The Arkansas Razorbacks (11-3, 0-1 SEC) can bounce back if they defeat the No. 23 Ole Miss Rebels (12-2, 1-0 SEC) on Wednesday at Bud Walton Arena.

Led by second-year head coach Chris Beard, the Rebels are off to a solid start to the 2024-25 season. Ole Miss owns wins over teams such as BYU, Purdue, Louisville, Georgia and others with a veteran-filled squad. Ole Miss is coming off a 20-12 (7-11 SEC) overall season that saw it miss the NCAA Tournament.

“Ole Miss is one of those teams that is really tough,” associate head coach Chin Coleman said Tuesday. “They recruit to their system. Another game in which we’re going to have to be more physical than them. We’re going to have to obviously do a better job on the offensive glass. They’re systemic in terms of their motion and everybody is a weapon. They can go one-on-one from one through five. So they have a balanced attack in terms of their offense because of their style of play.

“So it’s going to be a challenge for us. But for me and for us as a staff and our team, no matter whether you win or you lose it’s always about our response. So I’m excited about our response. I was excited about our response in our first possession of practice. I’m equally excited for our first possession of practice today and so on and so forth. Just a challenge. Another challenge. We’ve got to be more prepared for this one than we were the last time out.”

A major storyline entering this game is the chess-move battle between John Calipari and Beard, who was reportedly one of Arkansas’ top head coach candidates to replace Eric Musselman during the offseason.

“(Beard’s) been running that motion since Texas Tech,” Coleman said. “Probably got a little bit of that from the late great Bobby Knight. That motion is unpredictable. The freedom of movement, cutting, screening. It’s hard to scheme against. It’s hard to scout. It’s hard to put a scout team through that. There is no absolute. When you have a random based offense that you’ve got to guard the whole game, you’ve got to trust your rules. You’ve got to be connected.

“You can’t break. You’ve got to be alert. You’ve got to know you are going to be screened, but at the same time you’ve got to watch the ball because here comes a guy driving. They’ve got playmakers all over the floor with one through five. Their fives are like fours. Their fours are like threes. When you have multiple guys on the floor that can dribble, pass and shoot, it’s tough to defend against.”

After a non-conference schedule filled with middling crowds, Coleman said he’s ready for Arkansas fans to unleash Bud Walton Arena into its full form for the SEC home opener.

“We need the fans to support the Razorbacks the way that they’ve supported them, what we’ve seen when we were with the opposing team,” Coleman said. “Now we’re family. We’re Razorbacks. We wanted it to feel the way it’s felt when we’ve come in here as an opposer, as the enemy. We need the building rocking. We need the building turned all the way up to help our men feed off that energy.

“I’ve seen it before. I’ve witnessed it before, where you can’t even call out… I’m normally one of the loudest persons in the building on the sidelines. Our guys hear me when I scream out different calls and when I scream out different schematics. Everybody hears me. I have been in this building before where I have not been heard, so that is what I need for that building, and what we need for that building to feel like.”

Here’s a closer comparison of Arkansas’ and Ole Miss’ stats, efficiency ratings, projected lineup for the Rebels and more ahead of Wednesday’s game, which is set to tipoff at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2:

WEST LAFAYETTE — New Purdue football quarterback Malachi Singleton wants to win and doesn’t care what he must do to make it happen.

North Cobb High School coach Shane Queen saw everything he needed in a two-game span of Singleton’s junior season. Playing top-ranked Milton in their second game in 2021 — with a national ESPN audience — the North Cobb planned to showcase its budding quarterback prospect’s passing talents.

That strategy fell apart almost immediately.

“We went out the first drive and we felt like, man, we’re going to throw the football,” Queen said. “We had a couple receivers run the wrong routes, offensive linemen jump offsides. And our coordinator said, no, we’re going to go back to running the football.”

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Singleton ran, too — for 224 yards and five touchdowns in a 40-21 upset victory. A week later against Alpharetta, he ran only twice, because he completed 18-of-22 passes for 323 yards and three touchdowns.

Those dual-threat abilities prompted multiple programs to reach out to Singleton when the former Arkansas quarterback went into the transfer portal after his freshman season. He chose Purdue, starting a quarterback room restock under new coach Barry Odom. Former UCF quarterback EJ Colson and former Washington State quarterback Evans Chuba also signed up.

New offensive coordinator Josh Henson knows about winning with dual-threat talents, most notably 2022 Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams at USC. Queen said Singleton dealt with the running quarterback stigma as a prospect. North Cobb always believed in him as a full-service quarterback, though, folding more run-pass options into its offense over time.

“Sometimes we would have three plays called in one,” Queen said. “He’s a very cerebral football player. You tell him once, he gets it.

“That’s what kind of player they’re getting. They’re getting somebody that’s not only competitive and has the mindset that we’re never going to lose a football game, but also one that’s going to play within what the coaches give him, and he’s going to take what the defense gives him.”

North Cobb’s 2021 team finished 10-2 and reached the second round of the Georgia state playoffs. One of Singleton’s top receivers on that team — De’Nylon Morrissette — is Purdue’s only projected returning receiver with multiple touchdown catches last season.

Singleton and Morrissette played together only for that 2021 season. Singleton, though, first started for North Cobb as a freshman when its three-year starter suffered a late-season injury.

His biggest moment thus far as a college quarterback came in similar circumstances. Arkansas starter Taylen Green suffered a fourth-quarter injury with his team trailing 14-10 against then-No. 4 Tennessee on Oct. 6.

Singleton’s entire career to that point consisted of 18 snaps of mop-up duty against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and three against Auburn. He took over in the red zone, but the Razorbacks settled for a field goal to cut the defict to one.

Arkansas went three-and-out on its next two drives with its green quarterback. On the third, Singleton took over at his own 41 with three minutes left and completed three consecutive passes to move back into the red zone. Then he kept it himself on a zone read for a go-ahead 11-yard touchdown run.

Tennessee had allowed him to score in order to get the ball back with as much time as possible, but the Razorbacks defense secured the 19-14 victory. It was the program’s first home win over a top-five opponent in 25 years.

“The last two drives, he was phenomenal,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman told reporters after the game. “He ran (the offense) very, very well and scored the touchdown to go ahead.

“He’s been here a long time and hasn’t gotten to play. To go in there and score the winning touchdown — with the help of 10 other guys — has to be really fulfilling for him.”

Queen said the North Cobb coaches were excitedly trading text messages while watching the game from their homes that night. Purdue hopes it puts itself in position for similar clutch moments one year after a 1-11 collapse.

Singleton’s competitiveness can be contagious, Queen says. He expects him to challenge teams and hold them accountable. He’ll also willingly take contact at 6-1, 225 pounds — something teammates tend to appreciate in their quarterback.

“What I love about him is, even in high school — and I always explained to college coaches — he didn’t care if we walked out and played the Georgia Bulldogs on Friday night. He always felt like we had a chance to win,” Queen said.

“As a coach, that makes you stand a couple inches taller. You feel the same when your quarterback, the guy who’s making those decisions, goes out there and has that mentality.”

Purdue arguably needs that win-at-all-costs attitude as much as it needs dyanamic quarterback talents. In Singleton, it hopes it found both.

UCLA football has landed its fourth offensive lineman from the 2024-25 transfer portal.

According to multiple reports, former Arkansas offensive lineman Ty’Kieast Crawford has committed to the Bruins.

Crawford is a veteran lineman who spent his last four collegiate seasons with the Razorbacks. He appeared in just one game this past season, but the year prior, he made four starts in nine appearances.

The year before that, Crawford made two starts in 10 games, blocking for an offense that finished the year with 6,128 total yards, the second-most in program history.

In his first year with the program, Crawford played in all 13 games, mostly seeing action on special teams.

He had transferred to Arkansas after spending his first collegiate season at Charlotte, where he made three starts in six contests.

Crawford was a highly regarded recruit from Carthage, Texas. A four-star prospect, Crawford was ranked the No. 36 class of 2020 prospect in the state and the No. 19 offensive tackle in his class, per the 247Sports Composite rankings.

Crawford had announced his entering into the transfer portal on the first day of the winter window, posting the following message on social media:

“First and foremost I want to Thank God because without him none of this would be possible. I’d like to thank Sam Pittman and the rest of the coaching staff for all of the support over the years. To my teammates and brothers the memories we share together will forever be with me and apart of my journey. Thank you to the razorback fanbase for an amazing 3 years at this University with that being said with 1 year of eligibility left I will be placing my name within the transfer portal #LastLap”

Crawford’s commitment to UCLA comes after his recent visit to Westwood.

As he said in the aforementioned post, Crawford has just one year of eligibility left. He joins Courtland Ford, Julian Arnell and Eugene Brooks as UCLA’s offensive line transfer commits so far this offseason.

The Bruins are taking the steps to revamp their offensive line, and landing Crawford is a huge step in that process.

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