LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Taylen Green, a transfer quarterback from Boise State, led unranked Arkansas to seven first-half touchdowns on seven possessions, and Arkansas cruised to a 70-0 win over FCS-level Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Thursday night.
Green had 219 yards passing in his one half, going 16-for-27 and two touchdowns. He ran for 88 yards on six carries and two touchdowns, including a 36-yard sideline-to-sideline scramble that ran Arkansas’s lead to 49-0 by halftime.
“We’ve seen him at practice and we thought he’d play like he did,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman said of Green. “We didn’t know how well he would run. We knew he was fast, but we just hadn’t seen it. But that broken-field play, running from one side of the field to the other, that was a hard run because he had to come all the way across, and he had the speed.”
Arkansas’s new offensive coordinator, Bobby Petrino, the Razorbacks’ head coach from 2008-2011, called on many of the passing routes familiar to Razorbacks fans from his previous stopover. Along with Green’s passing, the Hogs gained 279 yards rushing, 215 in the first half. Ja’Quinden Jackson, a portal transfer from Utah, had two rushing touchdowns and gained 101 yards on eight carries. He also had two receptions for 20 yards.
Green found nine different Hog receivers for completions in the first two quarters.
Tyrone Broden had a 9-yard scoring reception from Green, and Ty Washington made a fingertip grab of a soft lob from Green for 23 yards to score. Rodney Hill, another newcomer to Arkansas from Florida State, scored on a 4-yard run.
Razorback backups took over as the teams played 10-minute quarters in the second half. Braylen Russell scored on a 9-yard run, quarterback Malachi Singleton ran in from 4 yards, and Tyrell Reed Jr. plowed through for a 4-yard scoring run in the final minute.
“To score all 10 times, it’s never been done before (at Arkansas),” Pittman said. “I thought our running backs ran really hard. I think Ja’Quinden Jackson proved he can run over you, he can make you miss, he also caught a nice ball out of the backfield.”
Mehki Hagens completed 11 of 23 passes for 123 yards for UAPB. Kristian Gammage had three catches for 21 yards.
THE TAKEAWAY
Arkansas of the FBS Southeastern Conference simply had too much depth and talent for a Southwestern Athletic Conference team picked near the bottom of its FCS league’s West Division. Arkansas scored touchdowns on all 10 possessions, had no turnovers, amassed 687 total yards and had 34 first downs to UAPB’s 10, and in the first half only had to drive on average 61 yards for its scores, including a pair of 40-yard drives. UAPB didn’t give Arkansas anything, though, never turning the ball over and committing one fewer penalty. The win was Arkansas’s largest over any opponent since a 73-0 win over Rhodes College in 1928.
DOMINANT DEFENSE
Arkansas had four sacks of UAPB’s Mehki Hagens for 40 yards in losses, and the Golden Lions managed just 7 yards rushing. UAPB crossed midfield twice in the first half, and its deepest penetration of the game reached the Razorback 27-yard line in the fourth quarter before two penalties and a 13-yard sack of Hagens set the Lions back to their 45.
LINEUPS REQUIRED
It’s understandable if the 40,127 fans at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock were looking for lineup cards with all the new faces on Arkansas’s roster. The Razorbacks, with 55 players added since the end of last season, featured a rebuilt offensive line with four new starters, a new quarterback starting an opener for the first time in three years in transfer Taylen Green, and a new starting running back in transfer Ja’Quinden Jackson. Eight of the nine players who had rushing attempts were new to the Arkansas program, yet the running game accounted for an 8.5 yards per rush and 279 yards, a noticeable improvement from last year’s opener here versus FCS Western Carolina, when the Hogs averaged 2.9 yards per carry.
All three Arkansas quarterbacks on Thursday night were seeing their first action with the Hogs. Freshmen backups Malachi Singleton and K.J. Jackson combined to complete 12 of 14 passes for 179 yards. Also, 14 UA receivers caught passes.
DOUBLE DEALING
Taylen Green, who spent his first three years at Boise State before entering the transfer portal and arriving at Arkansas, became only the third Razorback quarterback since 1997 to rush for multiple touchdowns and pass for multiple scores in the same game.
UP NEXT
Arkansas moves into FBS competition on Sept. 7, traveling to Stillwater, Oklahoma, to meet Oklahoma State in an 11 a.m. game (ABC-TV).
Arkansas-Pine Bluff makes its home debut against NAIA school Arkansas Baptist College on Sept. 7.
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