Sporting Life Arkansas

Jim Harris Live: Nicholls State at Arkansas

  It’s game day and kick off to the home opener in Fayetteville of the 2014 Razorback football season is here: Nicholls State at Arkansas. Game time is set for 3 p.m. Jim Harris will be posting his thoughts throughout the game here, so check this page often. (Scroll down about halfway and you’ll see the posts from Jim.) Arkansas Defensive Coordinator Robb Smith on the Razorback defense: “This week has been all about us and our improvement. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we worked a lot on setting the edge and pressing the hip. We worked a lot on our tackling, we have to do a much better job there. That’s where the bulk of our time has been spent.” Smith on what to expect from Nicholls State: “We’re going to see a lot of different personnel groupings – four wide receivers, two running backs, a tight end. They’re going to mix it up on us. At the end of the day we have to come out and play Arkansas defense.” Smith on Nicholls State’s offense: “I thought both of their quarterbacks played well last week. Both of them ran the football pretty well. This is a team that’s going to make us work. We have to make sure we understand what personnel grouping is in the game. We have to do a great job of recognizing formations. At the end of the day, we have to get back and get our eyes in the right place. We have to do a much better job of tackling and getting guys on the ground.” Smith on younger players getting time on Saturday: “We put some younger guys in the mix this week. I’m excited to see them in action. Basically all the younger linebackers have taken reps in and out with our first and second group.  Anthony Brown is a guy we’ve injected into our defensive line. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to see a little more of Josh Liddell at the safety position. Then we have the young corners Henrè Toliver and Cornelius Floyd. I hope to get a chance to get those guys on the field and see what they have to offer.”
3:03 p.m. — I’m not going to do this all day, and in fact I’m not going to put in a post every play, but Jamichael Winston got the first Arkansas missed tackle of the day on the game’s second snap, allowing Nicholls a first down on a sweep to the left side. Arkansas swarms a similar play on the next snap, with DB Carroll Washington leading the tacklers for a loss of 3.
3:02: Sam Erwin-Hill’s kickoff goes out of bounds just before the end zone on the east size., Nicholls will start at the 35 moving from out of the south end. First play, of course, is a little over-the-middle toss for an easy 9 yards.
2:58 p.m. — Well, sorry for the delay up here folks, but we’ve been experiencing wifi issues all over the press box. For those media folks around Arkansas who decided to stay hom and cover this by TV, probably a smart move. Looks like thousands of fans had the same idea. What an awful turnout here today for the second game of the season. I wonder if some of these stay-at-homes knew that attendance has a big hand in whether some of these recruits here today will attend the UA or not would then have shown up. The upper decks — well, you could shoot a shotgun of dove shot up there and likely not hit anyone. Arkansas will kickoff to start the game. We’ll talk more about the other stuff later. Arkansas is looking to end a school-record 10-game losing streak.