FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas receiver Andrew Armstrong stayed down on the field for a minute after taking a huge shot from Champ Anthony in the first quarter of last week’s 24-14 win at Auburn.
Walking on the field at Jordan-Hare Stadium after the game, Armstrong was overheard telling a teammate it was the hardest he’s been hit in his life.
Razorback play-by-play announcer Chuck Barrett brought up the play during Armstrong’s stint on “Sam Pittman Live” on Wednesday night, joking, “Man, I thought you were dead Saturday, I’m not going to lie to you.”
Armstrong chuckled for a moment then talked about the play and the eventual aftermath.
“Man, it was the hardest … I told myself it’s not really the hit that’s hitting me,” Armstrong said. “It’s about when I turn 50 years old … they’re going to have the world’s greatest hits of college football and I’m going to see myself on there years later.”
Armstrong returned to the game and finished with a team-high five catches for 47 yards.
Anthony suffered a serious leg injury on the next snap and had to be carted off the field.
“Man, the hit was crazy,” Armstrong continued. “It was a big hit but at the end of the day it’s football. Like, that’s what I signed up for. I signed up to get hit. So no matter if it was a soft hit or a hard hit, I’ve got to go back out there and show toughness.”
Armstrong said he had the wind knocked out of him but he recovered quickly.
“Once I stood up I was good, I was ready to go (back) out there,” he said. “They were just making sure I was good, making sure I could run on the sidelines and nothing was wrong.
“But when I was on the ground … there’s nothing worse than you getting hit and whole crowd is saying ‘Oooooh!’ right?”
Ball named
Arkansas defensive tackle Cam Ball was named on Thursday as one of 52 players on the watch list for the annual Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year.
The student-athletes on the list, nominated by their schools, have “demonstrated a record of leadership by exhibiting exceptional courage, integrity and sportsmanship on and off the field.”
Ball, a senior from Atlanta, has notched 12 tackles this season and 74 in his career, including 4 tackles for loss and 1.5 sacks, 2 quarterback hurries and 2 forced fumbles.
Ball is one of 11 SEC players on the watch list along with Missouri’s Brady Cook, Auburn’s Luke Deal, South Carolina’s Alex Huntley, Alabama’s Tim Keenan III, Texas’ Jake Majors, Tennessee’s Bru McCoy, Mississippi State’s Albert Reese IV, Texas A&M’s Albert Regis, Georgia’s Jalon Walker and Kentucky’s J.J. Weaver.
The 20 semifinalists for the award will be announced Oct. 22, and three finalists will be named Dec. 16. The winner will be announced at the award ceremony on Feb. 12, 2025.
The winner will receive a $10,000 contribution in his name to his school’s athletic scholarship fund.
One-score games
Coach Sam Pittman, acutely aware of his rough record in one-game games in his fifth season at Arkansas, made some wise cracks about it as he approached the interview table underneath Jordan-Hare Stadium after Saturday’s 24-14 win at Auburn.
“I almost let them score,” Pittman said as he took his seat behind the interview table. “I thought, ‘Man, if we let them score my percentage will go up.’ But we didn’t.”
Auburn drove 71 yards with a series of short passes and a Payton Thorne scramble in the final 56 seconds. Thorne completed an 18-yard pass to Malcolm Simmons to the Arkansas 9 as the clock ran out.
Tough stretch
Five of the Razorbacks’ next six games are against teams ranked in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll, including Saturday against No. 24 Texas A&M, and top-10 games against No. 1 Texas, No. 5 Tennessee, and No. 6 Ole Miss.
The combined record of Arkansas’ remaining SEC opponents is 23-5, with only Mississippi State (1-3) holding a losing mark. The Hogs’ lone remaining nonconference game is against Louisiana Tech (1-2) on Nov. 23.
Penalty plus
Arkansas had season lows of four penalties and 20 penalty yards against Auburn. The Tigers drew five flags for 45 yards, but suffered a crucial defensive pass interference call in the fourth quarter that extended the Hogs’ game-clinching touchdown drive.
The Razorbacks are very close to the national average with 51 penalty yards per game to rank 59th, while Texas A&M is 88th with 60.8 penalty yards per game.
Hoggin’ the ball
Arkansas and Texas A&M are both capable of controlling the clock with their running games as both rank in the top 25 in the nation in time of possession.
The Razorbacks are averaging 33:06.5 of possession time per game to rank 16th in the FBS, while the Aggies average 32:20.75 per game to rank 23rd.
Drawing even
Coach Sam Pittman leveled his record at Arkansas to 26-26 with the win at Auburn, re-reaching .500 for the first time in a year.
The Razorbacks were last at a .500 level under Pittman following a 27-20 loss at Ole Miss last Oct. 7, which brought his record to 21-21. After winning the first two games of 2023, Arkansas was 21-17 under Pittman following an 18-10 stretch that dated to the 2021 season opener.
Plus side
By beating Auburn 5-2 in the turnover category on Saturday, Arkansas got on the plus side for the season at plus-1.
That moved the Hogs up 34 spots in the FBS rankings from No. 98 into a tie for No. 64 with a plus-0.25 turnover margin per game.
On the flip side, Auburn fell into a tie for 132nd among the 134 FBS teams with a minus-2.5 turnover margin per game. The Tigers’ 14 total turnovers are tied with Temple for the most in the country.
A suplex?
Arkansas tailback Ja’Quinden Jackson had some interesting reps in pass protection at Auburn.
In addition to a few routine reps in which he met a blitzer in the gap and held him up, Jackson had two wild plays.
On a fourth-and-1 call late in the second quarter, Jackson just whiffed on the right edge on linebacker Jalen McLeod, who had unimpeded access to Taylen Green on a play-action throw to sack him for a 6-yard loss.
Later, on a critical 6-yard keeper by Green to pick up third-and-4 on an Arkansas touchdown drive, Jackson was responsible for edge blitzer Eugene Asante. As the linebacker neared Jackson, he went low to drive into the back and Jackson appeared to clasp his arms around Asante’s left leg, pivoting and up-ending him before planting him in the grass as Green wheeled past.
The Auburn sideline erupted in protest on the play, with lip readers noting Coach Hugh Freeze shouted to the nearest official, “He suplexed the s*** out of him!”
ESPN analyst Roddy Jones defended Jackson’s block as the network replayed it three times.
“I didn’t see a hold,” Jones said. “He kind of got his arms around him as he got lifted.”
Added play-by-play announcer Mark Jones, “That kind of reminds me of Greco-Roman wrestling in the Olympics.”
Late sacks
Doneiko Slaughter and Nico Davillier had sacks on Auburn quarterback Payton Thorne on first and third downs just after Arkansas moved ahead 24-14 late in the fourth quarter to help ice the win.
Slaughter, lined up in his nickel position, ran a delayed blitz and shot straight to Thorne for an around-the-waist, 6-yard sack. Two plays later, Davillier put a spin move on left tackle Percy Lewis IV to crash down on Throne. Davillier missed his first swipe at the quarterback but recovered and took him down a second later for a 4-yard sack.
Key assists
Both of Ja’Quinden Jackson’s 1-yard touchdown runs against Auburn came with legal help from teammates.
On the first play of the second quarter, Jackson went right with a short lead toss from Taylen Green and headed for the B gap (between offensive guard and tackle), where 340-pound Jayson Jones met him. Jones stopped the initial surge but Jackson kept churning and right guard Josh Braun helped push him and the pile across the goal line for the first score of the game.
On the second tough run, which provided Arkansas a 24-14 lead with 3:38 to play, tight end Ty Washington executed his down block on Keyron Crawford, then grabbed Jackson with both arms to help with the final surge, after which Jackson fell with a fraction of the ball over the goal plane in his left arm.
