This article originally appeared in the October 2, 2012 issue of The Arkansas Traveler.
Coming out of
Saturday’s 58-10 loss to Texas A&M in College Station, Texas, injuries
remain a major concern for Arkansas.
Senior tight end
Chris Gragg, sophomore cornerback Tevin Mitchel, senior cornerback Kaelon
Kelleybrew, and junior safety Eric Bennett have not been cleared to play yet,
although interim head coach John L. Smith remains “optimistic” that they’ll be
cleared by Saturday.
“They’re not ruled
out,” Smith said. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed” that they’ll play.
Senior running back
Dennis Johnson, who played with a broken hand against Texas A&M, and redshirt
freshman safety Rohan Gaines will play this week.
Despite the injuries
and the loss, the Razorbacks remain positive and are focusing on Auburn.
“(Sunday) we came
back to work,” Smith said. “We went to the practice field, looked at the tape,
and proceeded to (move) on to Auburn.”
Against the Aggies
last week, Arkansas only scored one time out of their five trips into the red
zone.
“I think our ability
to run the ball has hurt us,” Smith said of the Razorbacks’ performance in the
red zone.
“Another thing is we
can’t make a mistake and come away without points, Smith added.
The run game did
improve, as the Razorbacks gained 142 yards on the ground. Senior Knile Davis
had his best game of the season, rushing for 64 yards and gaining 65 receiving
yards. However, he fumbled the ball three times, losing one.
“(Davis) ran tough
and gave us a tremendous amount of energy,” senior quarterback Tyler Wilson
said. “We love to see fireworks, but when something bad happens, we can’t get
our heads down.”
Smith expects Davis
to build on his performance and play even better this week.
Defensively, Arkansas
gave up 716 yards of offense to Texas A&M. They also failed to cause a
turnover for the third week in a row.
“We’re making a lot
of mistakes and mental errors,” senior defensive tackle Alfred Davis said.
“We do it right in
practice, but don’t carry it over to the game,” he said.
This week, Arkansas
travels to Auburn, Ala., for their second straight Southeastern Conference road
game.
“I thought our guys
did a good job of traveling last week,” Smith said. “Our veterans did a good
job of preparing our rookies for the travel.”
Auburn comes out of a
bye week. The Tigers are 1-3 overall and 0-2 in SEC play.
“Their strength is on
the defensive side of the ball,” Smith said. “Offensively, they’ve not produced
the way they’d like to, but they’re a very, very skilled football team, as all
Auburn teams are.”
Wilson said that the
Hogs will have to “be on our toes this week.”
“We’re going to have
to prepare and work hard,” Wilson said. “They hide some things. They don’t just
line up and run it, and they don’t just sit back in coverage.”
On the defensive side
of the ball, Smith said the coaches are working on simplifying the playbook.
“We’re trying to get
it as simple as we can to get everyone to align and execute,” Smith said. “But
you have to leave yourself enough bullets to have some ammo out there.”
Davis said another
primary focus for the defense this week is Auburn’s sophomore quarterback Kiehl
Frazier, who is another quarterback that likes to scramble, similar to ULM’s
Kolton Browning and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel.
“He is a great
athlete,” Davis said. “You have to find a way to contain him. We’ll have to
find ways to keep him in the pocket and check him on bootlegs.”
With a 1-4 overall
record and 0-2 SEC record, Smith has simplified Arkansas’ goals.
“We have one goal, and that’s to go get a
win,” Smith said.
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