10 Things to Know – Rice

Arkansas football opens its 128th season and year two of the Sam Pittman era on Saturday, Sept. 4 at 1 p.m. CT inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium against former Southwest Conference foe Rice.

10 Things to Know

1. - Pittman guided the Hogs to a 3-7 record last year against an ultra-challenging 10-game SEC-only schedule, recording home wins against Ole Miss (33-21) and Tennessee (24-13), and a road triumph at No. 16 Mississippi State (21-14) in Week 2, which marked Arkansas’ first league win since 2017. The Razorbacks were slated to play in the Mercari Texas Bowl, but a COVID-19 outbreak within TCU’s program canceled the game.

2. - Despite dealing with the global pandemic in his first year, Pittman achieved many feats in his first season as Head Hog. He became the fifth head coach to lead the Razorbacks to earn a bowl game nod in his first season, joining Houston Nutt (1998), Ken Hatfield (1984), Lou Holtz (1977) and John Barnhill (1946). Additionally, Pittman was the first first-year coach at Arkansas to win three or more SEC games in his first season since Nutt won six in 1998.

3. - Arkansas returns 73% of its tackles from last season, including its top six tacklers, led by redshirt senior linebacker Grant Morgan’s SEC-best 111 stops. Morgan, who made his first career start in the season-opener against Georgia, garnered Walter Camp All-America honors a season ago. The Greenwood, Ark. product tallied 15 or more tackles in a game four times, the most by a Razorback since 2003 and most by an SEC defender since 2015.

4. - Redshirt sophomore defensive back Jalen Catalon returns to anchor defensive coordinator/safeties coach Barry’s Odom’s secondary after he made 99 tackles last year and was named All-First Team SEC by the Associated Press. Catalon averaged 9.9 stops per game, ranking tied for first among FBS freshmen. He also picked off three passes becoming the first SEC freshman since Tennessee’s Eric Berry in 2007 to post at least 86 tackles and three interceptions as a rookie. The AP honored Catalon with a preseason All-America nod ahead of this season.

5. - Redshirt sophomore quarterback KJ Jefferson takes the reins as the team’s starting signal caller from Feleipe Franks. Jefferson completed 20-of-41 (48.8%) of his passes last year for 295 yards and three touchdowns. He had a coming out party at Missouri, starting in place of Franks and throwing for 274 yards on 18-of-33 passing with three touchdowns and 32 rushing yards.

6. - The Hogs return their leading rusher in redshirt junior Trelon Smith. After transferring from Arizona State and sitting out 2019, Smith ranked 10th in the SEC producing 710 rushing yards (5.3 ypc) and scored five touchdowns in 2020. He also contributed 22 receptions, ranking third on the team, for 159 yards and one score.

7. - Junior wide receiver Treylon Burks returns after leading the Hogs with 51 catches for 820 yards (16.1 ypc) and seven touchdowns last year. Many have called the Warren, Ark. native the best wideout in the SEC and was named to Bruce Feldman’s 2021 College Football Freaks for his 10.75 inch hands. The versatile Burks was one of two FBS receivers last year (along with Florida’s Kadarius Toney) to log 800+ receiving yards and 70+ rushing yards. Played in 20 career games, he is one of seven players nationally to record a catch in every game played (minimum 20 games played).

8. - Season openers have been good to the Hogs over the years as they hold a 99-24-4 (.795) mark when kicking off the campaign. Arkansas has won 13 of its last 14 home openers, outscoring its opposition by an average of 41.1 to 16.1. A 23-10 setback to SMU in 1996 was the last time the Hogs fell to a non-Power 5 team in the home opener.

9. - It has been 30 seasons since Arkansas played Rice, a 20-0 Hogs win in Little Rock on Nov. 23, 1991. The Razorbacks outgained Rice, 437-168 and registered five sacks while holding the Owls to an average gain of 3.2 yards per play. The game was the Razorbacks final as a Southwest Conference member and capped off a stretch of 16 wins in the last 18 meetings against the Owls. Meeting for the 67th time this year, Arkansas is 35-29-3 against Rice, totaling the sixth-most wins against a single-opponent in program history. The last time the two met on the gridiron Michael Bolton’s When a Man Loves a Woman was Billboard’s No. 1 song and The Addams Family, the No. 1 movie. John Madden Football ‘92 released its second game in the series for the Sega Genesis console, introducing a multi-player feature for the first time.

10. - Rice finished an abbreviated 2020 schedule 2-3 with every game played inside C-USA, including a 20-0 shutout of No. 15 Marshall, the Owls first win over a ranked opponent since 1991 (BYU) and first in shutout fashion since 1960 (Texas). Head coach Mike Bloomgren is 7-23 (6-15 C-USA) and enters his fourth season in Houston. The Owls return 10 starters from a defense that allowed 18.8 points per game, the 12th-best mark nationally, and did not allow a score in the first and fourth quarters all season.