Arkansas BYU – Page 2 – Syndication Server

Conditions in Fayetteville are perfect for Hog fans to show up and show out Saturday night

If Arkansas fans can pack Razorback Stadium, it could be a really memorable Saturday night in Fayetteville.

True night games in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium have been pretty rare over in recent years.

Last season only featured two home games that ended under the lights – wins over Missouri State and Ole Miss. Aside from being wins, both games showcased a packed crowd that was engaged for all four quarters.

Early in the season, it’s hard to get packed and sold out crowds when kickoff times are at noon or in the middle of the afternoon. The heat and quality of opponent usually deter those that otherwise would make the trek into the stadium.

Saturday night, there should be no issue having all 75,000+ seats filled when the undefeated BYU Cougars roll into town. At 6:30 p.m. kickoff, the temperature is expected to be around 75 degrees – perfect for watching a football game. There should be no reason for a single empty seat in Razorback Stadium tomorrow night.

BYU may not be a traditional football powerhouse, but they’re an undefeated Big 12 team that has averaged 9.6 wins over their last three seasons. It’s an important test for the Hogs and crucial to how the rest of this year will play out.

It’s not a traditional “must-win” game, but the stakes are pretty high for Arkansas. That makes conditions perfect for a special night in Fayetteville.

BYU heads to Arkansas with a new-look offense, but not on purpose

Injuries and slow starts have changed what BYU thought it had from even two weeks ago when the Cougars face Arkansas.

Brigham Young scored 35 points against Arkansas in the teams’ meeting last year. Expecting that happen against in 2023 is silly.

Not only are the Cougars a much different team than they were last year, they will be a much different team Saturday than they expected to be last week.

Freshman running back LJ Martin is set to get his first start of the season after leading BYU in yards rushing through the team’s first two games with 118. Most expected UNLV transfer Aidan Robbins to not only earn the No. 1 gig, but potentially show out as an all-conference type performance. Robbins ran for more than 1,000 yards and nine touchdowns last year.

But it’s been Martin, in his first year out of high school in El Paso, who has been best, by far. Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick simply said Martin’s ability to break tackles has allowed him to leapfrog others in the depth chart.

For the good news, there’s also bad for BYU. Wide receiver Kody Epps was supposed to make his season debut against Arkansas on Saturday, but he suffered a setback from a hamstring injury and is a game-time decision. Epps caught 39 balls with six touchdowns last year, both second on the team.

First-year quarterback Kedon Slovis, a transfer from Pittsburgh, has distributed the ball at a clip of 246 yards per game even without Epps, though, so BYU can sling it a bit.

Long-term, the Cougars’ prospects are better with Epps, but for now, they’re worrying about Saturday against the Razorbacks.

“It would be great to get him back if we ever do, but not sure yet,” Roderick said.

Three reasons why BYU and Arkansas each can win on Saturday

Arkansas and BYU are very similar on paper, and it could be a close contest on Saturday night. Here’s three reasons why each team could win.

Arkansas and BYU are both very different from when they met last season. The Hogs went into Provo, Utah and won in a shootout, 52-35, behind career performances from [autotag]KJ Jefferson[/autotag] and [autotag]Rocket Sanders[/autotag].

Since then, the two teams have underwent massive changes to their roster and coaching staff. The funny part is that while both programs changed over the offseason, they enter this week’s matchup as mirror images of each other.

Both teams have experienced quarterbacks (KJ Jefferson and Kedon Slovis), aggressive defenses and question marks in the running game. Heck, they both even have new strength and conditioning coaches after battling injury issues all last season.

The resemblances are uncanny and it should make for a very interesting showdown in Fayetteville. It’ll likely be a close contest that both teams could feel confident about winning.

Let’s take a look at three reasons why each team can walk away victorious on Saturday.

Arkansas players don’t forget: BYU was in it to win it last year

It’s easy to forget that BYU was in last year’s game until the final minutes. Had Arkansas lost, the Hogs would have taken four Ls in a row.

An SEC football program, Brigham Young is not.

But a power-conference bunch who can spoil a season with the flick of a pass or the speed of a back? Definitely.

The Arkansas football players who return from last year’s team are not doing what some in the fanbase are: there is no ignorance of what the Cougars bring to the table. BYU was a hair away from taking a lead in the final 15 minutes and pulling out win that had it gone the other way would have sent Arkansas’ season into ruin.

The Hogs’ defense, instead, picked up two straight stops of the BYU offense in the fourth quarter and countered back, ultimately winning, 52-35. Getting that result wasn’t nearly as easy as the 17-point margin would suggest.

“I don’t think there’s any concern that we’re going to underestimate BYU,” Arkansas offensive lineman Brady Latham said. “We’re playing them again, but we have a really new team. We’ve got a lot of new guys up front, we’ve got new guys at almost every position. We’ve got guys who this is their first year being Razorbacks.”

That might hurt, the lack of experience, but Latham didn’t mean it that way. He meant it more as Arkansas having players who want to keep Arkansas undefeated and don’t care who the opponent may be or who may be on the roster.

The reality is that BYU has been on a similar level, program-wise as Arkansas for most of the last 10 years. And while the Hogs are superior right now, pretending that the Cougars are Western Carolina or Kent State is a foolish idea.

“They’re a new team. They’re a really good team,” Latham said. “We’ve watched a lot of their film. They’ve won a lot of games. So we’re not underestimating them at all.”

Arkansas enters Week 3 as the favorites over BYU according to ESPN’s FPI

ESPN FPI’s favors Arkansas over BYU. If that comes true, the Hogs will do something that hasn’t happened since 1979 under Lou Holtz.

Arkansas didn’t get much love from the ESPN Football Power Index’s ranking system, but that looks to be changing entering game week.

Ahead of Saturday night’s matchup with BYU, the Hogs are given a 79.2% chance of beating the Cougars by the ESPN FPI. If they do remain perfect on the year and start 3-0, it’ll be the third straight season they’ve done so under Sam Pittman. A mark the program hasn’t hit since 1977-1979 under Lou Holtz.

Saturday will be just the second time ever that BYU and Arkansas will face off. The first matchup happened last season when Arkansas went to Provo, Utah and beat the Cougars 52-35. [autotag]KJ Jefferson[/autotag] led the Hogs with 365 yards passing and 5 touchdowns. [autotag]Rocket Sanders[/autotag] also had a career day, with 15 carries for 175 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m. CST and will be televised on ESPN2.

Jefferson’s record and Landers’ big day earn them Player of the Game honors vs BYU

KJ Jefferson and Matt Landers had big days to earn Arkansas’ Player of the Game honors against BYU.

What a day to be an offensive player for the Arkansas football team.

The Razorbacks went for 637 yards of total offense in a 52-35 win over BYU on Saturday to snap a three-game losing streak. KJ Jefferson set a career high with five passing touchdowns and Rocket Sanders ran for a career-high 168 yards with two touchdowns to earn Player of the Game honors.

The win lifted the Hogs above .500 heading into their bye week. When they return October 29, Auburn and its coach-on-the-hot-seat Bryan Harsin will host down on the Plains.

Jefferson had his best game of the season Saturday, but left on Arkansas’ final drive after landing on the crown of his helmet two yards short of the goal line. He appeared fine after the game, though no status was immediately available.

Sanders only made his yards-per-game total – which led the SEC and was ninth in FBS entering – higher, going about 50 over his average.

See more details on Arkansas’ two best players and the other choices for Player of the Game below.

Arkansas fan begs to be unblocked by Kendal Briles on Twitter after Hogs beat BYU

Kendal Briles, all is forgiven from the crazies in the Arkansas fan base.

A week ago, a healthy portion of the Arkansas Twitterverse was done with offensive coordinator Kendal Briles. They wanted him gone, finished with running the Hogs offense.

It was nutty then. It was even more nutty Saturday after the BYU game.

At least Briles’ trending on Twitter in Week 7 was for positive reasons. Postive enough, anyway. Largely it was folks eating crow, with one fan even going so far as to tweet at the offensive coordinator to unblock him.

Briles’ offense scored on eight straight possessions and dropped 52 points against the Cougars on the road, snapping a three-game losing streak. Arkansas had 644 yards of total offense, including a career-high in yards rushing for Rocket Sanders (175) and a career high in touchdown tosses for quarterback KJ Jefferson (five).

Arkansas coach Sam Pittman half-joked about the Briles situation after the game.

“Could you imagine getting on that plane losing? Oh, my Lord,” Pittman said. “Hearing how terrible I am and all that. How bad I need to fire KB and all this kind of stuff. C’mon. The man scored 50, we scored 50. I’m not getting into that. I’m so happy that we won.”

They’re baaaack! Arkansas rumbles over BYU to snap three-game skid

The streak is over. Arkansas football looked dynamite – on one side of the ball – against BYU.

It’s over. Finally.

Arkansas snapped a three-game losing streak Saturday in a complete demolition of BYU, 52-35, to move to 4-3 on the season ahead of a bye week in which the Razorbacks need badly to get healthy.

KJ Jefferson set a career high with five touchdown passes as Arkansas put up 644 yards of total offense in the victory. But he left on the team’s final drive inside the BYU 5 after hitting the crown of his helmet on the turf just two weeks after suffering a head injury against Alabama that kep him out of the team’s loss to Mississippi State.

Arkansas scored on eight straight drives from the end of the first quarter until the final one when Jefferson left and was replaced by Malik Hornsby.

BYU hung in for a while, scoring on two 75-yard drives to start the second half, but Arkansas’ defense tightened when it mattered, coming up with two fumble recoveries and an interception.

Rocket Sanders set a career high in yards rushing with 168 and Matt Landers caught his first three touchdown passes in a Hogs uniform in the victory.

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Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson leaves late against BYU after hitting head

Hogs quarterback KJ Jefferson landed on the crown of his helmet late against BYU.

The Arkansas offense was glad to have KJ Jefferson back. The starting quarterback missed last week’s loss to Mississippi State and the offense managed just 17 points.

Arkansas scored 52 against BYU in a 17-point win on Saturday to snap a three-game losing streak. But Jefferson, who suffered a likely head injury late in the team’s loss to Alabama two weeks ago, left the game late in the fourth quarter against the Cougars with another one.

Jefferson took off around the left side for a five-yard gain to the BYU 2 and came down hard on the crown of his helmet. He didn’t get up before the commercial break came and looked dazed after removing his helmet.

When play resumed, Malik Hornsby was in the game, though Jefferson was seen on the sidelines in good spirits as the staff appeared to be replacing a contact lens in his eye.

Jefferson threw for 367 yards and five touchdowns and ran for another 32 yards on 10 carries before leaving.

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