorbacks moved to TTU’s 31, but Petrino opted to go for it on fourth-and-5.

“I should have kicked a field goal,” Petrino said.

He was told that he might’ve been accused of running up the score if he did, though.

“That’s probably why I didn’t do it,” he said.

No News on Stadther
Petrino was asked once again about the status of defensive tackle Zach Stadther, who was not with the team for the opener. He said Arkansas will “determine that,” but would not comment further.

“At some point you guys have got to understand that I am going to talk about the guys that play and practice,” Petrino said in response to the question.

In addition, no word on whether fullback Van Stumon and tackle Anthony Oden will be available after serving suspensions for the opener. The same can be said with defensive tackle Patrick Jones and linebacker Bret Harris, who missed the opener because of injuries.

“I don’t know yet,” Petrino said.

Ole Miss Did What?
Quarterback Ryan Mallett may know plenty about offense, defense, schemes, audibles and formations. But don’t bother asking the junior about what happens on Saturdays around the rest of the Southeastern Conference.

Mallett was quizzed about the dangers in facing teams like Tennessee Tech and ULM. The question included a reference to Ole Miss’ disappointment last Saturday.
“What happened at Ole Miss?” Mallett responded.

He was told the Rebels suffered a 49-48, two-overtime loss to Jacksonville State.

“Really? Wow,” Mallett said, although it wasn’t clear if he didn’t know or was trying not to comment.

Jeremiah Gets a Shot
Petrino estimated “six to nine” true freshmen would play for the Razorbacks this season. Ten saw the field Saturday night with one minor surprise in the group.

Defensive tackle Jeremiah Johnson earned one tackle in his time late in the game. Petrino said the decision to play Johnson was made largely because Arkansas was without Jones and Stadther on the interior Saturday.

“Jeremiah is a very, very intelligent football player,” Petrino said. “He is very explosive inside and he can really use his hands. We felt with the number of games left we were not going to redshirt him.”