Mark Buffalo • Arkansas News Bureau
By Scott Faldon
Times Record • sfaldon@swtimes.com
LITTLE ROCK — When a BCS conference school plays a nonconference cupcake, one of the top goals is to avoid injuries.
In that regard, Arkansas didn’t have a good night in a 52-3 win against New Mexico.
Three of the Razorbacks’ five captains — Tyler Wilson, Jake Bequette and Jarius Wright — left the game early with injuries.
Wilson, the Hogs’ starting quarterback, was held out of the second half as a precaution after showing signs of a concussion during the halftime.
“At halftime, we noticed when we were going through the script of how we were going to start out, that he didn’t have the exact focus that we’d like,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “So we notified the trainer and he had symptoms of a concussion. I don’t know if he had a concussion or not, but he did have symptoms and you know how we go about that nowadays, so he was held out the second half.”
The final play of the Greenwood native’s night was a 7-yard touchdown run with 17 seconds left in the first half that gave Arkansas a 31-3 lead. He was sandwiched by two Lobos at the goal line, but didn’t appear affected immediately following the play.
However, Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said the affects were obvious in the locker room.
“I was going through some things with him and I can read kids,” McGee said. “I just said, ‘You doing all right?’ and he didn’t seem to be doing all right.”
Wilson finally emerged from the locker room with 5:51 left in the third quarter and watched the rest of the game from the sideline.
On a similar play against Missouri State in Week 1, Wilson dove for the goal line. But instead of scoring, he was spun and flipped by a defender and landed on his head. In the Missouri State postgame news conference, Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino expressed a bit of displeasure with Wilson’s scramble.
“Then (Wilson) came back and showed his toughness and competitive spirit and maybe his stupidity in diving in the air and landing on his head,” Petrino said. “We have to get a little bit better than that and understand that we’re not going to do that. If the touchdown is there we’ll take it. If not, we’ll get on the ground and protect ourselves.”
On Monday, Wilson said he was expecting to have a conversation with Petrino about his decision-making.
“We hadn’t talked about it directly yet. But I kind of hear through the grapevine he kind of wants me to get down in that situation,” Wilson said. “But, you know, I kind of wanted to set a tone a little bit. I wasn’t going to dive or slide on the 1-yard line, there.
“I wanted to kind of get in and show a little bit of something if anything. So, that’s kind of what was going through my head.”
Against New Mexico, Wilson completed 18-of-26 passes for 259 yards and one TD. He also threw his first interception of the season when a pass was tipped by a New Mexico defender and picked off.
On the second play of the game, Wilson ran a naked bootleg for 30 yards. He finished with 46 rushing yards and led the Arkansas ground attack in the first half.
Bequette, a senior defensive end, was injured in the first quarter. He limped off the field and was examined on the Razorbacks sideline for a hamstring injury, Petrino said. He limped to the locker room, but returned before halftime out of uniform.
“I’m not sure. I know he wasn’t in the game, but I don’t know the consequences of his injury,” Arkansas defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said.
Wright, a senior wide receiver, also wound up watching the majority of the second half in sweats. He had five catches for 63 yards. He scored the Razorbacks’ first TD of the night when he caught a 12-yard pass from Wilson with 13:03 left in the first quarter, but injured a knee and also spent the second half in sweats.
