FAYETTEVILLE - The rosters were picked with parity in mind, but Arkansas’ spring game was a one-sided affair Saturday.
The Razorbacks’ White team beat the Red team 45-14 in front of an announced 42,000 fans at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium and a national TV audience on ESPN.
Led by first team quarterback Tyler Wilson, the White team scored on its first three drives and added an interception return for a score by Darrell Smith to take a 28-0 first quarter lead.
Wilson completed five of his first eight passes – three of which went for 40 yards or longer – as the White offense easily moved the ball down the field on its first three possessions. Wilson’s favorite target was senior Jarius Wright, who caught five passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns.
Wright scored the game’s first touchdown on the third play from scrimmage, breaking a would-be tackle by Ryan Farr and racing 57 yards for a score. Wright later added a 52-yard reception to set up the unit’s second score, a 4-yard run by Ronnie Wingo.
“I really liked the way the White team came out and started the spring game,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “In execution, I thought Tyler (Wilson) was sharp early and Jarius Wright made some huge plays. That’s one of the things we’ve been on the receivers about is run after the catch. Our secondary has been tackling well in spring ball and we haven’t had the yards after catch we usually get.”
Wilson, who led five touchdown drives in the first half and another after halftime, completed 12 of 25 passes for 242 yards and three touchdowns.
While Petrino said his performance in the spring game didn’t solidify his role as the Razorbacks’ starter in the fall, he had a good spring.
“The one thing Tyler does is complete passes,” Petrino said. “There were days in the spring when I came off the field mad or frustrated at him a little bit for calling the play wrong in the huddle or not doing something in the run game, then I look at his stats and he’s 34-for-39. He can really throw the ball and complete passes. His understanding of the offense just keeps getting better and better.
“I thought he was really poised with his decisions out there, and that was the goal for him. We wanted him to be poised, be comfortable and make good decisions with the football.”
As good as the White offense was, the White defense was equally as good or better as the team led 38-0 at halftime. The unit forced three of its four turnovers before halftime, intercepting Brandon Mitchell three times.
Mitchell struggled, completing just 11 of 29 passes for 85 yards on the afternoon.
“This was Brandon’s first time in front of a big crowd as possibly the leading quarterback,” Arkansas offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said. “I think he struggled some with the crowd being there. There were a lot of throws that he missed that he hits every single day in practice when no one is around.
“He’s still learning and growing. He’s a tremendous talent. If you saw him playing just today, it really doesn’t do him justice. He had put together 14 pretty good practices.”
Mitchell’s most promising drive was his first, leading the Red to the White 25, but Tramain Thomas picked off Mitchell’s pass at the 2-yard line.
Thomas, who recorded a pair of spectacular one-handed interceptions in scrimmages earlier this spring, added two more interceptions Saturday.
“Just watching from the sideline I thought the White defense looked really good,” Arkansas defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said. “They forced a lot of turnovers and played things real sound. Our Red defense didn’t seem to have a lot of life to it. When they got hit in the mouth it hurt them.”
Neither defense blitzed, allowing the offenses to see a more watered down version of what fans can expect this fall.
“The defense was actually at a little bit of a disadvantage because I didn’t want anything on TV with offensive checks being on there; I didn’t want teams getting to study that throughout the summer,” Petrino said. “We just went real vanilla. I wanted them to line up and run to the ball full-speed.”
Walk-on quarterback Brian Buehner led a pair of scoring drives to put the Red team on the board after halftime. Knile Davis, who was presented the 2010 team most valuable player award at halftime, scored on touchdown runs of 5 and 4 yards to cap the drives.
Davis finished the game with 16 carries for 44 yards to lead the Red team. Wingo led the White team with 11 carries for 62 yards, while Dennis Johnson added 14 carries for 60 yards and a short touchdown.
“The running game needs to improve,” Petrino said. “We need to improve with our quarterbacks, our offensive front, our running backs, with our receivers blocking better downfield.
“It’s a group effort. When we get started back up in August, we’ll make a huge emphasis (in the run game).”
The game capped the Razorbacks’ spring practice period. Petrino said he was pleased with what he saw overall.
“You never get done everything you want to get done,” Petrino said. “We made improvement. I think defensively we feel like we have much better depth and are stronger against the run.”
You can follow Matt Jones on Twitter @NWAMatt.
I guess the Red team wasn’t that stacked after all.
No question who the starting quarterback is going to be. I hope Brandon Mitchell can at least be the back-up. If we just ran the ball Mitchell would be the starter.Tyler Wilson has certainly separated himself from the rest.
I thought Jacoby played well. In fact all of the QBs, excluding Mitchell had a good day.
yes my man Brandon Mitchell had a bad day,know doubt about it right now Tyler is the man,he has a better understanding of the offense,and executes nicely,Brandon needs more reps,he will get there,BUT not to make any excuses i thought Tyler had the most Productive O LINEMEN,AND i was tickled for Jacoby Walker and Brian Bughner,they both looked good at QB,what surprised me is how Bughner came off the bench and so cooley lead the offense on that nice drive.
It was a beautiful day at RRS! Big Robert Thomas will be an IMMEDIATE force on the d-line. Best of all my kids got autographs and were very excited. What a great day.
The Red-White game is a glorified practice, and we can’t read too much into it. If we based last year’s backup QB position on who played better in the first game, Tyler wouldn’t ever have seen the field, and we know he played very well at Auburn. We’ll know much more about our team a few weeks into the season. It was fun to watch the scrimmage on TV, but I don’t think it told us too much that we didn’t already know.
wyohog,
I never saw Red team as being stacked. I think those that did saw Mitchell/Davis and oversold red. I felt the white had the better exerience and it showed.
Glorified Practice on TV = to Regular season game without the violent plays. What you see on the practice field gets transalted to the games. It is football and all Razorbacks; the team I like to watch the most
What I learned?
1) Our offensive line will be in good shape
2) Our defense needs more work, miss tackles, coverage etc.
3) Tyler Wilson will fill for Mallett as a stud
4) Brandon Mitchell hype is overreaching and unfair to him
5) Wingo looks improved; With Johnson it will not be an all Davis show
6) Wright could be positioned for breakout year
And finally the most important of all ( drums roll)
7) ESPN talking heads have fell in love with Coach Bobby Petrino and Fayetteville. Mark May’s slobbering lovefest for CBP was complete 180 from 4 years ago when he persecuted the man and the program. They even talked about how we should have beat OSU. I think we did; but maybe NCAA will give us the game eventually ayway. That was a good program by ESPN and their showcasing of the Razorbacks solidified how far CBP has taken the program. We keep our players on the field (not hurt & out of jail) we could very well be ranked in top 5 by Alabama game, If we win I could see a #1; #2 matchup against Auburn. Our offense might be better and our defense may improve to be top 20.
I agree TexasHog as long as you mean we will be maybe 1 or 2, I dont see Auburn being a top ten team this year.
Texas Hog, you remind me of my sister – she likes to argue just for the sake of arguing. All I said was that we can’t read too much into the scrimmage. Nothing is decided on this one scrimmage alone. There are a hundred things that could change the depth chart in practices. Mitchell had a bad day, and it would be easy to say he won’t help us based on this one performance. But there are about 4 months and plenty of practices for him to learn from his mistakes and get better, just like Wilson did last year after his rough appearance in the 1st game of the season. Just like those that saw this scrimmage as a runaway Red victory were incorrect, looks can be deceiving in an intra-squad scrimmage. I think the defense will be the biggest question mark this year, just as it was last year. And we won’t know if there has been improvement until we play someone other than ourselves. I mean, if the defense had shut down our offense yesterday, does that mean the defense is improved? Or does it mean that the offense has regressed? We won’t know that until we play someone else.
i do think the white team had the better O Linemen,but dont worry to much about readeing this and that in the spring game,i watched LSU,Miss St,and Auburn in their spring games,and nobody looked like a world beater,and Alabama still hasen,t settled on a QB,and even in their spring game they were so so.
rmmr
I concede that Auburn will likely not be #1 or #2. Since they play Razrbacks early they could be undefeated and ranked fairly high? I guess I was reaching trying to get a point across to the Wyoming Razorback.
wyohog
Do you not believe that every fair post is entittled to a fair rebuttal? Quite often I see posts that are off reality and/or belittle other positions or points. When one makes those statements; it should be not viewed as argumental if someone else has a counter opinion, especially if it is laced with facts and not rheteroic.
My friend I can assure you, if you ever saw me, you would not post that I remind you of your sister
See you are wrong again. But I am glad to know that it is more than me trying to help keep you straight 
With that said, I agree with every thing you have said in your last post (Note: last post ONLY)
And to answer your questions:
If the defense had shut down our offense yesterday, does that mean the defense is improved? YES, and absolutely; defense has already shown improvement from last year inclusive of yesteday’s scrimmage.
Or does it mean that the offense has regressed? To this point, offense is about the same or slightly better. Running game and offensive line are factors. At least the Brandom Mitchell noise will subside for a while.
Texas Hog,the Brandon Mitchell noise might be down for awhile,but Brandon will make a comeback,as Coach McGhee said it was kind of deceiving the way Brandon Played in the Red White game,and the way he has been running and throwing Touchdown bombs in practice,Coach Petrino said he thought the crowd might have frayed him a little bit,but he will understand the offense better,and quit stareing down receivers,and start sitting his feet right,YES Tyler is the man now,and if he plays like that most of the time,he will be hard to beat out,got to give it to Tyler he was a cool cookie yesterday.
hogjim,
I agree. Even though Brandon had a bad game, I saw enough good to know that he will be a monster. He should be solid #2; and I suspect he will play more in upcoming year as #2 than Tyler did as #2 to Mallett. I was just trying to put a damper on the view that was forming as if Mitchell should be #1 this year? If he is #1, that means the team is not performing where we hoped we hoped we would be. The scrimmage game confirms to me that we are going to be alright.
Me too Texas Hog,whooo pig soooie.