Taylen Green getting better as season progresses

FAYETTEVILLE — Taylen Green is coming off a big game against Mississippi State on Saturday with Ole Miss coming to Fayetteville.

In Arkansas’ 58-25 win over the Bulldogs, Green completed 23 of 29 passes for 314 yards, 5 touchdowns and 1 interception. He also rushed 8 times for 79 yards and 1 touchdown. He earned both SEC and national honors for his play in that game. Sam Pittman talked about Green’s improvement through eight games.

“I think, again, people around him have played better,” Pittman said. “When you run the ball and your play action becomes better and your time to throw the football and get open gets better. But I think he’s just playing really confident right now. I think Saturday helped him, as well. We ran him a little bit more Saturday than what — obviously our plan wasn’t (to run him) against [LSU]. He wasn’t at full, full strength that game.

“I think his confidence is just going up and we’re learning more about what he can do, what he likes to do. But when you said that, I thought there was a couple runs that he hit and then I thought his pass to Jordan Anthony was a really, really good pass there. The fourth-and-2 that he made, that he went 45 yards on, but we got the 2 yards, I thought that was an outstanding play, as well. But I think he’s just playing really confidence because the guys around him are playing even better, as well.”

The Razorbacks had 675 yards of total offense against Mississippi State. The offense rushed for 361 yards. Green talked about what made the offense click.

“I would say just sticking to our game plan and not beating ourselves,” Green said. “A big thing we’ve been talking about is finishing drives, finishing in the red zone. Because we’ll get in the red zone and stall out sometimes. I felt like we did a great job, all 11 on finishing drives.”

Pittman was pleased that Green and true freshman running back Braylen Russell were honored by the SEC for their play on Saturday. Green also pulled in some national honors.

“Yeah, it’s really nice,” Pittman said. “I think they’d both tell you that they had to have blocking, they had to have catching and all of that around them. But getting an individual award, they probably think it’s pretty neat and they’d say that the players out on the field helped them get that as well. But I’m happy for them.”

For the season, Green has completed 151 of 249 passes for 2,056 yards, 11 touchdowns and 7 interceptions. Green has rushed 95 times for 570 yards and 5 touchdowns. Green’s favorite target is Andrew Armstrong, but Pittman talked about when he’s throwing to other players. On Saturday, wide receiver Jordan Anthony caught a touchdown pass. Luke Hasz and Andreas Paaske, both tight ends, each pulled in two touchdown passes.

“How about the two minute drive?,” Pittman said. “I think he went to (Isaac) TeSlaa three in a row, and (Tyrone) Broden’s catching balls that, honestly, he didn’t earlier in the year. I mean, catching it and getting whacked and holding on to the ball and all that. And then now you’re adding in the two tight ends, we’re running some flare screen type passes out to the backs, and everybody’s catching the ball well. And so I think again, I think to his question, I think that really builds up the confidence in the quarterback as well as the protection. But I think it’s a big deal that we can go to six, seven guys, Jordan Anthony catching the football, which he hadn’t done, getting his first touchdown as a as a Hog. So, yeah, I think all those things play into that.”

Arkansas and Mississippi State will kickoff at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The game will be televised on ESPN.