Dilfer lauds Petrino’s chess move of sticking to the run in Arkansas win over UAB

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – You could hear the Arkansas fans in the stands Saturday in the first half pleading with Razorback offense coordinator Bobby Petrino to run the ball more against UAB.

But Blazers head coach Trent Dilfer was wanting just the opposite while hoping Petrino – who he lauded earlier in the week as one of the best offensive minds of all time – would just fling the football around.

Instead Arkansas would rush for the ball 38 times for 266 yards while throwing it on 26 snaps for 140 more in what turned into the Razorbacks’ 37-27 win over the visiting Blazers.

Ja’Quindon Jackson rushed 15 times for 147 yards and quarterback Taylen Green had 17 carries for 97 in a game where Arkansas trailed 17-7 early in the second quarter.

“He (Petrino) is everything I said,” Dilfer said. “I kept telling our defensive coaches that you can’t play him until after 15 seconds on the clock. He was the puppet master again. Got them into great looks, has a lot of weapons. He was more patient than he usually is.

“He ran the ball more, which I was afraid of. We wanted this to becoming a throwing game. His patience and them running the football made them virtually impossible to stop when he is pulling the strings like he did and they are running the ball more.”

Green was just 3 of 14 passing for 52 yards in the first half and finished the day 10 of 25 for 140 yards with a near pick six for the second week in a row.

But Green and Jackson, who averaged just under 10 yards a carry, chewed up the yards on the ground.

“He’s phenomenal, but it is not just him,” Dilfer said of Jackson. “He is a very good player, but it’s their run schemes. They run them into the soft part of your defense and they have a lot of different run schemes available to them.

“Their offensive line does a really good job of grasping it. Their players can execute it and now he has a quarterback that is so versatile that you try to stop one thing and the next thing you know, he is keeping it and getting you for 10 or whatever.

“That is what I was afraid of. My biggest fear coming into this game was their run game and him as a runner, not as a passer. Not that their passing is not good, but that is what I feared the most and Bobby did a great job of sticking to it.”

The UAB defense did its best to try and confuse Greenw with different looks than it has showed it in its first two games.

“We changed the pictures on him and that’s why we wanted it to become a passing game,” Dilfer said. “We were really, really hoping they were going and throw it 30 or 40 times. We felt like if we could change the pictures after the snap that we had some pressures that could get home.

“We were rolling the dice that they weren’t going to be stubborn with the run and again Bobby did an incredible job with staying stubborn with the run and when they are doing both, they are going to be tough to stop.

“I mean what did we hold them to – 450? They were like averaging 670. I thought overall we did as well as we could have considering.”

It was an improved performance from UAB (1-2), who had an uninspiring 32-6 road loss to the University of Louisiana-Monroe the previous Saturday.

“We got better going into this week after being at a crossroads after losing that game the way we did,” Dilfer said. “We made the focus on just everybody getting better as coaches and players.

“We definitely got better this week. College kids can improve a lot in a week and so can coaches. We all did. They played better football this week. It wasn’t enough, but they definitely got better and all of our goals are still ahead of us since we haven’t started conference play yet.”

Dilfer, who was a Super Bowl-winning quarterback with Baltimore in 2000 and played in the NFL for 14 years, is in his second season as head coach of the Blazers.

“It sucks to see 0-8 on road and 1-2 this year, but at the end of the day, it’s 0-0 and we have got to go play better football and win games.

“Definitely I want to say again, that we were better. We were not good enough yet, but we got better.”

It was the second year Blazer’s UAB squad played an SEC foe on the road after losing to Georgia 49-21 last season.

UAB quarterback Jacob Zeno was 23 of 32 for 235 yards passing and three touchdowns on Saturday to give his team a shot.

“I thought it was awesome,” Dilfer said. “We played too opponents in the SEC in the best team in the world in Georgia and this team that is going to have a very successful season and he has clearly been one of the better players on the field in both games.

“He continues to impress and I thought the guys around him played really well as well. We made some plays and our running backs ran real hard and our protection was much more sound this week so. We made improvements and I thought Jacob answered the bell well.”

He also thought former Arkansas quarterback and current UAB offensive coordinator Alex Mortenson had a great game plan against the Razorbacks.

UAB finished with 354 yards total offense with 119 off that rushing.

“It was awesome,” Dilfer said. “I thought we definitely stuck to our guns because we wanted to create as many short yardage situations as possible where we felt like we could run the ball.

“They are very good, but we felt like we could be stubborn with the run and pick our spots with the pass and make some plays and that’s exactly what we did.

“But we have to finish off drives in the red zone and it has been an issue since we have been here. That and turnovers are the two biggest things that we have to fix offensively. We are not there yet, but we are going to work on it.

“Definitely I want to say again, that we were better. We were not good enough yet, but we got better.”

Dilfer was intent on gambling early in the game when UAB pulled out an onside kick up after leading 10-0 in the first quarter.

“I wanted to play this thing aggressive,” Dilfer said. “They did show it. They don’t just onside kick to onside kick. There was a vulnerability there. The vulnerability was real and we kicked a little too hard. We wanted to try if we caught momentum, I was going to try and stick with it.

“I thought our defense did a phenomenal job getting on the field and holding them to three. I figured if we could go for that and get it obviously that we could maintain momentum. If you don’t get it and you can hold them to a field goal, it’s not life and death.

“So the thing is that we didn’t execute as well as we wanted to and then our defense did a great job of holding them to a field goal.”

Arkansas put the game away on TJ Metcalf’s interception late in the fourth quarter that happened in part due to defensive lineman Landon Jackson’s tipping the the ball at the line of scrimmage.

“Fourty (Jackson) should get the credit,” Dilfer said. “Fourty tipped the ball. Forty caused that interception. He made a great double move. We had an open receiver.

“Fourty is a great player. I mean a great player. He will play on Sundays for a long time. He makes phenomenal plays and has go-go gadget arms and can get hand on it.”
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There was a scary situation in the game when UAB’s Brandon Buckhaulter had to be carted off with an injury.

“On the field – and I don’t never speak on medical things – but he was moving and he was talking,” Dilfer said. “He is at the hospital now and they feel confident and positive. He is going through some tests, but hopefully will join us on the plane.”

UAB later updated that Buckhaulter was indeed able to fly home with his team.

Photo by John D. James