FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas' 3-4 defense debuted to rave reviews.
At War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock on Thursday night, the Razorbacks built a 42-0 lead before the Florida A&M Rattlers finally netted a touchdown against mostly second-teamers with 8:23 left in the game. The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville won 49-7.
The Rattlers didn't cross midfield until the second half, and they needed punter Chris Faddoul's 26-yard run off a fake to propel their lone scoring drive.
Not that nearly shutting out an outmanned lower division outfit is necessarily something to brag about. And the Rattlers started their backup quarterback because their starter was injured. And they were penalized a timeout each quarter because their nearly invisible white numbers on white jerseys are illegal by NCAA rules.
But when you play defense as poorly as the Razorbacks did for most of 2016, a good start against anybody is a start worthy of applause.
Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema's switch from last year's 4-3 defense to a 3-4 and elevating Paul Rhoads to defensive coordinator to implement it hit the season-opening spot.
The Rattlers generated just 80 rushing yards on 31 carries and just 95 yards passing.
Vince Jefferies, the Rattlers' starting quarterback against Arkansas, is no rookie. He's a senior who started four games last season until he was beaten out by Ryan Stanley for the starting gig. Stanley injured his ankle in FAMU's 29-7 victory over Texas Southern on Aug. 26.
FAMU has at least one Rattler with big-time bite: Senior receiver Brandon Norwood caught 54 passes last year. He caught six for 54 yards against Arkansas. One was for 23 yards and another was FAMU's 7-yard touchdown.
Otherwise, Norwood was mostly contained by an Arkansas secondary that lost starting cornerback Ryan Pulley to injury.
Three backups -- true freshmen Kamren Curl and Chevin Calloway, and redshirt sophomore Britto Tutt -- debuted by alternating effectively.
Starting senior cornerback Henre Toliver starred. He downed the Arkansas punt that teammate Kevin Richardson batted back at the FAMU 1, and he tallied Arkansas' defensive touchdown with an 18-yard scoop and score off a fumble dislodged by junior-college transfer outside linebacker Gabe Richardson.
The team's defensive speed was supposed to increase with the outside linebackers employed in the 3-4, and it did Thursday.
Outside linebackers Randy Ramsey, Dwayne Eugene and Gabe Richardson netted two behind-the-line tackles and caused the fumble that Toliver returned for the touchdown.
"Just the way they ran to the ball," Bielema said approvingly. "I don't care what level you're at, the guys with the football they had some really good players over there. To tackle as efficiently as we did -- and we leveraged the ball really well -- we turned it into pursuit."
Sports on 09/02/2017