FAYETTEVILLE -- The play of the Arkansas Razorbacks linebackers impressed New Mexico State Coach Doug Martin on Saturday.
Martin singled out the linebackers after Arkansas notched a 42-24 victory, holding the Aggies to 355 total yards, 118 below their season average of 473.
"I think that's the best group of linebackers that we've played against in all these times we've played SEC teams," Martin said. "I think their linebackers are exceptional. They're big, first of all, but they can run. They can cover sideline to sideline."
Inside linebackers Dre Greenlaw and De'Jon Harris rank No. 1 and 2 on the team with 34 and 31 tackles, respectively. Outside "Hog" linebacker Dwayne Eugene leads the team with two sacks and has 12 tackles, and "Razor" linebacker Randy Ramsey has 11 tackles, a sack and a hurry.
Arkansas held the Aggies to 11 rushing yards, 109 yards below their average.
"Well, I think they're improving," Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads said. "I think the guys are playing well, and I think they have more to give."
Williams mum
Arkansas tailback David Williams, who is playing his former team South Carolina on Saturday, will be media silent during the week.
Bret Bielema said he approached Williams with the option of doing all of the interview requests he gets this week, some of them or none of them.
"We kind of opted together that we're gonna not have him available to the media until Saturday," Bielema said. "Not out of negativity or anything. Just no need for it to dialogue more than it already is."
Loud crowd
Bret Bielema said the the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville offense would practice indoors all week in preparation for 80,000-plus fans at Williams-Brice Stadium in the Hogs' first true road game.
"Yeah, we'll expect crowd noise. We'll play it with our offensive guys," said Bielema, who has not coached a game at South Carolina.
"The good news is we've got a center and quarterback who are in charge of communication who have really played a lot of football," he said, referencing captains Frank Ragnow and Austin Allen.
None of the current Razorbacks outside of graduate transfer David Williams has played a game at South Carolina.
Allen assessment
Offensive coordinator Dan Enos said quarterback Austin Allen had two minuses in the Hogs' victory over New Mexico State.
Allen completed 19 of 26 passes for season highs of 264 yards and 3 touchdowns, and he threw one interception. Allen moved up to No. 43 in passing efficiency with a rating of 146.65.
"He played very well, was very accurate," Enos said. "I thought the guy had great feet, hung in there twice, got hit and delivered the ball right on time in small windows. He played very, very well. Very solid."
New Mexico State Coach Doug Martin praised Allen's ability to read defenses prior to the snap.
"We thought we had some blitz packages that might could get there, and either he was checking protections into it or he was just doing a great job of getting rid of the ball before we could get there," Martin said.
Sack attack?
The Razorbacks sacked New Mexico State quarterback Tyler Rogers twice on Saturday despite going light on blitzing. Arkansas, which has seven sacks, might get more opportunities for blitzing and sacks against South Carolina's more traditional offense, which was sacked seven times by Texas A&M last week while playing a makeshift line due to injuries.
"I'd hope that opportunity would exist," said Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads, referencing the Gamecocks' most utilized formations and their scarcity of designed quarterback runs. "I think it puts you in position to maybe make some calls to go after the quarterback."
The Razorbacks have played quarterbacks who get the ball out quickly or are super elusive, including Rogers, who Rhoads referred to as Mr. Clean Jeans last week.
"We were pleased with the two sacks we got against the kid Saturday and the number of hits we got on him additionally, which was by far more than anybody that they've played against this year," he said.
Pettway update
Coach Bret Bielema said he met with receiver La'Michael Pettway and his mother, Linda, as scheduled on Sunday after Bielema put the redshirt sophomore on suspension over the weekend due to academic and personal responsibility issues.
"He made a lot of progress in the things that we asked him to do," Bielema said. "We're still going to take this week to evaluate and see where he's at. As of right now, he wouldn't play on Saturday. We're going to see how he handles the week."
Bielema said Pettway is not practicing with the team until the issues are straightened out.
The series
Arkansas leads the series with South Carolina 13-9 count. The teams never played until joining the SEC together in 1992 and becoming annual crossover opponents from then through 2013.
The Gamecocks hold a 6-5 lead in games played in Columbia, S.C.
Top players
The Arkansas coaching staff named receivers Jordan Jones and Deon Stewart as their offensive players of the week, while linebacker Dwayne Eugene earned the nod as defensive player of the week.
Jones had a career-high 4 catches for 84 yards, while Stewart had a career-high 4 catches for 71 yards and a touchdown. Eugene had three tackles, two of them for lost yardage, including an 8-yard sack.
Ryder Lucas was named special teams player of the week after notching three tackles.
Extra points
• Devwah Whaley's 119 rushing yards against New Mexico State last week marked the sophomore's third career 100-yard game, following a 135-yard performance against Alcorn State and a 112-yard game at Mississippi State last year.
• CBSSports.com has Arkansas at No. 65, the last team in the upper half of all FBS programs, in its power rankings this week.
• Dave Neal will handle play-by-play duties, Matt Stinchcomb will be the color analyst and Dawn Davenport the sideline reporter for the SEC Network's coverage of Arkansas at South Carolina. Stinchcomb delivered a talk to the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club two weeks ago.
Sports on 10/03/2017