Arkansas left too much on the table in Saturday’s loss to No. 15 Tennessee, and the most glaring issue wasn’t just execution. It was how the Razorbacks divided the work in the backfield.
Braylen Russell made the most of the few chances he got. His third carry of the game went for nine yards and a touchdown, and his fourth was a 29-yard run on third down that disappeared because of a penalty.
After that, he never touched the ball again. For a back who has been Arkansas’ most effective option this season and has averaged 4.5 yards per carry, finishing with only four carries felt hard to explain.
Cam Settles was productive too. He finished with eight carries for 50 yards, highlighted by a 27-yard run on Arkansas’ opening drive of the second half that moved the Hogs into Tennessee territory.
Even with that, Sutton Smith ended up with the most carries among the running backs, taking 11 handoffs for 40 yards. Jasper Parker also got a look and picked up six yards on his lone run.
That rotation made little sense against Tennessee, especially with Russell clearly capable of doing damage. Smith had a few useful runs - nine, six and 12 yards in the third quarter - but his last four carries stalled out for minus-1, 4, 0 and 3 yards.
Head coach Ryan Silverfield pointed to the game flow and the way Arkansas was lining up.
"We went to more empty packages, and we thought, you know, KJ had some balls batted down, and finding ways to get those out there," head coach Ryan Silverfield said. "And then the situations, right? Like when you find yourself down, you know Braylen has obviously been very effective in some of those short yardage, 12-personnel packages, and Cam did some good things, but you find yourself when you're going three-and-out.
"It's hard to - it limits how many touches they get. So I don't think at that point in the game in the fourth quarter, it truly mattered who was touching the ball as a ball carrier. It was just finding ways to stay ahead of sticks, and we weren't able to."
The same kind of confusion followed Arkansas’ decision to lean on more empty sets while Tennessee was keeping KJ Jackson from finding any rhythm. Jackson finished 15 of 27 for 155 yards and one touchdown.
He wasn’t a disaster, but he never settled in, and only three of his final eight passes were completed. On the Razorbacks’ last drive, his final three throws all hit the turf incomplete.
By the time it was over, the personnel choices in the backfield and the passing game still didn’t add up. Hours later, they were just as puzzling. Whether Arkansas turns this into a lesson and gives Russell and Settles the heavier workload at running back going forward is still unknown.
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Arkansas Fans Are Fuming Over Ryan Silverfields Late-Game Surrender
Ryan Silverfields decision late against Tennessee did little to ease the frustration around Arkansas football. Trailing in the fourth quarter, the Razorbacks had a chance to keep pressing, but Silverfield chose to punt with 1:45 left rather than gamble on fourth-and-10, a call that underscored just how tight the margin felt in a game Arkansas ultimately lost 24-17.
The choice landed hard because the Razorbacks are already carrying a heavy burden in SEC play, with the defeat extending their conference losing streak to 14 games. Silverfield defended the move by pointing to the low odds of converting the fourth down and then finding a way to score again and recover an onside kick, but for a fan base desperate for a spark, the conservative finish only added to the unease. [Read more 🡒]
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The turning point came late, when the decision-making on the sideline drew the kind of second-guessing that follows a loss like this. Trailing by a touchdown with less than two minutes left, Arkansas chose to punt, a call that effectively signaled the end of its comeback hopes and put a frustrating cap on a game it had made winnable. For a team that defended well enough and got enough out of its ground game, it was a painful reminder that game management can undo plenty of otherwise solid work. [Read more 🡒]
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