FAYETTEVILLE -- Mike Leach and his celebrated Air Raid offense at Mississippi State were the talk of the college football world after last weekend's 44-34 upset of defending national champion and No. 6 LSU.
Transfer quarterback K.J. Costello passed for an SEC-record 623 yards in leading the Bulldogs to the Football Writers Association of America's team of the week honors.
Yet, if Leach and his offensive staff watched clips of Mississippi State's 54-24 win at the University of Arkansas last season, they might consider hitting the ground running with star tailback Kylin Hill against the Razorbacks on Saturday.
Hill chewed the Razorbacks up for a career-high 234 rushing yards and three touchdowns as the Bulldogs won for the seventh time in their past eight games against Arkansas. Hill earned SEC offensive player of the week honors for that effort, which included 11.1 yards per carry.
The Bulldogs (1-0) are 17-point favorites and would seemingly have their choice of weapons to unsheathe against the Razorbacks (0-1).
Costello had three pass catchers -- Osirus Mitchell, Hill and JaVonta Payton -- combine for 463 yards against the beleaguered LSU defense playing without ace cornerback Derek Stingley Jr.
"Air Raid offense, you know they take big shots down the field," Arkansas cornerback Montaric Brown said.
"He has a nice arm," Arkansas safety Simeon Blair said of Costello. "They're more of a team that loves explosive plays. They're probably not going to want to take the dink and dunk, the short throws. They're a team that wants to get big chunk plays."
Indeed, the Bulldogs struck for 15 plays of 20-plus yards against LSU, six more than any other FBS team that has played just one game.
"Man did they look good on film," Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said. "They had an outstanding game against LSU. They have a great running back, great quarterback, great wideouts."
Mounting a pass rush vs. Costello is paramount, Pittman said.
"If we let him just sit back there he's going to pick us apart," he said. "We have to move him. He can't just stand there.
"If we don't sack him he has to move. We have to pressure him, and I'm excited to see what our scheme does."
Said Brown, "I feel like we need to get pressure on him because I feel like he's better inside the pocket. If we get him off his spot I feel like it'll be better for us.
LSU Coach Ed Orgeron noted Costello's completions accounted for 240 yards, and the Bulldog pass catchers added nearly 400 yards after the catch.
"You know, they had 383 yards after the catch," Orgeron said. "Obviously that's tackling, that's assignments to any guys running free.
"You got to give credit. Mississippi State's receivers came to play. Their quarterback was on fire. Coach [Leach] had a great scheme, put our guys in some difficult situations, and sometimes they did [make plays] and sometimes they didn't. And when they didn't, it was touchdown."
Now the Razorbacks draw the task of trying to slow the 6-3 Mitchell, who had 7 catches for 183 yards and 2 touchdowns, the 6-1 Payton (6-122), the 5-11 bowling ball Hill (8-158, 1), 6-3 Austin Williams (7-57, 1), 6-6 Tyrell Shavers (2-68, 1) and company.
"You have to get them on the ground," Pittman said. "I think they'll take some underneath throws. They'll take whatever you give them, basically. You have to tackle them.
"I don't know that you can contest every throw because they'll run some rub routes and things of that nature to get guys open. Once they get guys open we have to get them on the ground. We have to disrupt the quarterback."
The Razorback defense had a strong first half against No. 4 Georgia, holding the Bulldogs to 177 total yards despite enjoying excellent field position. Arkansas led 7-5 at halftime.
"I thought they were a pretty tenacious group, they moved around well, and they were aggressive," Leach said of the Razorbacks.
"They flat out took a half away from Georgia. I thought that was quite impressive. I thought that they played really hard. They've got some speed out there. ... I think it'll be a good challenge."
There's mixed news on the personnel front for the Razorbacks. They should get corner Devin Bush and defensive end Mataio Soli back from Game 1 absences, and veteran safety Joe Foucha is expected to see more playing time. However, defensive end Dorian Gerald was not practicing early in the week and he's looking doubtful for game day. Also, cornerback Jarques McClellion announced Thursday that he was opting out of the season due to family issues with covid-19.
No matter who's able to play, accounting for Hill and getting him tackled will be uppermost on Arkansas' checklist.
"It's very difficult because if you're in man coverage, most of the time your linebackers have [Hill] man-to-man," Pittman said. "That in itself can be a mismatch on him. And if you zone cover him, you're going to give up the short passing game, and then you have to get him on the ground.
"That's been very, very difficult for opponents. He can spin around, he can jump over the top of you, he can run by you, he can run through you. I just think the guy's really a great football player. I really do. I love the way he plays and the effort that he gives."
Leach's schemes took the SEC by storm, but they've been around for two decades.
SEC Network analyst Roman Harper said on Saturday that Leach is still running the same designs he did early in his Texas Tech career, and that they're just difficult to stop.
"I think he's really smart," Pittman said. "If you watch, he basically ... it seemed to me like he checks the pass game like most people check the run game. He wants to find out whether you're in man, whether you're in zone ... and then goes to attack and knows how to attack it. He's been doing this a long time."
The Razorbacks were impressed with Mississippi State's 634 total yards at LSU.
"I mean, them beating LSU, that just shows they're a really good football team," safety Jalen Catalon said.
Costello threw 24 incomplete passes and two interceptions last week, so the Razorbacks could get their chances at catching some of his passes as well.
"We know that Coach [Barry] Odom puts us in great spots to succeed, and that's a lot of pass attempts," Brown said of Arkansas' defensive coordinator. "So that means it's going to be a lot of chances for us to make plays out there, and that's what our DB corps is full of is players that want to make plays. So, that's going to be a great game for us."