Arkansas aims to ignite high-octane offense vs. UAB

Field Level Media|published: Wed 11th September, 13:42 2024

Oklahoma State's Nick Martin (4) tackles Arkansas' Ja'Quinden Jackson (22) first half of the college football game between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the Arkansas Razorbacks at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater, Okla.,, Saturday, Sept., 7, 2024.

Arkansas will take the nation's No. 2-ranked offense into Saturday's home game against UAB in Fayetteville, Ark.

The Razorbacks (1-1) squandered a 14-point lead at halftime last week in a 39-31 double-overtime loss to Oklahoma State. Arkansas missed two field goals in regulation and was stopped on fourth-and-1 by the Cowboys defense to end the game.

The Arkansas offense is averaging 667.5 yards per game over the first two weeks of the season.

Quarterback Taylen Green has thrown for 645 yards and run for 149. Standout running back Ja'Quinden Jackson has five touchdowns and 250 rushing yards this season.

"I'm excited about this football team. Both sides," Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said. "The guys are coaching them so well. I don't think anyone who watched the (Oklahoma State) game thinks we don't have a good football team. We just made too many mistakes."

UAB (1-1), a member of the American Athletic Conference, was dominated in a 32-6 setback to Louisiana-Monroe last week.

The Blazers have committed six turnovers in their first two games.

Quarterback Jacob Zeno, a transfer from Baylor, has thrown a pair of interceptions and fumbled four times. Running back Lee Beebe Jr. leads the Blazers with 144 yards and two touchdowns. Kam Shanks has 10 catches for 116 yards.

UAB coach Trent Dilfer repeatedly used the word "stink" to evaluate his team's performance against ULM. He also said the team was looking forward to turning the page.

"(The players') response to tough situations this year has been everything a coach could ask for and (Saturday), although painful, the response by the coaches and players was what I thought was appropriate for moving on," Dilfer said. "We flushed it, it's time to move on, and we have a great challenge ahead of us with Arkansas. We know the battle ahead and we are prepared to fight it."

This will be the Razorbacks' first game of the year at Reynolds Stadium in Fayetteville. They played Arkansas-Pine Bluff at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock in the first week of the season.

It will be the second meeting all-time between the two schools. Arkansas won 45-17 in 2014.

--Field Level Media