Luke Hasz coming off big game against Bulldogs

FAYETTEVILLE — Sophomore tight end Luke Hasz had his best game of the season on Saturday when he caught four passes for 59 yards and two touchdowns.

Two of the catches went for touchdowns. Taylen Green threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Hasz for a 17-7 lead with 2:09 remaining in the first quarter. Hasz later caught a 15-yard touchdown pass. For the season, Hasz has caught 14 passes for 190 yards and three touchdowns. Hasz has battled some back issues this season and also was pleased to see tight end Andreas Paaske catch a pair of touchdown passes on Saturday as well.

“I struggled for a couple games with my back, but now I’m 120% healthy,” Hasz said. “I’ve felt the best I have since I got here, and even in high school. Then Saturday being able to get those two touchdowns, and then, Andreas getting those (two touchdowns), I was honestly more happy seeing Andreas get those touchdowns. It was just a really good day for us as a (tight end) room and as a team. It proved it with how well we ran the ball, and then it helped us in the passing game.”

Two tight ends, Ty Washington and Var’keyes Gumms, have been dismissed from the program since then. That makes for a smaller tight end room.

“We love them, and they’re going to go on and do other things that are going to benefit them,” Hasz said. “But it’s a really big opportunity for Maddox (Lassiter) and all of our other guys, for Andreas, for all of us to step up … We all get the same reps at practice. That’s just how we practice. So it’ll be a really great opportunity for them to step up. We’re excited and headed in the right direction.”

Offensive guard Josh Braun said everyone on that side of the ball benefits from getting reps in Bobby Petrino’s scheme.

“Yeah, I totally agree with that because there are so many checks and things,” Hasz said. “It all starts with the quarterback, but it starts with us too on some plays, so being able to have these games under our belt and have experience with what looks we’re going to get has helped us as an offense. And the receivers in the passing game, knowing like when we should break and all kinds of stuff, it’s going to start paying off and we’re starting to gel together because we have games under our belt.”

Green had an 8-yard touchdown run on Saturday where he stayed in bounds and just left Mississippi State defenders missing him. Hasz was impressed but not surprised.

“I mean, as soon as he got here, really our first scrimmage, you could tell that he was going to be able to make those plays for the whole entire year,” Hasz said. “With his knee, he’s a really tough guy. It just shows that he’s willing to get inside for treatment and take care of his body so he can be able to play with us, because he didn’t miss a day of practice after he got hit. It just shows his testament to his body and especially to us as an offense.”

It seems Green is much more comfortable in the offense the past 2-3 games. Hasz has noticed that as well.

“I think he’s, like we talked about earlier, we’re all getting more experience in the offense and he’s really trusting his offensive line and he’s making plays when he needs to,” Hasz said. “As you guys can see, he can get out of the pocket and run and be dangerous. He’s just going to get better and better, and it’s exciting knowing that he still has another year if he wants to take it.” 

The tight ends were a big part of the offense this past Saturday. But that hasn’t been the case in all games this season. Has it been frustrating for the tight ends to not get as much catches as probably expected?

“Not really, because all we can do as a tight end room is just put wins on tape for receiving stuff, and that’s what we’ve been doing at practice and just trusting Coach Petrino and his plan,” Hasz said. “At the end of the day it’s about us winning games, and if he wants us to go in there and block then we’ll go in there and block. If he wants me or any of the other tight ends to get out and run routes and catch balls and be explosive we’ll do that too. The big thing was just trusting and not letting anything frustrate you because if you do that it’ll ruin your game.”

While at times the passes haven’t come their way, the tight ends continue to take pride in their blocking. They know against Ole Miss that will be very important.

“I think we’re going to be a factor for blocking them,” Hasz said. “Coach Petrino has some good stuff in the gameplan for us, just a lot of stuff I probably can’t talk about but it’ll be exciting just to go out there and perform with what we have been practicing.”

A familiar face on the Ole Miss defense is linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul. He played at Arkansas until this past offseason when he transferred to Oxford.

“He’s having a really great year, and last year when he was here, he was a great teammate for us,” Hasz said. “Just the way he practiced and plays there’s not many people who do it like him so it’ll be exciting to go against him this Saturday.”

Arkansas and Ole Miss will kickoff at 11 a.m. on Saturday and televised on ESPN.