Arkansas knew what was coming. That was the frustrating part.
A week after dealing with Utah’s Devon Dampier, the Razorbacks ran into another quarterback who could hurt them with his legs, and Georgia’s Gunner Stockton made sure of it in Saturday’s 97-yard effort on seven carries. When Arkansas brought pressure, Stockton kept finding room to escape, and coach Ryan Silverfield didn’t soften the diagnosis afterward.
“Absolutely crushed us, right,” Silverfield said. “Even though sometimes when you did get some quarterback pressure in the drop-back pass game, where they hurt us was on a pin-and-pull scheme to their boundary, to their sideline where the guard pulled backside.
Just a basic pin and pull scheme, they pinned us down. We got pinned in there where we weren't able to get over the top.”
That’s the same pin-and-pull concept Silverfield has built a career around, which made the whole thing sting a little more. Georgia was using Arkansas’ own language against it, and the Razorbacks were still trying to find answers on offense at the same time.
Through three games, Arkansas has already given up 16 runs of 10 or more yards, a number that can’t make anyone comfortable in that defensive room. Stockton, meanwhile, has looked every bit like one of the country’s best quarterbacks this season, carrying a 92.8 overall grade from Pro Football Focus through three weeks. Only Mike Hawkins Jr. of West Virginia and Anthony Colandrea of Nebraska sit ahead of him.
The biggest punch landed in the second quarter. Stockton took off on third down and turned it into a 62-yard sprint to the Arkansas 11 before Kyeaure Magloire finally tracked him down. It was the kind of play that changes the temperature of a game in a hurry.
“It was almost like a true load option where he was just running,” Silverfield said. “We know what a tremendous athlete he is.
We've got to be able to set the edge on that, and then we got to be able to show up and fill from the safety position. The linebacker's got to be a flow over the top.
“Clearly, we didn't do a good enough job doing that, and he hurt us with his legs. We'd seen that.
We talked about this week to our guys. Everybody knows, hey, what a what a great run game Georgia has had and has.
But we knew the quarterback's effectiveness to run with his legs and it showed up today.”
Georgia didn’t need trickery to keep moving the ball on the ground, either. The Bulldogs mixed in delayed draws, designed quarterback runs and straight-ahead runs that attacked the A-gaps.
Arkansas knew the looks. It just couldn’t consistently stop them.
“Right off top of my head, two of them were, we were able to win a one-on-one battle, which we're going to need to be able to do,” Silverfield said. “Sometimes, one of them was generating pressure, a called fire zone on us, our creeper check, and then the other two were the ability to win the one-on-one in a pass-rush situation, which we are going to need to continue to do.
“I was pleased with that, but you've got to be able to tie those in with being able to stop the run. There's sometimes they got some play-action where they'd be under and we would be peeking around too much, trying to figure it out, and then we got hit.
We can't set that away from the quarterback. We got to hit those, and that would allow us the ability to maybe get more shots on the quarterback.”
The issues looked awfully familiar after the Utah game, when quarterback mobility created the same kind of stress on Arkansas’ defense. This time, the problems were more about physicality at the line and containing Stockton on the perimeter.
Two weeks is enough to spot a pattern. If Arkansas can’t set the edge and handle mobile quarterbacks better, every offensive coordinator left on the schedule has the roadmap.
In Other News...
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Arkansas welcomed 4-star quarterback prospect Nash Henry and his family to campus during the Georgia game, giving the Norman North High School standout another close look at what the Razorbacks are building. Henry has been on Arkansas radar since the summer, and the visit fit the kind of early, hands-on push the staff has been making with a player who has already put up eye-catching production in his first two prep seasons.
What stood out to Henrys camp was the intentional way the coaches approached the visit, along with the campus facilities that helped leave a strong impression. For Arkansas, landing a prospect like Henry would require staying in the mix over time, and his resume already makes him one to monitor closely after 263 completions for 3,703 yards and 33 touchdowns. [Read more 🡒]
Tiny Arkansas Town Showed What Football Pride Can Still Build
Dierks High School turned a statewide point of pride into something bigger this fall, winning the grand prize in T-Mobiles Friday Night 5G Lights competition and locking in more than $1 million for renovations at Ayers Field. The prize will help transform the football stadium with new turf, bleachers, concessions and a renovated weight room, giving a small Arkansas town a much-needed boost around one of its most visible community spaces.
What made the win stand out was the way Dierks rallied behind it, generating nearly 2 million votes in the nationwide contest. For the students and the town, the result carried more weight than a facelift to the field - it became a shared moment of unity and pride, the kind that can still show what football means in places where Friday night matters most. [Read more 🡒]
Arkansas Offense Has A Bigger Problem Than Fans Wanted To Admit
Arkansas offense hit another rough patch against Georgia, and the bigger concern is that it was more than just one bad afternoon. The Razorbacks managed only 300 total yards and never established a reliable rushing attack, a setback that put fresh scrutiny on the play calling and execution under first-year coach Ryan Silverfield and offensive coordinator Tim Cramsey.
There have been a few encouraging individual moments, but through the first three games the unit still has not settled into any kind of rhythm. For a team trying to build traction early in the season, the issue is no longer simply about one disappointing box score. It is about whether Arkansas can find an offensive identity before the frustration starts to snowball. [Read more 🡒]