By Harry King

FAYETTEVILLE Heeding the advice of an old hit song about accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative takes some doing when the subject is Arkansas victory over Troy.

There was too much negative to ignore. There were Arkansas defensive backs who didn’t see passes, the Arkansas quarterback who didn’t see a Troy defensive back, and a Troy TD that was meaningless, but ridiculously easy.

Because of those mistakes, Arkansas improvement to 3-0 was more difficult than expected.
Until Joe Adams spin move as good as any in the NBA resulted in a 56-yard touchdown early in the third quarter, there was the outside possibility of a major upset. Along with those kudos, Adams gets a thumbs down for muffing a punt that Troy recovered and losing another fumble after catching a short pass.

Before identifying the other guilty parties, there is a positive to mention in the 38-28 decision.

Still up in the air about Arkansas running game in general, a squatty fullback with a linebackers mentality increased confidence in the Razorbacks ability to convert on short yardage.

Ask Troy defensive backs Chris Pickett and Brynden Trawick about Kiero Small. They were unfortunate to be in the way when Arkansas lined up in the I formation with two tight ends and Small was the lead blocker.

The 5-foot-10, 255-pound Small got lower than Pickett and exploded into him, jolting Pickett backward. Following Small, Ronnie Wingo Jr. scored easily from 22 yards out on fourth-and-2. The next time Arkansas was in the I, the ball was on the Troy 3 and Kody Walker was the beneficiary of Smalls love of contact. This time, Trawick hunkered down and Walker flattened him.

Touchdown, Walker.

There is no way to be sure that Small will knock back Alabama defenders on Saturday, but the former fullback-linebacker at a California junior college was too much man for Troy.

Although the Trojans were better than either Missouri State or New Mexico, the Razorbacks scored on their first four possessions. The lead was 24-7 at the half, but only because Corey Robinson missed an open Corey Johnson in the end zone on a 15-yard pass and Michael Taylor missed one short field goal to the left and one to the right.

Wingo showed flashes against Troy, particularly on his TD runs of 22 and 21, but he also had five so-so efforts that netted 2 yards or less in the first half. On the first TD, his escort was freshman tackle Mitch Smothers.

Robinson was expected to complete several passes, but it was disconcerting that he had two completions of more than 30 yards on throws to a receiver running up the sideline. Both times, the cover man failed to turn around. Victimized were Tevin Mitchell and Isaac Madison. Fellow cornerback Darius Winston was ineffective defending Robinson’s TD lob just before the half and linebacker Jerico Nelson was overmatched against wide receiver Justin Albert on a 31-yard TD pass in the third quarter.

Alabama quarterback A..J.. McCarron is not going to throw it 63 times as Robinson did, but he will benefit from a running attack that will demand attention.

Tyler Wilson, who took all but three snaps, was guilty of throwing the interception that safety LaDarrius Madden returned 51 yards for a touchdown that reduced Arkansas lead to 31-21. Wilson was 23-of-36 but was sacked twice.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Medias Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.