One week into the season, and we still know basically nothing about the 2025 Arkansas Razorbacks. Games against SWAC opponents typically don’t teach much.

Alabama A&M was certainly tougher than last year’s opener (a 70-0 win over UAPB), but not by much. The only real difference came on the opening drive, when the Bulldogs marched the ball down the field with ease to tie the game 7-7 and make Hog fans very uncomfortable about the state of the defense. The Razorback D stiffened after that, however, with plenty of Bulldog procedural penalties also helping.

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Nothing unexpected in the drive-level stats. Arkansas finished drives well (6.5 points per drive that got inside the 40) and didn’t turn it over. Those are two things the Hogs were poor at last season, so we definitely have to keep an eye on them.

Alabama A&M, as is typical of overmatched FCS schools, sent run blitzes all game, daring the Hogs to throw over the top and turn this one into a meaningless 7-on-7 scrimmage. And unsurprisingly, Bobby Petrino and the Razorback offense didn’t take the bait, sticking to their base offense and only throwing downfield as necessary. That meant that the Hogs ended up with just a 17% explosive play rate after leading the SEC and ranking 2nd in the FBS in that stat last season.

Defensively, the Hogs were vanilla, doing what they’ve been doing under Travis Williams: get off the field on passing downs (29% passing down success rate) and limit big plays (7% explosive play rate), but don’t worry about dominating early downs. The Bulldogs ended up with a 61% leverage rate (percentage of total snaps that come on first down, second down and less than 10, or third/fourth down and less than five), which is probably a little higher than you’d like to see against a SWAC opponent.

Arkansas’ run blocking certainly wasn’t great, but again, the Bulldogs focused on run blitzes to keep from being bowled over. Still, only a 41% rushing success rate against a SWAC opponent isn’t ideal.

More right tackle trouble

As I wrote this week, one of the big things I was watching was right tackle. Right tackle was the clear weakness of the offensive line last season, with more than 40% of pressures on Taylen Green coming from that position. E’Marion Harris was slightly better than Keyshawn Blackstock in pass protection, in exchange for being much worse as a run blocker.

In the offseason, the Hogs brought in former 4-star recruit Shaq McRoy from Oregon. Blackstock apparently lost the race for right tackle and moved to defensive line, and Harris started this game. The results were… not ideal.

Pro Football Focus gives (subjective) grades for individuals and units for every game. They gave the Hogs a 57 grade in run blocking, which is the lowest of any group on the offense for this game. Individually, they placed the blame on both tackles, with Corey Robinson II and Harris both earning a grade of 54. For Robinson, this isn’t surprising: he’s a pass-pro specialist and PFF charged him with zero pressures allowed on 20 true pass sets, so you take the low run blocking grade.

But for Harris, it’s more of the same. In addition to the run blocking, he was also charged with two more pressures allowed on his quarterback, in 21 pass sets. McRoy was in the game for seven passes and also allowed a pressure, meaning that a year after 43% of pressures on Green came from the right tackle, fully 50% (3 of 6) pressures on the quarterback in Week 1 were charged to whoever was playing right tackle.

Arkansas is going to have to get the right tackle position fixed or Green is going to spend much of 2025 running for his life again.

Overall, though, protection was fine, as both sacks were charged to Green himself. The Hogs posted a sterling 58% success rate through the air and could have easily doubled their 18% explosive pass rate had they wanted to.

Among the receivers, the most interesting usage has to belong to O’Mega Blake. At Charlotte, Blake was a simple home run threat, with nearly half of his total targets coming 20+ yards down the field. A little over a third of his targets came inside the numbers, and he was most dangerous running straight up the left sideline.

On Saturday, however, he received only one target of 20+ yards (again, the Hogs could have given him more, as Alabama A&M was offering no safety help on the outside, but that would prove nothing), but more interestingly, all eight of his targets came inside the numbers.

His main usage was underneath, in Petrino’s signature passing concept, the shallow cross:

If you need a refresher on the shallow cross or any of Petrino’s favorite concepts, I wrote an in-depth piece when Petrino was hired back in December 2023. I recommend checking it out.

Blake wasn’t the only one to feast on the shallow cross. Arkansas’ first touchdown came on a “Drive” concept, where CJ Brown ran a shallow cross underneath Raylen Sharpe’s dig route that kept any safety help at bay:

If that looks familiar, here’s Ryan Mallett hooking up with Jarius Wright on the exact same play from the exact same formation in the 2010 LSU game:

Arkansas didn’t run a ton of shallow cross last year because they didn’t have the personnel to do it. Receivers were part of it, as guys like Isaac TeSlaa and Tyrone Broden are not shallow cross guys (related: they weren’t recruited under Petrino). But Taylen Green also struggled to hit receivers on the move, routinely missing on slants and shallows.

If you can’t hit receivers on the move, it’s hard to generate yards after catch. Head coach Petrino’s Arkansas teams destroyed opponents after the catch, but the Hogs have not had that in several years. I think YAC was a focus of Arkansas’ offseason acquisitions, and on Saturday, Blake and Brown combined for 84 yards after catch and the Hogs averaged 6.4 YAC per reception despite no breakaways.

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Up next

Arkansas faces Arkansas State on Saturday for the first time ever at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. The Red Wolves rolled over FCS Southeast Missouri 42-24 on Saturday. They won eight games last season and boast a potent offense. Given the circumstances, expect Arkansas State to play its best game of the season on Saturday. If the Hogs play anything worse than decently, things could get interesting.