FAYETTEVILLE — Petrino: Less talk, more walk
Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino sounded a little worn out by the slow-start issues that have hounded his team the last month, opening his Thursday news conference with comments about team leadership and the need for speed early on Saturday at Vanderbilt.
“We’ve been talking to our players about the competitive spirit coming out right away and making sure that we compete right away, and everybody here knows we need to get a better start than we have,” Petrino said.
“Our players understand it.
I understand it. You guys understand it. So now we have to go do it. Quit talking about it and go do it.”
Receiver Jarius Wright said the best solution to slow starts is to work harder at the beginning of practices.
“Sometimes you start sluggish and slow in practice, we start slow at the beginning of the games,” he said. “We usually pick it up at the end of practice. We usually pick it up at the end of games.
“We’ve just got to come out and work hard on starting fast.” Blitz-o-matic
Arkansas coaches expect to see heavy blitzing by Vanderbilt’s defense in an effort to rattle quarterback Tyler Wilson and force bad throws. Plus, it’s what the Commodores do.
“It seems they like to blitz a lot when they’re at home,” Coach Bobby Petrino said. “It’s nothing we haven’t seen this year.
[Texas] A&M blitzed us just about every other down, if not three in a row. and took one off sometimes. ... When you’re seeing blitzes like that it’s important that you’re positive on first down.”
Healthier Wingo
Running backs coach Tim Horton said junior tailback Ronnie Wingo probably wasn’t fully healed from the turf toe injury last week that kept him out of the Auburn game, but that he’s looked better in practice this week.
“I thought he ran faster than he has in a long time,”Horton said. “So I think he’s back. I think we’ll see a faster Ronnie Wingo, hopefully the next 4 or 5 weeks.”
Squared away?
Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino can even his SEC record with a victory Saturday at Vanderbilt.
The Razorbacks started 1-6 under Petrino in SEC play, but have won 7 of 8 conference games to bring his SEC record to 13-14.
Petrino is 9-9 against the SEC West and 4-5 against the SEC East.
Road rally
Arkansas is 6-3 in its last nine neutral site or road games, dating to the start of the 2010 season.
The only losses in that span were to eventual national champion Auburn last year, Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl and current BCS No. 2 Alabama this season.
Red-zone update
Arkansas scored on its first 20 red-zone trips this season, but the Hogs are 9 of 12 when reaching the opponents’ 20-yard line since, including a 4-of-6 showing against Ole Miss.
There was Dennis Johnson’s lost fumble at the 1-yard line late in the third quarter and a kneel down after Eric Bennett’s 46-yard interception return on the final play of the game.
Arkansas is tied for 13th in the country with scores on 29 of 32 chances (91 percent) in the red zone.
Review rehash
The disjointed feel of the Arkansas-Ole Miss game, particularly in the second half, was impacted by lengthy booth reviews and stoppages of play.
The prelude to Tyler Wilson’s second 1-yard touchdown run was a prime example. The sequence started after Joe Adams turned a quick screen into a 67-yard gain to the Ole Miss 8.
Dennis Johnson gained 4 yards on first down, and the referees signaled a touchdown on Broderick Green’s second-down carry over right tackle. But a long booth review negated the score and put the ball on the 1.
Wilson tried a sneak over the left side on third down, but that was ruled short of the goal line. Coach Bobby Petrino called timeout as the clock ran down to discuss the fourth-down opportunity. Wilson kept on a naked bootleg for the score, taking a big shot from Ole Miss’ Gerald Rivers in
Sports, Pages 22 on 10/28/2011