The Razorbacks (SEC) play home games on artificial turf at Razorback Stadium (seats 53,727)
- Head coach Bobby Petrino is in his 4th year at Arkansas. Last year the Razorbacks had a 10-3 record and went to their first BCS bowl game. It was the most wins for an Arkansas team since 2006 when Houston Nutt (now at Ole Miss) was the head coach and they also reached 10. As a reminder about Petrino, he was extremely successful in his four years as head coach at Louisville, but left there in 2007 for a lucrative NFL job. He was just 13 games into his job as head coach of the Atlanta Falcons when he left abruptly for the Arkansas job in December, before the NFL season was finished.
- This year the offense only returns 6. As a contrast, last year when they had one of the most prolific passing games in the country, this unit returned 10 (out of 11) starters. It’s been a drastic change for Arkansas having Petrino as head coach with the emphasis on passing, compared to when Houston Nutt was the head coach and the emphasis was on running. However, this team has been steadily improving their running game since their big dip in 2008 during Petrino’s first season when their production on the ground decreased by 60%.
- Luckily running back is in excellent shape with Knile Davis.
Running Back Knile Davis
He is really fast, really strong and had six games where he rushed for over 100 yards last year. He ran for a total of 1322 yards, 13 touchdowns and averaged 6.5 yards per carry. Even though Petrino likes to focus on the passing game, this year the running game could be the savior for this offense. [UPDATE 8.12.2011 DAVIS LIKELY OUT FOR ENTIRE SEASON WITH INJURY].
- Even with last year’s experienced offensive line and quarterback, this team allowed 28 sacks, ranked 75th in the nation. And this year they take a big hit in experience having to replace Ryan Mallet at quarterback and three players on the offensive line. The offensive line returns just two starters from last year’s lineup and will need some time to adjust and learn to play together. Unfortunately, they won’t have much time to get settled as they face a very experienced Alabama defense on September 24th. And the same goes for the replacement at quarterback. Mallet had a great season last and put up incredible numbers, which will be hard to replace. It looks like the starting quarterback this year will be Tyler
Quarterback Tyler Wilson
Wilson and while he did well enough as a back-up, the fact remains that he got to Fayetteville before Mallet and yet Mallet started ahead of him. Maybe he will be fine because has had time to learn the system, but Mallet was extremely gifted and I would be cautious with my expectations because that talent is hard to replace
- Defense was so-so last year and they improved considerably against the pass, but they still need to find an answer on how to defend the running game. That has been a consistent problem for Arkansas over the past four years. Luckily their defense overall is in better shape than they were in 2010. This team returns their top three tacklers and free safety Tramain Thomas who had four interceptions last year.
- The most brutal part of the Razorbacks schedule is September 24th at Alabama and the following week against Texas A&M in Arlington, Texas. I expect this team to be good, but they could take a step backwards with the loss of Mallet and perhaps finish the regular season with four losses.
