The South Carolina at Arkansas Live Blog powered by Jim Harris. The stage is set. It is Razorback game day. The Razorbacks take on the Gamecocks – here we go.
It’s game day, people. Let’s have a blast!
1:42 p.m. 38-7 South Carolina — I don’t know what safety Eric Bennett was doing on Connor Shaw’s 10-yard scramble, but it wasn’t playing defense. He turned his back to find a receiver, I guess, while Shaw ran 10 yards to the left pylon to cap another South Carolina scoring drive, and the Gamecocks are having their biggest offensive day of the season.
Thankfully for everybody, this latest drive of 79 yards ate up 9 1/2 minutes of the clock. We’re already down to 1:29 left in the third quarter of the game in which the Arkansas defense has, for all practical purposes, throw in the towel.
Tailback Mike Davis had runs of 12, 11 and 11 yards on the drive. South Carolina isn’t really trying to throw it anymore and Arkansas’ defensive front can’t stop anything.
I would guess that next week is going to be really rough on this practice field up here with Alabama coming up. Or maybe not. Maybe these guys need a break. They just haven’t even competed since the Allen interception.
1:28 p.m. — The replay official doesn’t agree with the Arkansas crowd. South Carolina takes over at its 21. Jimmy Legree forced the fumble and Chaz Elder recovered.
Chaz.
1:25 p.m. 31-7 — Arkansas really can’t make this game any more miserable than it is now, after Keon Hatcher runs 50 yards on an end around, stumbles when it looks like he might score, and then fumbles it away at the SC 21.
The replay official will look at this, though. The crowd rules “no fumble.”
1:20 p.m. 31-7 Gamecocks — Three Razorback defensive backs were chasing Damiere Byrd on a 45-yard, right-down-the-middle-of-the-field home run ball from Gamecocks quarterback Connor Shaw. Byrd caught it in stride in the end zone and I fully expect a mass exodus to ensue from Reynolds Razorback Stadium. There’s lots of tailgating still to do that was missed because of the early kickoff time.
Arkansas’ defense, with the exception of the ends, didn’t even show up on the first possession of the second half. The secondary didn’t cover, the linebackers didn’t tackle. There was one combined effort on a sack after Trey Flowers first went flying past Connor Shaw, deep in the SC end.
South Carolina covered 75 yards in six plays. I would bet the Gamecocks scout team gives the SC first-team offense a better look than what Arkansas just did. For whatever reason, that looked like a “quit” effort by the defense. It might just be better players with better offensive play calls whipping lesser players. Whatever it was, it wasn’t pretty for Arkansas.
1:11 p.m. 24-7 Gamecocks — Blog fans, how about helping me by participating in my vote for the “Crip” Hall Award, going to the top senior in the homecoming game. You did know this is Arkansas’ homecoming game, right? (Rumor has it SC also scheduled it as its homecoming game too).
Here are the choices on my ballot: Robert Atiga, Eric Bennett, Javontee Herndon, Zach Hocker, Price Holmes, Julian Horton, David Hurd, Austin Jones, Byran Jones, Jarrett Lake, Jerry Mitchell, Kiero Small, Chris Smith, Travis Swanson, Austin Tate, Brad Taylor and Robert Thomas.
The ballot will be collected at the start of the fourth quarter. Let me know, either via email at jim.harris@sportinglifearkansas.com or on Twitter at @jimharris360.
