Arkansas football report: Braylen Russell gains confidence, increases workload

FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas freshman Braylen Russell’s carries have increased by a factor of five over the last three games, compared to the first quarter of the season when he had 4 carries for 25 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Russell led the Hogs in rushing for the first time with eight carries for 62 yards in a 19-14 win over No. 4 Tennessee two weeks ago. The 6-1, 253-pounder from Benton has hauled in 20 carries for 99 yards in the last three games, relieving pressure on starter Ja’Quinden Jackson.

“I think it’s going great, I’m just trying to earn my playing time on the field with the trust of my coaches and teammates,” Russell said Tuesday.

An early career highlight for Russell came late in the game when he and fellow freshman quarterback Malachi Singleton played key roles in a four-play, 59-yard touchdown drive that gave the Razorbacks the lead.

Russell had big runs on the two center plays, a 24-yard run through a big hole at right tackle, then an 11-yard run down the left side where he avoided a diving arm tackle from Boo Carter and then Andre Turrentine trampled down to reach him the volunteers 11.

“Here’s Russell going ahead and knocking people over again!” said ABC play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler. “You don’t want to get in his way. He went straight over Turrentine.”

Russell said he was aware of the praise he received on the show from Fowler and analyst Kirk Herbstreit.

“I took the time to absorb it, my first big moments, but just looking at it I think, ‘I have to do this over and over again.’ So let’s just rinse it out. Keep it up. It was a good moment and we have to do it again.”

On the second play, Herbstreit pointed out good blocks from left tackle Fernando Carmona and tight end Luke Hasz, then added, “Just good, hard, hard running, like a bull running through the Vols’ defense this time.”

Carmona rushed to lift Russell off the ground.

“He learned from the vet and it’s time to let the young puppy run around a bit,” Carmona later said. “If we could just do our job as an offense, we know we have the playmakers back there. We don’t even really need to look back there.

“We know there’s some guy back there that’s going to play a role, whether it’s Braylen, Rodney (Hill), (Rashod) Dub(inion) or even JJ. Someone will make a play.”

Coach Sam Pittman said Russell’s playing time continued to increase for good reason.

“For freshmen to get on the field, I think the first thing they have to do is show that they are tough,” Pittman said. “Because if they’re not, they’ll be substituted for one game and then substituted for two. So he showed us he was tough and he was willing to protect the pass too.

“But I thought he would play football the way he is, that he would be a force, go downhill and be fast. Faster than people think. … The bottom line is he runs the ball hard and we expect him to increase his production every week.”

needs practice

Coach Sam Pittman expressed optimism late Wednesday about the Razorbacks’ health and what the final two weeks of practice looked like as quarterback Taylen Green recovered from a left knee injury and other ailing players healed.

“Our biggest key was not to lose the physicality, but to make sure we got healthy, and I think we did that,” Pittman told host Chuck Barrett on his radio show. “We were pretty much out of tight ends before the Tennessee game, and now we have them all back.”

Pittman described the Tuesday viewing and Wednesday and Thursday workouts last week as good, then expressed stronger approval of the last few days.

“Today was our best practice we’ve had so far this week,” Pittman said. “It was excellent. A lot of great pace and a lot of enthusiasm and that’s why I’m looking forward to going out in front of our fans on Saturday night.”

Clean nut

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier has been sacked just twice this season, both coming from behind to win 36-33 at South Carolina in Week 3.

“I think it’s a combination of four starters who have played together for three years and two tackles who are potential first-round draft picks,” LSU coach Brian Kelly said Wednesday, referring to the offensive line Tackles Will Campbell and Emery Jones and guards Garrett Dellinger and Miles Frazier.

“(Offensive line coach) Brad Davis is doing a great job and I don’t want to diminish his job … but experience is a great thing when it comes to blitzing and applying pressure and working together as a unit. So that’s #1.

“And No. 2: The quarterback knows how to protect himself. If the quarterback has a good sense of how to protect himself, those things usually come into play.”

Top 10 twin beaks

As documented in Tuesday’s editions of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the Razorbacks will host the top 10 teams in the Associated Press rankings on campus for the first time in school history with the visit of No. 8 LSU on Saturday . It also marks the 11th time the Hogs have played consecutive games against teams in the AP top 10 since joining the SEC in 1992.

Additionally, based on research from Matt Jones of Whole Hog Sports, Arkansas will play back-to-back games against top-10 teams for the 17th time in school history.

The Razorbacks also accomplished this once under Jack Mitchell in 1957, three times under Frank Broyles in 1958, 1959 and 1961, once under Lou Holtz in 1979 and once under Ken Hatfield in 1988.

The 1957 team defeated No. 6 Ole Miss 12-6 before losing 7-6 to No. 1 Texas A&M. The 1958 team lost at No. 7 Texas 24-6 and then to No. 6 Ole Miss 14-12. In 1959, the Razorbacks lost 13-12 to No. 3 Texas and 28-0 to No. 4 Ole Miss. The 1961 team won 23-13 at No. 9 Baylor and then fell 33-7 to No. 3 Texas.

The 1979 Razorbacks defeated No. 2 Texas 17-14 before losing to No. 4 Houston 13-10. And the 1988 team lost 18-16 at No. 3 Miami and then lost 17-3 to No. 9 UCLA in the Cotton Bowl.

More yards

Arkansas has outscored its opponent in five of six games, but strangely this outlier was not present in one of the Hogs’ two losses.

In fact, in setbacks at Oklahoma State and against Texas A&M, the Razorbacks outscored the Cowboys and Aggies overall 1,027 to 683.

Arkansas beat Auburn 24-14 in the SEC’s opening game on Sept. 21, but the Tigers had 431 total yards to the Hogs’ 334 yards.

This season, Arkansas is averaging 484.8 yards per game, ranking eighth in the FBS under first-year offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, and allowing 321.5 yards per game, ranking 34th in the FBS under to reach second-year coordinator Travis Williams.

4 points

Arkansas’ 19-14 win over Tennessee was the fourth straight in the series since current offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino’s 49-7 win over the Volunteers as head coach in 2011.

This is the Razorbacks’ longest winning streak against an SEC opponent. Their two-game winning streak against Texas is their second longest. Arkansas has one-game winning streaks against Auburn, Florida and South Carolina and active losing streaks against the other 10 SEC teams, including a two-game loss to LSU and a program-worst 17-game streak against Alabama.

Bad game

LSU quarterback Garrett Nussmeier, still caught up in the field-rushing frenzy after a 29-26 overtime win against Ole Miss last Saturday, kept his own performance in perspective.

“It was crazy,” said Nussmeier. “Fans on the field. I’m going to sit here and say that I probably had one of the worst games of my career tonight. That’s what I want to say.

“The best part is that I can learn from it and we got a win. I’m excited to get in the film room and face these things and correct the mistakes and hope this will be a big growth moment for me to take my game to the next level.”

Nussmeier finished 22 of 51 for 337 yards with 3 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

His final two passes went for touchdowns: a 23-yard toss to Aaron Anderson with 27 seconds left in regulation and a 25-yard toss to Kyren Lacy on the Tigers’ only snap of overtime.