Tag: Andrew Armstrong

Arkansas wideouts dealing with injury woes heading into Saturday’s spring game

Arkansas’ wide receivers won’t be in full health for the spring game Saturday.

Better now than in September, anyway.

Arkansas football coach Sam Pittman detailed a number of injuries bothering his Razorbacks this week ahead of the team’s spring game on Saturday inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

Arkansas is especially thin at wide receiver, Pittman said, though the bumps and bruises at that position have given the inexperienced players – the Hogs returned every wideout who had a catch last year – some opportunity to make a dent in the depth chart.

“I think maybe the biggest question mark right now is where we’re at wide receiver-wise because we’ve had several injuries,” Pittman said. “We know who we have, we just haven’t seen them I guess in the last couple of days. But some younger guys are moving up the depth chart. It’s given them some opportunities.”

Andrew Armstrong, Arkansas’ leading receiver last year, has been dealing with a hamstring injury since late March. Tyrone Broden, the team’s third-leading receiver, has been out because of family reasons. Jaedon Wilson, who is battling Broden and Isaiah Sategna for the No. 3 receiver spot, is also trying to fight off a hamstring injury. And Davion Dozier, whose spring has impressed, has an injury Pittman thinks is Dozier’s hand.

“He didn’t come back so a lot of times if it’s a hand, that’s not great news but we’ll figure it out,” the Arkansas coach said.

The Razorbacks will play their spring game Saturday with two 15-minute quarters and a normal clock in the first half, have a 10-minute halftime and finish with a running clock for two 10-minute quarters in the second half. Kickoff is a noon and the game will air on SEC Network+.

Arkansas spring football projected depth chart: Wide Recievers

Our spring positional preview for the Arkansas football team continues today with a look at the Razorbacks wide receivers. Everyone – literally – who made a grab for the Hogs last year is back. That should be a good thing, even if Arkansas’ passing …

Our spring positional preview for the Arkansas football team continues today with a look at the Razorbacks wide receivers.

Everyone – literally – who made a grab for the Hogs last year is back. That should be a good thing, even if Arkansas’ passing game struggled. Consistency will go a long way in making the unit better.

It wasn’t as though they were terrible as a group last year. When quarterback KJ Jefferson had time to throw, they made plays, generally. Of course, part of the reason Jefferson took as many sacks as he did was his receivers’ inability to get open often enough, too.

But now that Andrew Armstrong and Isaac TeSlaa have a taste of FBS football and Isaiah Sategna and Tyrone Broden are a year into their Arkansas careers, too, there’s no reason to think of the wide receiving corps as a weakness.

New offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino has no qualms about heaving the football, so regardless of who wins Arkansas’ quarterback job, expect the wideouts’ numbers to go increase.

Here’s a look at how we have the wide receivers stacked heading into the spring.

  • View quarterback preview here
  • View running back preview here

Report: These super seniors are expected to return to Arkansas football in 2024

According to reports, Arkansas football is expected to return these nine super seniors for 2024. Here’s a closer look at each of them.

Arkansas football is expected to return nine super seniors for the 2024 season. Best of Arkansas Sports’ Andrew Hutchinson first broke the news on Thursday Morning.

Of those nine, four are on the offensive side of the ball and five are on the defensive side. For the Razorback offense, wide receivers [autotag]Andrew Armstrong[/autotag], [autotag]Isaac TeSlaa[/autotag] and [autotag]Tyrone Broden[/autotag] are set to return. Offensive lineman [autotag]Ty’Kieast Crawford[/autotag] is also returning to the Hogs.

On the defensive side of the ball, defensive backs [autotag]Hudson Clark[/autotag] and [autotag]Kee’yon Stewart [/autotag]are set to return, as are defensive linemen [autotag]Eric Gregory[/autotag], [autotag]Keivie Rose[/autotag], and [autotag]Jashaud Stewart[/autotag]. It’s worth noting that Stewart is still indefinitely suspended from the program following an arrest in December. Because of this, his status is still technically undecided despite the expectation being that Stewart will return.

There are currently only three super seniors who haven’t announced a decision, but will not be returning to the Hogs in 2024. Offensive lineman Brady Latham has NFL Draft aspirations, while tight end Francis Sherman and defensive tackle Marcus Miller are moving on after each spent one season at Arkansas.

According to Hutchinson, the Razorbacks are at 83 scholarship players for 2024. The roster limit is 85, so there should be more movement as we get closer to spring practices.

For now, let’s take a closer look at the nine super seniors expected to return next season.

Ranking Arkansas’ 10 best wideouts under Kenny Guiton

Treylon Burks is No. 1, obviously. But who are the other nine of the 10 best wideouts to play for Kenny Guiton at Arkansas?

Arkansas wide receivers have been a steady bunch for most of the last decade plus, even if the Razorbacks’ results haven’t always been great.

With news breaking Tuesday night that Arkansas wide receivers coach Kenny Guiton was set to become Wisconsin wide receivers coach Kenny Guiton, the natural question followed: Will any of his wideouts accompany him to Madison?

It’s too early to know for sure, but a rapport must have been built with some as Guiton held the Arkansas gig for three seasons. He even took over running the entire offense for the back half of 2023 after coach Sam Pittman fired offensive coordinator Dan Enos.

Guiton, however, played at Ohio State when current Badgers head coach Luke Fickell was a coach, albeit a defensive one, with the Buckeyes.

So, as we can’t predict a transfer portal entry, let’s look backward instead of forward. Let’s look to what Guiton accomplished with his bunch over those three years.

These are the 10 best wide receivers – through those three seasons, mind you (we know Isaiah Sategna fans; he’ll be here soon enough) – to play for Guiton at Arkansas.

Ranking Taylen Green and/or KJ Jefferson’s targets for 2024

Nearly everyone will be back for Arkansas at wide receiver and tight end. Is that a good thing for the Hogs?

This list very well could change by fall camp.

But with a majority of Arkansas’ wide receivers and tight ends having already announced their return from 2023 into 2024, the two primary positions that will line up for passes from KJ Jefferson, Taylen Green or Jacolby Criswell next year for the Razorbacks appear to be the most stable in during the crazy season that is transfer portal time.

Arkansas landed Green, a transfer from Boise State, on Monday evening, providing for some competition under center when the spring rolls around. It remains to be seen if Green’s addition is an indicator of Jefferson’s status. Arkansas’ all-time leading passer was not expected to return to the team in 2024 for a super-senior season, but as each day has passed without his official entry to the portal, the question of that status grows.

But whether it’s Jefferson, Green or Criswell, who played well in garbage-time duty for the Hogs in the fall, throwing passes, the corps catching them is almost all set. Or close to it.

The Razorbacks could land another wideout or two via the portal, but as of now, they have a full complement of players at the spot. And, frankly, it doesn’t look much different than last year’s.

Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on perspective. For now, let’s rank them, regardless of position, when it comes to likelihood they will be big-time targets for whoever is tossing them balls next regular season.

Arkansas wide receiver Andrew Armstrong will return for senior season

Andrew Armstrong led Arkansas in basically all receiving categories last year.

Andrew Armstrong may have been the most consistent and effective newcomer the Arkansas football team added to the roster in 2023.

And for the first time since the transfer portal has been a thing, the Razorbacks are keeping a wideout who moved in.

Armstrong announced Friday that he would return for his final season of college football at Arkansas.

“I want to thank the Arkansas Razorback coaching staff and fans for taking a chance on me and believing in me,” Armstrong wrote in his announcement. “This year wasn’t what any of us expected. So I feel like it’s only right for me to come back to Fayetteville and finish my college career here.”

Armstrong transferred in from Texas A&M-Commerce, which was a Division II school when he started there before transitioning to FCS. In his first year with the Hogs, Armstrong led the team in receptions (56), yards receiving (764) and receiving touchdowns (5).

The announcement of his return is the second significant such of the offseason. All-SEC defensive end Landon Jackson announced he would return to the Razorbacks earlier in the week.

Mississippi State at Arkansas: Players to Watch on Saturday

Arkansas and Mississippi State will each be battling for their first SEC win of the season on Saturday.

Something must give Saturday inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, as two of the four remaining teams yet to win an SEC game, will go head-to-head.

It will be the first time in five weeks that the Razorbacks (2-5, 0-4 SEC) will be playing on their home turf, as they look to snap a five-game losing streak.

Mississippi State (3-3, 0-3 SEC) will also come limping in, losing three of their last four, but are fresh off of a 41-28 win over Western Michigan.

The game will feature two quarterbacks who had high expectations entering the season, but who have both struggled to have success in SEC games. Arkansas’ KJ Jefferson was voted second-team All-SEC in the coaches preseason poll, while Mississippi State’s Will Rogers was the third-team selection.

The game will also showcase the conference’s top three tacklers, in Razorback linebacker Jaheim Thomas, the conference leader, and Bulldogs’ linebackers Nathaniel Watson and Jett Johnson.

Here are 12 Players to Watch in Saturday’s showdown:

Receiving corps was a bright spot in Baton Rouge

Arkansas caught nearly everything KJ Jefferson threw on Saturday night against No. 12 LSU. It just wasn’t quite enough to pull off the upset.

Arkansas couldn’t have asked much more from its pass catchers on Saturday night in Death Valley.

KJ Jefferson threw the ball 31 times and completed 21 of those passes for 289 yards and three touchdowns.

He was picked off twice (the second was a desperation pass downfield as time expired) but all in all, his receivers did their job.

Andrew Armstrong was targeted by Jefferson six times. He caught all six for 76 yards. Isaac Teslaa was targeted five times and he caught three balls for 31 yards.

Tyrone Broden was targeted six times. He caught three passes for 31 yards and the impressive touchdown in the back of the end zone near the end of the first half.

Luke Hasz and Rashad Dubinion, despite being a tight end and running back, respectively, were targeted by Jefferson ten times and they caught nine of those for 151 yards and Hasz scored twice.

“I think we’re doing a really good job with our wideouts,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said. “There was a time KJ had already decided to throw the ball away, but Andrew Armstrong did a nice job in the end zone getting open. I think we’re doing a really good job with the scramble drill. Luke himself catches the ball incredible and he can run. We continue to work on his blocking, but he’s a big-time weapon running routes and we’re adding stuff for him each week.”

Sam Pittman: Andrew Armstrong “a lot better than I thought”

Andrew Armstrong has transitioned from Division II football to the SEC splendidly.

Andrew Armstrong would have not have been recruited by Arkansas, by coach Sam Pittman, if the Razorbacks’ staff didn’t think he could get real playing time.

But Pittman himself admitted Monday that the FCS transfer who started his career at the Division II level is even better than Pittman thought he would be. Armstrong leads Arkansas with nine receptions and three receiving touchdowns through two games.

“He’s just a lot better than I thought he would be. He’s a lot faster,” Pittman said.

Pittman himself played the equivalent of Division II football in his day. He knows the players on that level only rarely have the same level of athleticism of FBS-level players. But to have two transfer in who aren’t just FBS-level but SEC-level? Yeah, Pittman was stunned.

“TeSlaa is about what I thought he would be,” Pittman said. “Armstrong is much better than what I thought he would. I think it’s because of his overall speed and his ability to catch.”

Isaac TeSlaa, also from Division II, leads Arkansas in yards receiving with 117 and has a touchdown, as well. He and Armstrong have been the Hogs’ starting receivers since they arrived on campus, practically. Now they’re getting their first taste of premier college football.

Their coach thinks they’re taking full advantage, especially Armstrong.

“I think it has everything to do with what kind of person he is. He’s just a real great kid who is appreciative of playing before a sold out crowd and those things,” Pittman said.

Watch: KJ Jefferson finds Andrew Armstrong for a second touchdown against Kent State

Arkansas opened a big lead in the fourth quarter when Jefferson and Armstrong scored for a second time.

Arkansas’ season is just two games old, but Andrew Armstrong looks like he’s wide receiver No. 1 for the Razorbacks.

A week after leading Arkansas with five catches and 78 yards with a touchdown, Armstrong was the Hogs’ leader again through more than three quarters in Week 2 against Kent State.

Quarterback KJ Jefferson found him for the second time in the end zone early in the fourth quarter to lift Arkansas’ lead to 22 points, 28-6.

On 2nd-and-7 from the Kent State 9, Jefferson rolled to his left and connected with a cutting Armstrong going the same direction . The FCS transfer hauled in his fourth catch and second touchdown of the game.

The quarterback and wideout opened Arkansas’ offensive scoring just before halftime to provide the Razorbacks with a 14-6 lead going into the locker room.