[00:00:00] Welcome to the Whole Hog Sports podcast. I'm Chip Souza. Now, normally I've got a really handsome, good looking dude here next to me, but Anthony Hicks is out of town this week. I know, I'm just as disappointed as you are, but hopefully he'll be back next week. But we're going to talk a whole lot of Hog football today. And their big win on the road at Vanderbilt. Now, Vanderbilt turned out to be just what Arkansas needed last weekend. An SEC losing streak that has stretched out for what seemed like a decade is finally over. The Hogs went on the road and laid the hammer on Vanderbilt 31, 21 last Saturday. Now, the losing streak was at 14 games. That's league games, SEC games. The last time they had won a game was November 2, 2024. I know it seems like November 2, 2010, but it was 2024.
[00:00:49] They had beat Mississippi State in that one and they lost, had lost 14 in a row until getting that win at Vanderbilt. Now keep in mind too, seven of those 14 losses were by seven points or less, which kind of only amplifies, you know, the frustration of Razorback fans. You know, losing, you know, games is bad, you know, you don't want to lose games, but when you're losing close games, you know, it seems like it's a death, it's death by a thousand cuts. And it makes you question everything, makes you question every play call, makes you question every.
[00:01:20] Not going for it on fourth down, makes you question a lot of things.
[00:01:24] But now that's over. They have a win. They got not only, not only an SEC win, they got an SEC road win, which, you know, anyone who's followed SEC football knows getting a win on the road, you know, even if it's against, you know, a team, you know, I'm not saying, I'm not disparaging Vanderbilt, but even if it's a win there, getting a win is big, as you saw last Saturday. Saturday was, you know, you know, absolutely vicious. In the SEC seeing, you know, for the second week in a row the number one team in the country going down the sec, it's tough to win. I don't care where you're playing.
[00:01:58] So let's not, let's not minimize that win.
[00:02:02] And if you take a look at the two programs, you take a look at Arkansas and Vanderbilt's programs here in the recent history, I'm talking about in the last couple of years, there's no question Vanderbilt has been a better program than Arkansas in the last couple of years.
[00:02:15] So going on the road, getting A win at Vanderbilt is big. It ends a losing streak. And you take this win, you take this dub and you build on it. You don't minimize it. You don't disparage anyone. You look at it as a win on the road. You use it as a building block. The Hogs are in no position to minimize any win.
[00:02:38] So we. So we take this win you use as a building block, hopefully moving forward, and you use this momentum takes you into the bye week and then on against Missouri the following week.
[00:02:49] What we saw Saturday that I took a lot of positive out of, I'm going To start with K.J. jackson, the quarterback for the first time this season. To me, he looked comfortable in the offense and maybe it's just taken six or seven games, you know, for him to reach a level of comfort in this offense. Keep in mind, coming into this season, K.J. jackson had started exactly one college football game, started one.
[00:03:18] This is, you know, week six or seven. He still has not made 10 starts at the quarterback position.
[00:03:25] So it's taken a while for him to reach that comfort level.
[00:03:28] He looked good, he looked comfortable. He didn't look. He didn't look hurried. He didn't look out of sorts. He looked in control to me the entire game. So let's break down his performance a little bit.
[00:03:41] Passing 21 to 31, 251 yards. The most important stat in that, zero interceptions. I don't remember him throwing a ball that looked like it could have been intercepted. Maybe I missed it, maybe I don't. Maybe I'm like Roger Clemens. I'm misremembering. But I don't remember him even. Even coming close to throwing an interception in that game. That's good. That's something to build on. That's a positive. He was also effective in the run game. We've been talking about that. And maybe Arkansas needed to take a look at AJ Hill, maybe getting him some snaps at quarterback because it seemed like he was better suited to be a running quarterback than what K.J. had looked. K.J. on Saturday, 11 carries, 58 yards. He was the leading rusher for the Hogs in that game. Eleven carries, 58 yards, had a rushing touchdown.
[00:04:28] He managed the game.
[00:04:31] He looked comfortable. He managed the game. He provided a real running threat. And when Vanderbilt tried to cheat up, when they tried to cheat up to keep him from running, he picked that up and he hit. In the passing game, 12 different receivers completed, 21 to 31. Twelve of those 21 passes went to different receivers in that game. So he wasn't just locked in on Kris Marshall because Kris Marshall wasn't in the game. He went out of that game. So what that forced KJ to do is to look at other guys and he realized he does have other guys out there that he can trust.
[00:05:04] So I thought the last couple of games that KJ maybe was locked into Marshall too much when there might have been other guys open on Saturday without Marshall being in the game. It gave him more options to look at. He was able to find different targets again, 12 different receivers in this game caught passes. Huge, huge, huge positive for KJ moving forward. He looked comfortable, he looked good. He was a threat in the run game. He used that to his benefit. When Vanderbilt cheated up, he was able to go over the top of him and hit some big plays. That is a huge, huge positive.
[00:05:40] The running game. The running game looked good. In fact, it was their best game of the season.
[00:05:45] They were very effective. And I loved the way that Tim Kranczy spread the workload around Braylon Russell. I said last week on our podcast he needed to get more touches. He had 14 carries. I said Cam Settles needed to be used more. He had 11 carries.
[00:06:02] So if you combine what KJ, Cam and Braylon did in this game, they combined for 150, a little over 150 of the 189 rushing yards.
[00:06:12] And then I thought the way they utilized Sutton Smith was also way more effective. He was used as both a runner and a receiver in this game. In my opinion. Sutton Smith is not a 15 carry guy. He is a guy that needs to get the ball in space and they were able to figure out a way to get him the ball in space. He was way more effective. They used Settles and used Cam Settles and Braylon in the run game. Smith is a change of pace guy. He's not a hammer. He's a guy that needs to get the ball in space. That's his strong suit. He was used that way Saturday.
[00:06:45] So when the run game is clicking like that, the offensive line blocked well. KJ was effective as a dual threat. You got Braylon and Settles the touches that they needed. I'd like to see them continue to get around that. 12 to 15 carries per game and then you use Sutton Smith in a way where he's a change of pace. Get him the ball in space and I think he's going to be much more effective. That's the kind of offense that we've been looking for. Hopefully that's something that we'll continue to see. Again, very much a Positive Antonio Jordan, where, where has this guy been?
[00:07:21] Is he the next great Warren receiver? I mean how many great receivers has Arkansas gotten out of Warren? He looked really good Saturday. Dropped his first pass.
[00:07:30] Maybe a little nervous, I don't know. But. But KJ did not, he did not lose, he did not lose faith in him. He did, he did not lose that trust. He kept going to him. He was able to move past that, put up a Great game at five catches for 74 yards.
[00:07:42] Man, he had he look at shades of trailing Burks. Jerry's right, you know, Greg Childs, Chris Crack, all those great one receivers. Maybe Antonio Jordan is going to be the next guy because he certainly looked at it, he certainly looked that way Saturday. Maybe that was his.
[00:07:56] Maybe that was his induct introduction to the offense to be a more effective weapon.
[00:08:01] How about Monte Harrison? He also had a big catch in the game. I think if I remember right, Monte Harrison played in the 78 Orange bowl against Oklahoma that night, right? Or at least it seems like he was. But I'm just kind of kidding. But anyway, Monte Harrison had had a little roll Saturday. Looked good, thought kj, you know, uses tight ends effectively. So just a great all around game. In the passing game again, we mentioned earlier 12 different receivers catching balls in that game. And when you're able to spread it out like that, you know you can be very effective. Also want to give props to the offensive line because if they don't give KJ protection, he can't complete the ball to 12 different receivers. They did a good job in pass protection giving him an opportunity to look at target 1, 2, 3. Kind of use his progression and find those open guys. And they were very effective. Remember, an offense can only be as good as the time you give the quarterback or the hoes you give running backs. When the offensive line is doing its job the way it did on Saturday against Vanderbilt, even I could look good sometimes. Maybe that's a stretch.
[00:09:04] The offense as a whole, this was easily their best showing all season. 438 total yards a season high, 187 yards rushing.
[00:09:16] Big stat here. 8 of 8 of 16 on third down, that's 50%, 1 of 1 on fourth down. So if you're going to be that effective over 50% on third down conversion, fourth down conversions, you can, you can be successful. That's keeping the chains moving, that's keeping drives alive. They had a huge advantage in time of possession by seven and a half minutes.
[00:09:39] They got in the red zone three times and scored three touchdowns. Not just Three scores, not three field goals, three touchdowns in the red zone. Huge. They also forced Vanderbilt in turnovers. They got a couple of big interceptions, got 10 points off of Vanderbilt. And oh, and guess what, what was the final score of the game? It was a 10 point margin, 31, 21. It does translate. If you can, if you can create opportunities to create turnovers, you have a chance to win the game. And that's what they did. They, they clicked well. And again, going on the road, I don't care where that road trip is, but going on the road and getting a win in the SEC is big. So now they got that 14 game absolute, you know, gorilla off of their back and they can move forward going into the bye week.
[00:10:30] The bye week comes at a great time for them because they are dinged up as any team is after five, six, seven games. They are dinged up. They need to get some guys healthy. They got some dings on the offensive line. They need to get those guys healed up.
[00:10:45] So the bye week comes at a great time. This gives them a chance to heal up, rest up, recharge, maybe do put in some new wrinkles because they have Missouri coming in Halloween.
[00:10:57] They set that game time at 6:45. I love it. Arkansas fans should be nice and charged up for that game, so it should be a good opportunity. They need to come out and punch Missouri right in the mouth on that night. On Saturday night, the 31st, they'd come out, punch them in the mouth, set the tone early, run the ball, give KJ an opportunity to throw when he has to, keep him involved in the run game and they have a chance to do something big and that's beat Missouri, a team that has been a thorn in their side for a while. They have a chance to come in, punch them in the mouth, set a tone and get a big win.
[00:11:41] So we want to remind you too to catch all of our Whole Hog sports podcasts. We bring you all of the information that you need to know and insight every day from the people who are on the ground and covering the Razorbacks every day. Be sure and catch the Wednesday podcast. That's Matt Jones and Brandon Marcelo. Brandon is a senior national college football reporter for CBS Sports. He brings us up to date on what's going on throughout college football. They will have a lot to talk about on Wednesday. After Saturday's absolute massacre of top teams all across the country. There'll be a lot to talk about as now we've got a host of teams with one loss and the College Football Playoff is going to be, you know, a little bit muddled by that. But Brandon will break all that down with Matt. So you'll want to catch that Wednesday podcast with Matt Jones and Brandon Marcelo. Also, don't forget we have our weekly Hogs Illustrated Sports Club luncheon. Now, we will not have a luncheon this week as the Razorbacks are off, but we will be back for a luncheon on October 29th.
[00:12:37] Now, the reason I bring that up today is because we're going to have all three Arkansas assistant baseball coaches as a panel that day. Be Nate Thompson, Matt Haas, Bobby Werness. They will be there for that because the Hogs have wrapped up their well, they will be wrapping it up this weekend, their fall, all their fall workouts and the exhibition games that they've had. So they'll wrap up that. And so these coaches will give us great insight as to what happened in the fall, what's going to happen during their off season workouts, moving through the rest of this school term and then what to look for in the spring. So that's going to be a great, great panel. We had them last year at a luncheon and if you are a baseball fan, which I know a lot of you are, we're excited about the upcoming season. You will not want to miss this luncheon. And you can get tickets for that luncheon and all of our
[email protected] that's O Z A R K S T I X.com you can get tickets there. You'll want to pack that room and listen to what these baseball coaches have to say.
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[00:15:09] Thank you.
