Under the direction of interim offensive coordinator Kenny Guiton for the first time, the Arkansas offense scored three touchdowns and totaled a season-high 481 yards during Saturday's 39-26 overtime win at the Florida Gators.
"What Kenny did, I thought he ran what we practiced," head coach Sam Pittman said after the game. "And, (that's a) big deal. We didn’t run a whole lot of different runs today, but we got back to the old stretch play that we were good at, we’ve been good at, and Rocket got some yards on it today."
Quarterback KJ Jefferson was taking calls from a fourth offensive coordinator during his time at Arkansas. The redshirt senior completed 20-of-31 passes for 255 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. He also added 92 rushing yards on 17 carries and one score.
Receiver Andrew Armstrong recorded three catches for a team-best 103 receiving yards and Rocket Sanders returned to the field for the first time since Oct. 7 with 103 rushing yards on 18 carries, which was the first 100-yard rushing attempt by a Hog this season.
"Obviously, he's been out for a while, but I thought he ran extremely hard and ran over some guys," Pittman said of Sanders. "Boy, he had a close one there where a guy made a shoestring tackle on him when I thought he could score there earlier in the game going to our left. I thought he played well. Held on to the ball well. Ran hard."
The Razorbacks gave up five sacks in the contest, four of which came in the first half, and they averaged a season-best 4.8 yards per rush.
"You could feel it all week," Pittman said. "Didn't know if we were going to win or not, but Wednesday I felt like we were because fastball start, I thought the offense looked really good. I go down to the defense and Deke Adams and the D-Line and scout-team offensive line are locking heads and getting a lot done.
"I walked away and said I think we're going to win. I just had a feeling. Just a belief in (Kenny Guiton). He's got a swag to him and a charisma to him. The kids believe in him."
In front of a very respectable 11 a.m. kickoff crowd at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, Florida, the Razorback offense starting things efficiently with a 25-yard completion to tight end Ty Washington from quarterback KJ Jefferson.
Washington caught a 12-yard pass two plays later and then exited the game with an upper extremity injury and he never returned to the game. Pittman later added that Washington is likely done for the season.
Arkansas did manage to score on that drive with an 8-yard connection from Jefferson to running back AJ Green to cap off a 7-play, 75-yard drive.
The very next play from scrimmage resulted in a 33-yard fumble touchdown for freshman corner Jaylon Braxton and the Hogs were up 14-0 after just 3:04 of game time.
After that, Arkansas totaled just 75 yards of offense for the remainder of the first half. The Hogs ran for 34 yards and threw for 116 yards – 45 of which came on one pass from Jefferson to Andrew Armstrong on the final full drive of the half, which resulted in a field goal. Arkansas was 2-for-8 on third downs in the first 30 minutes of game time.
"A hell of a first half by both teams," Pittman said at halftime on the Arkansas radio broadcast. "Lots of momentum after that short pass. We’ve got to be able to run the football, protect the quarterback better. But that last drive, that long pass to Armstrong we needed it. We’ve got a hell of a game. We just got to block better and stop them down here in the Red area and make them kick field goals."
As has happened a lot this season, the defense made a nice stop to force a Florida punt to start the second half. The offense turned that into points — something that hasn't happened a lot this season.
Thanks in part to a 48-yard connection between Jefferson and Armstrong on 3rd-and-6, the Hogs were able to drive 57 yards in seven plays to set kicker Cam Little up for a 41-yard field goal.
For the third straight drive, defensive coordinator Travis Williams' group forced the Gators to punt the football. On the fourth play of the ensuing Arkansas drive, AJ Green fumbled the ball and Florida recovered at the Hogs' 32-yard line.
Time after time this season, the offense has let the defense down in the second half. That was once again the case, as the Hogs could've had 38 points by the time Green fumbled, yet they had just 20 on the scoreboard.
Naturally, Florida scored on the following play and took a 23-20 lead after a botched hold on the point after attempt. Arkansas took over and Jefferson completed a big 16-yard pass to Jaedon Wilson on 3rd-and-4 from midfield to start the fourth quarter.
The next play was a shot from fellow receiver — and former high school quarterback — Isaac TeSlaa to Armstrong in the end zone, but he dropped the pass after hitting his head hard on the field. Armstrong exited the game and Arkansas settled for another field goal to tie the game at 23-23 and cap off a 10-play, 66-yard drive.
Florida responded with a field goal on the next drive to take a 3-point lead with 7:53 to play. Jefferson then decided to put the offense on his shoulders as he totaled 55 rushing yards and 22 passing yards during a 10-play, 84-yard scoring drive that was capped off with a 25-yard rushing touchdown from Jefferson to make it 30-26.
The ability to build on big plays proved crucial on that drive, as the Hogs had multiple on their way to a big score. On the day, the Hogs recorded 14 plays that went for at least 10 yards and they had five go for 20 or more with Guiton calling plays.
"The way he did things this week was outstanding, so it was like I know he felt different after this win but I felt different," Sanders said. He trusted in us this week, we trusted in him like it was no change in the offense. The only thing that was changed was the tempo thing. Definitely a big shout out to him."
It took the Gators just three plays to go 72 yards and regain the lead with a 26-yard rushing touchdown from Trevor Etienne at the 3:02 mark in the fourth. By then, the offense had to be really feeling the lack of scoring earlier in the half.
Sure enough, the Hogs had enough in them to drive down and tie the game at 33-33 with a 49-yard field goal from Little. On the other end, Florida kicker Trey Smack missed a would-be game-winner with just seconds to go in the game and it went to overtime.
After the defense forced a field goal, the Hogs had a holding on their first play of overtime. Jefferson made up for it with a 20-yard scamper, and after an 11-yard carry from Sanders, Jefferson found receiver Tyrone Broden for a four-yard touchdown to walk it off.
"They want to win," Pittman said. "They had their passion back. I did say maybe a week and a half ago we had maybe lost our edge on offense. Lost our passion on offense. Evidently you can get it back because we had it back today."
Up next, the Hogs will return home for a meeting with Auburn and first-year head coach Hugh Freeze. Kickoff for that matchup at Reynolds Razorback Stadium is set for 3 p.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
