Football Hogs by the numbers: Arkansas has historical night on both sides of ball in 70-0 season-opening win over UAPB in Little Rock

By Kevin McPherson

LITTLE ROCK – As expected, the Arkansas Razorbacks rolled over in-state foe Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Thursday in the 2024 college football season opener for both schools at War Memorial Stadium in front of a spirited crowd of 40,127 (and with an ESPNU national television audience watching) as the Football Hogs’ dominant 70-0 performance authored plenty of data points that emerged from the contest.

“I thought the crowd, we appreciate the crowd here in Little Rock,” fifth-year Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman said. “We’ve got to tackle better, we missed too many tackles. We did clean up the penalties in the second half. We had five in the first half and came back with one in the second half, so that was good. Cleaned up the crossing route that they hit on us in the second quarter.

“Too many penalties on special teams that we have to get better with that, but I thought, it’s hard to shut somebody out. I thought our defense did a great job with that. The ones, the twos and threes that came in, I thought they played extremely hard. I wanted to keep that shutout, and then to score all ten times that you get the ball, well I guess it’s never been done before. That was really good for those guys. I was pleased with all our quarterbacks.”

From offense to defense to special teams — and everything in between — there were multiple key takeaways from a statistical standpoint, including some historical markers on both sides of the ball …

0 – Total number of turnovers for both teams.

0.3 – Yards per carry for UAPB (23 rushing attempts for 7 yards). It marked the fewest rushing yards by an Arkansas opponent since the Hogs held Texas to 2 rushing yards in an Arkansas win in the 2014 Texas Bowl in Houston.

1 – It took only one offensive possession, the first of the game, for Arkansas to take the lead for good on a 4-yard touchdown run by senior running back Ja’Quinden Jackson at the 12:08 mark of the first quarter. The Razorbacks were perfect for the game, scoring a touchdown on each of their 10 offensive possessions in the contest. That 1:1 scoring-to-possession ratio marked a first in school history, and it was the perfect first chapter for new offensive coordinator / former UA head coach Bobby Petrino.

2 – Arkansas has opened up a season at War Memorial Stadium for the second consecutive campaign counting the team’s 56-13 win over Western Carolina on Sept. 2, 2023, giving the program two (2) triumphs here spanning the past 361 days. The Hogs are 154-61-4 (.703) all-time at WMS.

2 again – The Football Hogs are 2-0 all-time against UAPB, which includes a 45-3 win over the Golden Lions on Oct. 23, 2021, at WMS.

3 – Arkansas won for the third time spanning its last five games going back to early November during the 2023 campaign. Despite finishing 4-8 (including 1-7 in SEC games) last season, Arkansas managed to defeat league foe Florida (39-36 in overtime on Nov. 4 on the road in Gainesville, Fla.) and non-conference opponent Florida International (44-20 on Nov. 18 at home in Fayetteville) while winning two of their final four games of the season.

3 again – Arkansas improved to 3-0 at War Memorial Stadium under Pittman, which includes the aforementioned victories over Western Carolina in 2023 and UAPB in 2021. The Football Hogs did not compete at WMS in either 2022 or 2020 (the latter was a 10-game covid-shortened season that did not include non-conference matchups in the regular season).

3 once more – Senior transfer quarterback Taylen Green’s became only the third Arkansas quarterback to register multiple rushing and passing touchdowns in a single game since 1997. Playing only the first two quarters of the game while helping build a 49-0 halftime lead, Green went 16-of-23 passing for 229 and 2 touchdowns and he broke loose for 88 yards and 2 touchdowns on 6 carries.

7 – The number of seasons it’s been since Arkansas’ defense last pitched a shutout prior to Thursday’s 70-0 win over UAPB (Arkansas won 23-0 against Tulsa in 2018 on Homecoming at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville).

8 – Perfection at WMS (make it 8-0) when adding up the tally for Petrino in games played here as a member of the program’s coaching staff (he was Head Hog for four seasons, 2008-2011.

8.5 – That marks the Hogs’ average yards per carry against UAPB on Thursday, a vast improvement from last season’s 56-13 opening win over Western Carolina when the team managed only 2.9 yards per carry. Nine Razorbacks registered at least one rushing attempt against the Golden Lions as Arkansas had 33 carries for 279 yards and 8 touchdowns (six different Hog rushed for at least one touchdown).

9 – More perfection on offense as the Razorbacks converted all nine of their third down plays into either first downs or scores.

10 – The number of third down plays that UAPB ran, and only one of those was converted into a first down against an aggressive Arkansas defense.

24 – The number of wins Pittman has compiled at Arkansas against 25 losses. He ranks 11th all-time at the school in total wins, and he needs two more victories to tie Danny Ford (26-30-1, 1993-1997) for 10th place and five more wins to tie Bret Bielema (29-33, 2013-2017) and Hugo Bezdek (29-13, 1908-1912) for 9th place. Petrino was 34-17 in his four seasons at Arkansas, ranking 7th all-time in total wins.

49 – Represents the largest points margin for a halftime lead — 49-0 over UAPB on Thursday — since the 2014 Football Hogs led Nicholls State 56-0 at halftime on their way to victory.

83 – That’s how many Hogs got onto the field and competed against UAPB, according to Pittman who said his roster had a total of 92 players who traveled to Little Rock for the game.

96 – You have to go back to the 1928 season — 96 years ago — to find the last time Arkansas had a final winning margin of 70 or more points. The ’28 Football Hogs defeated Rhodes College, 73-0, in 1928.

101 – Total rushing yards to go with 2 touchdowns on 8 carries by Jackson, the Utah transfer. Both of his scores came early in the first quarter, the last on a 46-yard burst up the middle that led to a 21-0 Arkansas advantage. Jackson added 2 receptions for 20 yards.

130 – Total yards from scrimmage for UAPB against Arkansas’ stingy defense as the Hogs limited the Golden Lions to 7 rushing yards and 123 passing yards on 46 snaps.

687 – Total yards from scrimmage for Arkansas — 408 yards passing/receiving by three quarterbacks/14 receivers AND 279 yards rushing by nine ball carriers — on 70 snaps making up 10 total drives that all resulted in touchdowns.