FAYETTEVILLE -- Count Alabama Coach Nick Saban among those very impressed with University of Arkansas wideout Treylon Burks.
The junior not only has the statistics to match up with the best receivers in the nation, he's got a loaded tape of highlight reel catches to his credit.
The 6-3, 225-pound Burks will enter Saturday's game against Alabama with 51 receptions for 796 yards and 8 touchdowns. Burks ranks behind only Alabama junior Jameson Williams (1,028 yards) and Kentucky junior Wan'Dale Robinson (900) in SEC receiving yardage and behind just Williams (10) in receiving touchdowns.
"Burks is a great receiver," said Saban, who also recruited the Warren native.
Saban was asked how to match up against a player with Burks' stature, jumping ability, catch radius and speed.
"It's difficult because he is a physical mismatch," Saban said. "He's bigger than most of the guys that are trying to guard him.
"It's kind of like a point guard trying to cover a power forward-type guy who can run fast. Sometimes those mismatches are difficult. ... How do you do it? Players have to play with great technique, and they have to understand that you've got to play big against a guy like that. And that's difficult to do sometimes because he's a big guy that plays big."
Hog delivery
Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman shared defensive tackle John Ridgeway's invitation to the Senior Bowl to him in an interesting manner on Wednesday.
Pittman asked Ridgeway to come into an office and showed the 6-6, 320-pounder a video in which former Razorback Stephen Jones, the Dallas Cowboys' chief operating officer and director of player personnel, and father of current Arkansas quarterback John Stephen Jones, read out the announcement.
"That's pretty nice," Ridgeway said on a video released on social media by Razorback football.
"One Hog to another," Pittman replied. "Congratulations, man."
Pittman said he still plans to meet with Ridgeway about possibly returning to Arkansas in 2022.
"We'd like for him to come back," Pittman said. "We think he can increase his draft status, but that's between Ridge and I and we'll figure it out."
'Wag's finger
Senior offensive tackle Dalton Wagner called the trouble he was having with a finger "an experience" on Tuesday night.
"It was just a finger at the end of the day, but it just kept popping out and wasn't staying in place, so there's risk of not being able to use it for the rest of my life, and there's some things that are a little bigger than football sometimes," Wagner said to explain why he had surgery to get the finger in place.
Wagner missed three games in his recovery from the surgery and returned against Mississippi State following an open date.
"Being back after the bye week is what really made me definitely get that surgery," he said. "The ability to still come back and help the team."
Super senior Ty Clary started games at right tackle against Ole Miss, Auburn and Arkansas-Pine Bluff in Wagner's absence.
Return game
Freshman Bryce Stephens had a 26-yard return on the first punt of the game last week to set up Cam Little's 48-yard field goal. Stephens also came up aggressively and dove to catch a short punt later in the game to prevent a potentially long roll for LSU.
Stephens was in the lineup for Nathan Parodi, who did not travel to the game.
Parodi, who has an average of 10.9 yards on 15 returns, had an 80-yard touchdown against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Stephens now has a 17.7-yard average on three returns.
"I thought I thought Bryce did a real good job of handling punts," Sam Pittman said. "He had a chance, if he took another left on one return, he'd still be running. But I thought he did a really good job of handling that.
"I mean, could you imagine I mean that was only his third game to even play and going there in that atmosphere and you're going back there, it's probably a lonely situation back there. But he did a great job and and had some nice returns."
Pittman said Wednesday that Parodi will likely return punts against Alabama on Saturday. Stephens has played in three games and Pittman said he is on the fence on whether Stephens would redshirt or go ahead and play in more than four games. His preference is to hold redshirting freshmen for a fourth game in the postseason.
Walkoff wins
Saturday's 16-13 win on Cam Little's 37-yard field goal in overtime marked the Razorbacks' seventh win on the final play of the game since joining the SEC in 1992.
The other final play victories, all in overtime: Austin Allen's 5-yard touchdown run for a 41-38 win at TCU in 2016; Brandon Allen's two-point conversion run following his 9-yard touchdown pass to Drew Morgan for a 53-52 win at Ole Miss in 2015; Alex Tejada's 37-yard field goal for a 20-17 win over East Carolina in the Liberty Bowl after the 2009 season; Jeremy Davis' PAT kick following Mitch Mustain's 11-yard touchdown pass to Ben Cleveland in a 24-23 home win over Alabama in 2006; Chris Balseiro's 19-yard field goal for a 34-31 win at Alabama in 2003; and Todd Latourette's 30-yard field goal for a 16-13 win at Mississippi State in 1996.
Bye Josh
Sam Pittman said tailback Josh Oglesby came to him fully aware of his status deep on the depth chart before electing to enter the transfer portal.
"I'm sure he won't be the last guy that we have go into the portal," Pittman said. "But to me, that's exactly what the portal's for. And Josh came in and spoke with me."
Oglesby, who was a track standout with the Razorbacks before joining the football team, had 19 yards on four carries this season.
"A lot of times it doesn't mean the head coach is mad because a guy goes in [the portal]," Pittman said. "A lot of times it can be mutual, and it can be to help this guy go play the game. It's still a fun game, go play it."
Peak efficiency
The Arkansas-Alabama matchup will feature two of the most efficient passers in the country in KJ Jefferson and Bryce Young.
The Tide sophomore Young ranks fourth in the country and second in the SEC behind Georgia's Stetson Bennett with a pass-efficiency rating of 180.13 on 232-of-327 passing for 3,025 yards, with 33 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Jefferson is 14th in the nation and fourth in the SEC with a 161.17 efficiency rating.
The rating uses a formula that includes yards per pass, touchdown-to-interception ratio and completion percentage to evaluate passers.
Jefferson had another strong passing performance at LSU to reach the 65% completion mark set as offensive coordinator Kendal Briles' standard.
Jefferson, who needs 10 passing yards at Alabama to reach the 2,000-yard mark, has completed 147 of 226 passes for 1,990 yards, with 17 touchdowns and 3 interceptions.
The last two games Jefferson has completed 37 of 48 passes (77%) in wins over Mississippi State and LSU. He would have to keep up that kind of pace in Arkansas' final three games to overtake Feleipe Franks' 1-year old school record of 68.5%.
Confidence in Cam
Coach Sam Pittman said he did not talk to kicker Cam Little after LSU called timeout in overtime prior to Little's game-winning 37-yard field goal.
"I didn't look at him," Pittman said. "I was talking to the wings and the tight ends about handling the edge pressure. But I pretty much felt like if he got the ball up he was going to make it."
Pittman said Little wasn't worried when the Razorbacks called their fake field goal in the third quarter rather than try what would've been a career-long 53-yard kick. Reid Bauer took the snap from Jordan Silver and rushed 23 yards over the left side, aided by a key edge block from Luke Jones to reach the LSU 13. Little made a 27-yard field goal four plays later.
"Cam was the most excited guy whenever I said we're going to fake it because he felt like it was there all night," Pittman said. "Sure enough, Bauer went down there and did it. It just shows you how unselfish Cam is. Everybody else would've wanted to kick it. ... He's just a really good kid ... so, very, very valuable."