Razorbacks’ loss marked by two storylines

There were two storylines Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. One featured the losing streaks of the two head coaches.

The first was answered by the start of the second quarter when Mississippi State’s Joe Moorhead was sitting pretty with a 17-0 lead on the way to a 54-24 runaway.

The other: When would Arkansas coach Chad Morris turn over the offense to freshman quarterbacks John Stephen Jones and/or K.J. Jefferson?

Most in the Natural State still tuned into the dark state of the Arkansas football program and were ready for Morris to give the keys of the offense to a new quarterback. That happened late in the first half when Ben Hicks threw a pick-six, just as Nick Starkel did to end the first half one week earlier at Alabama.

It’s probably a foregone conclusion the two senior transfers — Hicks and Starkel — will get to mainly watch as Jones, a redshirt freshman, and Jefferson, a true freshman, get the playing time over the final three games.

Mississippi State entered on a four-game SEC losing streak. That might have looked like a great opportunity for Arkansas to end a 16-game SEC losing streak.

If there were any that bit, Lee Corso of College GameDay fame would offer: not so fast.

Fast was how quickly Arkansas learned an upset was not even a remote possibility.

The Bulldogs roared to a 17-0 lead just one minute into the second period.

Instead, it was time to dig into the archives from an alltime great quote from an Arkansas football coach.

It was probably not original, but it is still vintage Lou Holtz: Watch out for the light at the end of the tunnel, it might be a train.

Or it might be Mississippi State running back Kylin Hill.

Hill entered as the SEC’s top rusher with 793 yards. It took three running plays by MSU quarterback Tommy Stevens to move the eyes of the Arkansas defenders away from Hill.

That would be a mistake. The fourth MSU play was a straight dive handoff to Hill for 62 yards.

Hill rolled for 234 yards on his 21 carries. He scored on runs of 4, 2 and 1 yards. He had 198 on 13 tries in the first half when the Bulldogs amassed 398 total yards.

Mississippi State would finish with 640 total yards, 460 on the ground. That’s not a record on either end, but it’s fourth worst in total yards in Arkansas history.

Southern Cal set the total offense record against the Hogs with 736 in 2005. Auburn set the rushing mark against the Hogs with 543 in 2016.

Three times in the Morris era (with John Chavis as defensive coordinator) the Hogs have given up total offense numbers on the all-time worst list.

The 640 by the Bulldogs were just more than Alabama’s 639 last year. Ole Miss’ 611-yard performance in Little Rock last year are 10th most against the Razorbacks.

Most of the questions in the Arkansas post game centered on the inability of the Arkansas defense to stop the run or the potential for more snaps for Jefferson at quarterback.

Morris said he was “very disappointed” in the run defense. He said, “It was evident we couldn’t stop them.”

Asked to explain what he saw from the sideline, he said, “We looked like we got knocked out of some gaps, missed some fits on the back end and it was a collection of other things … disappointing.”

Asked who will play quarterback going forward, he declined to give a clear answer.

“We’ll evaluate that tomorrow,” he said.

About Jefferson, Morris said, “He’s been getting substantial work the last two weeks.”

For much of the season, Jefferson has been with the scout team offense. Defensive tackle McTelvin Agim said, “We knew he was a good quarterback, but he had to wait his turn.”

Running back Rakeem Boyd didn’t need to wait until Sunday’s evaluation of the quarterbacks from the coaches.

“We’ve seen some of the stuff he can do,” Boyd said. “He’s a helluva runner and he can throw it. I bet y’all see him next week. He can do it all.”

For the record, Jefferson got only seven snaps in the game. True freshman A’Montae Spivey fumbled three plays into the last UA possession, also quarterbacked by Jefferson.

There are other bad numbers to consider. Morris has now lost seven of his 21 games by 30 or more points. Bret Bielema only had five by that margin in 63 games as UA coach. Houston Nutt had only three and Bobby Petrino teams lost only two times by 30 or more.

That’s probably the reason there were so many empty seats in Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday. UA officials announced that 52,256 tickets “were distributed.” There were far less in the stands.

They had little to cheer about in the first half while the Bulldogs were rolling to a 38-10 lead. And, some of the cheers were of the Bronx type, perhaps because of a completed pass, like the one Ben Hicks threw to Tyson Morris for eight yards at the 13:18 mark of the second quarter.

Really that was nothing of much, part of the third straight three-and-out possession by the Arkansas offense. The Hogs finally got on the board when Boyd found a crease on a seal block by Treylon Burks for a 62-yard touchdown run with 10:24 left in the second quarter.

A fumbled punt gave the Hogs a field goal with five minutes left in the second quarter, but the boo birds were out in full force when Hicks threw an interception for a touchdown return with 1:59 left in the first half.

That was the end of the day for Hicks and an opportunity for more cheers as Jones entered at quarterback. Jones did produce some excitement, a high-arcing pass to Michael Woods in the corner of the end zone for a 11-yard TD play with 4:03 left in the third.

That produced some cheers, but not like the roar from the half full stadium when Jefferson came off the bench on the next Arkansas possession. It didn’t take long for Jefferson to display his great physical skills. The 6-3, 228-pounder from Sardis, Miss., dashed 21 yards over right tackle.

There would be more magic as Boyd roared 17 on the next play. Jefferson found Burks matched against Cam Danlzler, MSU’s best corner, for a 32-yard strike on the boundary to the 5-yard line.

With the crowd still buzzing, Jefferson roared in for a 5-yard touchdown. He followed a kick-out block from his pulling guard, then rolled over starting middle linebacker Erroll Thompson at the 2-yard line. Thompson finished with eight tackles, the co-lead for State on the day, and leads the team on the season.

That was the high point of the day. It was one of the few times the Hogs looked like they had any zip to them. Morris was asked about lack of energy at the outset.

“We had a tremendous work week,” he said. “(The sluggish start) was extremely disappointing.”

Basically, he said energy in practice was “great,” but it wasn’t matched in the game.

“It’s very disappointing,” he said. “I’m extremely surprised (by the poor defensive play). They didn’t do anything any different.”

Agim said the tackling drills still dominate Tuesday’s work day.

“We do a lot of tackling Tuesday,” he said. “We never back off tackling.

“But we weren’t tackling well. We were not really setting the edge. You saw why (MSU) is leading the league in rushing.”

The 2-7 Hogs didn’t need to be reminded that they can no longer go to a bowl.

“We have to make sure everyone knows that it’s about pride now,” Agim said. “You can’t lay down. You gotta play. You have to build on next year.”

It goes without saying that means more of John Stephen Jones and K.J. Jefferson.