Arkansas defense clamped down after slow start in season opener

Coming into their season opener against Alabama A&M, the Arkansas Razorbacks had questions abound in multiple areas defensively.

The Razorbacks scored on their opening nine-play, 73-yard drive when senior quarterback Taylen Green connected with sophomore CJ Brown up the middle for the 16-yard touchdown. However, the Bulldogs impressively responded with a seven-play, 75-yard drive of their own without ever facing a third down to tie the game at seven apiece.

That would be the only score for the Bulldogs as the Hogs continued to hum offensively to the tune of seven passing touchdowns and the defense pitched a shoutout for the remainder of the contest to cruise to a 52-7 victory before an announced crowd of over 70,800 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

“We started off slow defensively,” sixth-year Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said postgame. “We certainly had some mental errors there and they had a good game plan coming in. But we had some mental errors and some gap problems in the run.

“They turned the tight end loose a couple of times. He got open one more time on us then we got it fixed and played pretty good defense the rest of the game.”

Arkansas defense struggles early, but finds its way

Alabama A&M quarterback Cornelious Brown IV marched the Bulldogs right down the field on their opening drive, overcoming two false start penalties, and running back Maurice Edwards capped the drive with a six-yard touchdown.

There were plenty of way-too-easy plays at various times for the Bulldogs, which are not uncommon in a first game, but all-in-all Arkansas kept them at bay from the second quarter on and ultimately held them to 235 total net yards that included 69 on the ground.

“You know, it could have been a better start,” fifth-year senior Cam Ball said. “It kind of took us to get punched in the mouth on that first drive to realize, wake up and see what was going on. But after that, we had a talk with each other, had talks with our coaches, and we came out and dominated the rest of the game.

“I’m just proud of how we had multiple three-and-outs and how we bulled up. We took the play calling and we came out [of the second half] and finished the game how we we’re supposed to. So, all we have to do is a lot of self-evaluating.”

Ball logged his lone tackle of the game, which was a crucial one, for a four yard loss on third down as the Hogs were trying to pull away and led 24-7 right before halftime.

Quincy Rhodes Jr. logs first sack for Arkansas defense

Junior defensive end Quincy Rhodes Jr. is one in the trenches who expects to take the next step and he logged the Razorbacks’ first sack of the 2025 season in the third quarter for a six-yard loss. Julian Neal, Shakur Smalls and Stephen Dix Jr. led all Hogs with four tackles a piece, while Miguel Mitchell and Caleb Wooden logged three each.

Smalls also had a strip sack that he recovered himself, which drew praise from Pittman.

“It felt good because [a turnover] changes the game,” Pittman said. “One of them, I don’t know if it was a sack or just jailbreak, where we get in there and got the fumble. We’ve got to continue to do more of that. The first sack was that we had the third-down package guys on there, which worked because Sorey was at defensive end. But it’s nice to get one a piece. We need to get more.”

Florida transfer Justus Boone had earned rave reviews throughout fall camp and was slated to start at the other end opposite Rhodes, but sophomore Charlie Collins earned the nod after Boone was listed as an ‘or’ starter on last Monday’s depth chart.

Charlie [Collins] had a really good week,” Pittman said. “So we’ve got to reward the guys that practice well and Charlie had a really good week. So we knew that we were going to rotate those guys. We felt like Charlie had earned the right to start for us.”

The Razorbacks now set their focus on three consecutive games away from Reynolds Razorbacks Stadium, starting with the historic first meeting with Arkansas State at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 4 p.m. CT and will be streamed on ESPN+/SEC Network+.

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