FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ trio of senior linebackers made life hard for Texas’ offense all game long Saturday night.
Hayden Henry, Grant Morgan and Bumper Pool combined for 38 tackles, including five for loss, in the Razorbacks’ dominant 40-21 win over the No. 15 Longhorns.
“I didn’t really think that they could block Grant or Bumper or me tonight,” Henry said. “We were making a lot of plays. We were in the backfield like crazy. When you can’t run the ball, it just takes the wind out of your sails as an offense.”
Making just his fifth start for the Razorbacks, Henry led the way with a career-high 15 tackles. He flew around the field making plays, living up to the nickname he earned from the coaches.
“He’s kind of Bobby Boucher, the guy from (The) Waterboy,” head coach Sam Pittman said. “He kind of goes around and that’s kind of how he plays. Very aggressive.”
Before needing to be helped off the field with an injury on the first play of the fourth quarter, Morgan racked up 13 tackles for the Razorbacks.
Pool, meanwhile, managed to make 10 tackles despite being suspended in the first half because of a second-half targeting penalty against Rice.
Here are a few other notes and tidbits from Saturday’s win over Texas…
KJ’s Response
Making his second start as the unquestioned QB1, KJ Jefferson was an efficient 14-of-19 passing (73.7%) for 138 yards.
He wasn’t asked to do too much with his arm because of how effective he and Arkansas’ stable of running backs were in the run game, but he did make one mistake.
On the Razorbacks’ first offensive play after halftime, Texas safety B.J. Foster made a nice play to intercept Jefferson’s pass. The play didn’t seem to bother him, as Jefferson’s next attempt was a 45-yard bomb to Tyson Morris.
“I was pretty hard on myself because I’m always hard on myself knowing with my skill set that I can make plays,” Jefferson said. “But those guys…came up to me and told me to keep my head up, we’re fixing to go back out here and get the ball back and score. Nobody had their heads down or nothing like that. It was all positive energy.”
The Longhorns turned the turnover into their first points of the game, pulling within 16-7 early in the third quarter, but Jefferson’s deep ball to Morris sparked a 6-play, 81-yard drive that pushed Arkansas lead back out to 16 points.