LITTLE ROCK -- It was Florida A&M. That needs to be the reference point in Arkansas' 49-7 victory in the season opener Friday night in War Memorial Stadium.
But what I wanted to see from the Razorbacks in their first football game of the year was improvement on defense in one specific area: stopping the run.
Remember, the Arkansas defense allowed 39 rushing touchdowns in 2016. The school record was 25, set in 2015.
Florida A&M didn't mount anything that resembled a running game against the new 3-4 scheme installed by defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads. The Rattlers made 80 yards on 31 running plays, 26 on a fake punt in the fourth quarter. That's 1.8 yards per play for the other 30 runs against the first unit.
Most notably, the Hogs did not allow a running touchdown. That's something that even Alcorn State managed against them last year. There was never a hint of a big run in this game.
Yes, the Rattlers were playing just five days after their season opener against Texas Southern. They had ridden busses for 12 hours to Little Rock on Wednesday. And, they went with their passing quarterback, not the dual threat.
It was still a great sign that the Hogs could close down the outside. They even shackled a jet sweep for almost nothing early in the game. That was their nemesis last year when the 4-3 scheme was weak on the outside.
"I was happy with the way we ran to the ball," Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said. "We tackled well. They have good athletes, but we tackled well.
"We leveraged the ball well all night. You saw the play to start the second half and it was about the leverage. Henre' Toliver had the outside. Gabe Richardson came from the inside to knock it loose and Henre' got the scoop and score."
Indeed, that was the play that signaled the rout was in progress. Toliver, the right cornerback, returned the fumble 18 yards for a touchdown to make it 28-0 just 63 seconds into the second half.
"It was a country fumble, not a city fumble," Toliver said. "You scoop and score on country fumbles. City fumbles are when there are a lot of people around and you just jump on those. Country fumbles are when people are around. That's what this one was."
Toliver said it's been a huge emphasis in preseason camp to look for the turnovers and try to cash them into points.
"Offense scores, but so can the defense," he said. "Coach Rhoads wants us to score on defense, too.
"He's put an emphasis on the second man stripping the ball. That's what Gabe did. He got there with force.
"I was on the outside. Yes, I was the leverage point. The corner has to be the outside man. Nothing can get around the corner. That was what I was doing. I was turning it back and the ball came out."
The Rattlers didn't look capable of scoring until punter Chris Faddoul took off on a fake punt for 26 yards early in the fourth quarter to convert fourth-and-2 from his 32-yard line. That sparked the visitors on a 15-play, 76-yard march for their lone touchdown.
It didn't keep Bielema from praising the defense. He liked the work of outside linebackers Randy Ramsey and Dwayne Eugene. They each recorded sacks.
"We have a lot of moving parts," Bielema said. "We have a lot of ways of getting to the ball. I've been quiet on Randy, but he has special skills. He's just scratched the surface."
Bielema has been quiet on the big move of August camp, true freshman Ty Clary's surge to the starting spot at right guard with Johnny Gibson moving to right tackle. Clary was a walk-on with a promised scholarship in January.
"We saw in the first week of camp, just wow," Bielema said. "(Strength coach) Ben Herbert told us in the summer about Ty's leg strength.
"Ty showed up after the first scrimmage. So we moved him to the twos and he was going against the ones. He blocked up some defensive linemen we think are pretty good players.
"We made the decision (to start Clary)10 days ago, but we didn't release it. We didn't want it to be the chatter. It let him prepare to make his first start."
The Hogs came out flat to open the game. They didn't score until their third possession. Austin Allen was intercepted on the second drive when he had pressure from the back side on a loop around left tackle Colton Jackson.
"We were pretty rusty the first few times," Allen said. "Things were not clicking. We settled down and played our brand of football.
"It was a combination things at the start. We had some jitters. We were trying to do too much. We were trying to make big plays right off the bat. We had some wide receivers playing their first game. We'll make a lot of improvement between our first and second games."
It will be tough to do much better than Clary's first game.
"I thought he was good," Bielema said. "I saw him make one bust. He missed one protection. That was about it."
Better than that, the Razorbacks stopped the running game. Maybe Ty Clary will be the big takeaway for some, but that's what I wanted to see even if it was just Florida A&M.
Sports on 09/01/2017