Page 18 - 2018 Arkansas Football

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Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Sunday, August 26, 2018
v Continued from previous page
COACH Matt Luke (6-6 last season as Ole Miss in- terim coach)
KEY PLAYERS QB Jordan Ta’amu, WR A.J. Brown, OT Greg Little, DT Josiah Coatney
OUTLOOK The Reb- els’ 31-28 victory at Mississippi State to win the Egg Bowl last season clinched the Ole Miss coaching job for Matt Luke after he took over on an inter- im basis when Hugh
Freeze was forced to resign. Having Luke’s status solidified provides some stability for the program, but the Rebels face a bowl ban for a second con- secutive season. They have some star players, notably junior wide receiver A.J. Brown, who last season had 75 catches for a school-record 1,252 yards along with 11 touchdowns. Senior quarter- back Jordan Ta’amu showed late in the season — when he took over for injured Shea Patterson, who transferred to Michigan — that he can lead the offense. He passed for 1,682 yards (including 368 against Arkansas) and 11 touchdowns in 8 games, including 5 starts.
nior-college transfers on defense in hopes of slowing down opponents.
11 sophomores. The schedule doesn’t pro- vide the opportunity to ease into the season because the Tigers open against Miami in a neutral site game in Arlington, Texas. LSU
also has to play Georgia in addition to Alabama — the two heavy favorites to win SEC division titles, though the Tigers do get both at home — and have to play at Florida for a second consecutive year be- cause the Gators agreed to move the teams’ game in 2016 to Baton Rouge. The Tigers’ leading returning rusher, Nick Brosette, had just 17 carries for 96 yards last season.
SCHEDULE
Sept. 1
Sept. 8
Sept. 15
Sept. 22
Sept. 29
Oct. 6
Oct. 13
Oct. 20
Nov. 3
Nov. 10
Nov. 17
Nov. 22
*at Houston **at Little Rock
SCHEDULE
vs. Texas Tech* Southern Illinois Alabama
Kent State
at LSU Louisiana-Monroe at Arkansas** Auburn
South Carolina
at Texas A&M
at Vanderbilt Mississippi State
GAME 8
DATE Oct. 27
PLACE Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Fayetteville 2017 RECORD 5-7, 1-7 SEC
COACH Derek Mason (18-31 in four seasons at Van- derbilt)
RETURNING STARTERS 8 offense, 4 defense
KEY PLAYERS QB Kyle Shurmur, OT Justin Skule, LB Charles Wright, S LaDarius Wiley
OUTLOOK Vanderbilt will play Arkansas for just the seventh time since the Razorbacks joined the SEC, and the first time since 2011 when coach Bobby Petrino’s final Razorbacks team beat the Commodores
31-28 in Nashville, Tenn. Vanderbilt played in a bowl game that season and has played in a combined four bowl games the previous seven years, which doubled the Commodores’ total. Vanderbilt is coming off a tough SEC season, but Coach Derek Mason said at media days that opponents need to watch out. The Commodores have the bonus of one of college foot- ball’s most experienced quarterbacks in senior Kyle Shurmur, who has 30 career starts. The defense needs to make a lot of improvements after allowing an aver- age of 43.2 points in SEC games.
vs. Miami* Southeastern Louisiana at Auburn
Louisiana Tech
Ole Miss
at Florida
Georgia
Mississippi State Alabama
at Arkansas
Rice
at Texas A&M
AP/JEFF ROBERSON
Missouri quarterback Drew Lock, who set an SEC record with 44 touchdown passes last season, will be working under new offensive coordinator Derek Dooley.
GAME 12
Missouri DATE Nov. 23
PLACE Faurot Field, Columbia, Mo.
2017 RECORD 7-6, 4-4 SEC
COACH Barry Odom (11-14 in two seasons at Mis- souri)
RETURNING STARTERS 9 offense, 9 defense
KEY PLAYERS QB Drew Lock, RB Damarea Crockett, DE Terry Beckner, LB Terez Hall
OUTLOOK Derek Dooley, the former Tennessee head coach, is back in the SEC as Missouri’s new offensive coordina- tor. Dooley was the Dal- las Cowboys’ receivers coach the previous five seasons and will add an
NFL look to Missouri’s offense. Senior quarterback Drew Lock — who earned All-SEC first-team honors last season when he set a conference record with 44 touchdowns, including five against Arkansas — said he’s excited about what Dooley will bring to the offense. Running back Damarea Crockett, a junior from Little Rock Christian who rushed for 481 yards last season before missing the final seven games be- cause of a shoulder injury, is fully recovered and will add balance to the offense along with Larry Rountree, who rushed for 703 yards last season. The defense will be led by senior tackle Terry Beckner, who had seven sacks last season.
Tulsa
PLACE Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Fayette-
GAME 11
Mississippi State DATE Nov. 17
PLACE Davis Wade Stadium, Starkville, Miss.
2017 RECORD 9-4, 4-4 SEC
COACH Joe Moorhead (first season at Mississippi State, 38-13 in four seasons at Fordham) RETURNING STARTERS 9 offense, 8 defense
KEY PLAYERS QB Nick Fitzgerald, RB Aeris Williams, DT Jeffery Simmons, S Mark McLaurin
OUTLOOK New Bulldogs Coach Joe Moorhead, who helped Penn State go 22-5 the previous two seasons as the Nittany Lions’ offensive coordinator, is coaching in the South for the first time. His previous head
coaching experience was in New York City at Fordham, but he comes to Starkville, Miss., loaded with confi- dence. After being hired to replace Dan Mullen — who after eight seasons of leading the Bulldogs moved on to Florida — Moorhead told his new players to find out their ring sizes. The point being Mississippi State is going to win a championship. Mullen did leave a talented roster, led by senior quarterback Nick Fitz- gerald, who has fully recovered from an ankle injury he suffered against Ole Miss last season. Fitzgerald figures to do more passing and less running. SCHEDULE
DATE Oct. 20 ville
Sept. 1 Sept. 8 Sept. 15 Sept. 22 Sept. 29 Oct. 6 Oct. 13 Oct. 20 Oct. 27 Nov. 10 Nov. 17 Nov. 24
SCHEDULE
Middle Tennessee Nevada
at Notre Dame South Carolina Tennessee State at Georgia
Florida
at Kentucky at Arkansas at Missouri Ole Miss Tennessee
GAME 10
2017 RECORD 2-10, 1-7 American Athletic Confer- ence
COACH Phillip Montgomery (18-20 in three seasons at Tulsa)
RETURNING STARTERS 7 offense, 6 defense
KEY PLAYERS WR Justin Hobbs, RB Shamari Brooks, S McKinley Whitfield, LB Cooper Ed- monton.
OUTLOOK Arkansas Coach Chad Morris will see a familiar foe when Tulsa visits Fayetteville for homecoming. Mor- ris’ SMU teams played Tulsa the past three years in the America Athletic Conference in
close, high-scoring games. Tulsa won 40-31 in 2015 and 43-40 in overtime in 2016 before SMU broke through to beat the Golden Hurricane 38-34 last sea- son. The SMU game was among five losses Tulsa suffered by seven or fewer points as the Hurricane fell to 2-10 last season after going 10-3 in 2016. Phillip Montgomery, the former Baylor assistant going into his fourth season as Tulsa’s coach, signed seven ju-
LSU
PLACE Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Fayetteville
Sept. 1 Sept. 8 Sept. 15 Sept. 22 Sept. 29 Oct. 6 Oct. 20 Oct. 27 Nov. 3 Nov. 10 Nov. 17 Nov. 22
Stephen F. Austin at Kansas State Louisiana-Lafayette at Kentucky
Florida
Auburn
at LSU
Texas A&M Louisiana Tech at Alabama Arkansas
at Ole Miss
Sept. 1 Sept. 8 Sept. 15 Sept. 22 Oct. 6 Oct. 13 Oct. 20 Oct. 27 Nov. 3 Nov. 10 Nov. 17 Nov. 23
SCHEDULE
Tennessee-Martin Wyoming
at Purdue Georgia
at South Carolina at Alabama Memphis Kentucky
at Florida Vanderbilt
at Tennessee Arkansas
Sept. 1
Sept. 8
Sept. 15
Sept. 20 Oct. 4 Oct. 12 Oct. 20 Oct. 27 Nov. 3 Nov. 10 Nov. 17 Nov. 24
SCHEDULE
Central Arkansas
at Texas
Arkansas State
at Temple
at Houston South Florida at Arkansas Tulane Connecticut at Memphis at Navy
SMU
GAME 9
Vanderbilt
DATE Nov. 10
2017 RECORD 9-4, 6-2 SEC
COACH Ed Orgeron (15-6 in two seasons at LSU, 31-33 in six seasons overall)
RETURNING STARTERS 5 offense, 5 defense
KEY PLAYERS LB Devin White, CB Greedy Williams, DE Rashard Lawrence, TE Foster Moreau OUTLOOK LSU has talent as usual, but lacks ex- perience at some positions. The Tigers’ projected starting 22 coming out of spring practice includes
Sept. 2
Sept. 8
Sept 15
Sept. 22
Sept. 29
Oct. 6
Oct. 13
Oct. 20
Nov. 3
Nov. 10
Nov. 17
Nov. 24
*at Arlington, Texas