FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Taylen Green threw two touchdown passes and ran for two more in leading Arkansas to a 35-14 win over Louisiana Tech on Saturday.
The Razorbacks’ win clinched bowl eligibility, marking the fourth time in coach Sam Pittman’s five seasons the team has reached that threshold.
“To be bowl-eligible four of our first five years here is a lot of fun,” Pittman said. “That’s not the goal of our football team. That’s one of them, though. There’s a lot of power-four teams that are not bowl-eligible after today and won’t get bowl eligible. Some of them are in our league. It is an accomplishment, but not our ultimate goal.”
Green and the Arkansas (6-5) offense took control in the second quarter after registering just 25 yards in the first. He led a 13-play, 80-yard drive to open the scoring with 5:54 left in the half and on the Razorbacks’ next drive, he scrambled for a 41-yard touchdown on 4th-and-3 to provide Arkansas with more than enough.
Louisiana Tech (4-7) didn’t gain more than 20 yards on a single drive until late in the third quarter when Evan Bullock found Eli Finley to cap a 42-yard drive for the Bulldogs’ first score. The touchdown came only after a targeting penalty wiped out an Arkansas interception five plays earlier.
Green, who finished 20-of-37 passing for 221 yards and ran for 61 yards on six carries, scored his second rushing touchdown on the Razorbacks’ next possession. Bullock added a second passing touchdown on a 20-yarder to Jimmy Holiday midway through the fourth quarter for Louisiana Tech’s final score.
Isaac TeSlaa, in his final home game, caught both touchdown passes, his only two catches of the game. Ja’Quinden Jackson scored the game’s final touchdown on a 13-yard rush with 3:01 left.
The Bulldogs finished with 229 yards of total offense and had only 43 at halftime.
“I was most proud of how the defense stayed together early because we were struggling so much offensively. There was no pointing,” Pittman said. “They had 1st-and-goal at one point and got no points out of it, then the offense started getting rolling a little bit more.”
Arkansas struggled to a 4-8 record last season, but Pittman has mostly brought a level of stability in his tenure following back-to-back two-win seasons in 2018 and 2019 under coach Chad Morris. The last time the Razorbacks made bowl games in three of four seasons was when they went to three straight from 2014-16 with Bret Bielema as coach.
Arkansas wide receiver Andrew Armstrong caught eight passes for 81 yards in the win. In doing so, he became the first Razorbacks wide receiver to eclipse 1,000 yards in a season since Treylon Burks in 2021 and only the fifth player in school history to reach that mark. Armstrong’s 69 catches are the most by an Arkansas player since Cobi Hamilton caught 90 passes in 2012.
Louisiana Tech: The loss knocked the Bulldogs out of bowl eligibility.
Arkansas: A victory in the season finale would result in only Arkansas’ second seven-win regular season since 2016.
Louisiana Tech will host Kennesaw State on Saturday.
Arkansas travels to Missouri on Saturday to close the regular season.
____
Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football