Hogs ground and pound 'Horns with balanced attack

FAYETTEVILLE — Despite rushing for its most yards in half a decade, Arkansas didn’t have a single player crack the century mark Saturday night.

Instead, five different players finished with between 44 and 75 yards in a balanced attack that led the Razorbacks to a dominant 40-21 win over No. 15 Texas.

In addition to quarterback KJ Jefferson, who is also a threat with his legs, Arkansas rotated four running backs throughout the game and each of them had success running the ball.

Starter Trelon Smith had a quiet 75 yards on 12 carries, highlighted by a 1-yard touchdown plunge on which he jumped over the pile and landed in the end zone. Much like the opener, though, many fans probably left Reynolds Razorback Stadium fired up about the young guys at the position.

Following a solid debut against Rice, Raheim “Rocket” Sanders ran for 50 yards on eight carries against the Longhorns. More than half of that came on an impressive 26-yard touchdown run immediately following a turnover that proved to be the knockout blow.

He had to wait an extra week, but fellow freshman AJ Green got his first collegiate action Saturday night and flashed his speed on a 30-yard touchdown run. That gave him 67 yards on just seven carries.

Coming into the season, head coach Sam Pittman knew his two freshman running backs had potential even though it took some time for them to acclimate to the college game. Two weeks in, he likes where they’re at.

“They’re really helping our linemen with the way they’re hitting holes,” Pittman said. “People say, ‘Well, that’s easy to do.’ Well, it’s not really when you’re a zone-type scheme and you’ve got to read, read, read, read and make the right read, just like our quarterback has to on the defensive end.”

The most surprising development against Texas, though, was probably Dominique Johnson scoring the first touchdown of the game.

After picking the ball up off the ground on a bad snap and picking up 9 yards, the redshirt freshman got the handoff and carried a defender over the goal line from 5 yards out to give the Razorbacks a 10-0 lead.

It was his second touchdown of the season, as he also scored one in the final minute of Arkansas’ win over Rice. His runs late in that game seemed to earn him meaningful snaps against Texas.

“Dominque has been playing lights out,” Jefferson said. “When his number is called he takes advantage of his opportunity and he really risked his body and everything that comes with it to make sure the team is successful.”

Considering he was so far down the depth chart at one point during camp that he was moved to tight end, Johnson working his way into the running back rotation by Week 2 isn’t something many predicted.

Luckily for the Razorbacks, that brief position change - he was quickly moved back to running back because of injuries - apparently snapped Johnson back into the race for playing time in the backfield.

“We moved him back and he's a better running back,” Pittman said. “I think he took for granted where he was, but I trust him like crazy.”

Throw in Jefferson’s 162 rushing yards through two games and Arkansas has many different ways to attack opponents. They were all on display Saturday night, as the Razorbacks racked up 333 rushing yards and averaged 7.1 yards per carry.

It was the first time in 19 years Arkansas managed to surpass 300 rushing yards as a team without at least one player accounting for 100 of them. The last time it happened was in a 42-3 win over South Florida in 2002.