Arkansas quarterback sets marks against Bulldogs

By STEPHEN CALDWELL

For the AJC

Ryan Mallett came to the University of Arkansas with the promise of giving the Razorbacks a deep-strike threat, and the sophomore transfer delivered for the second consecutive game.

Mallett made his SEC debut Saturday night at Reynolds Razorback Stadium with a hot start against Georgia, and finished with a school-record for passing yards (408) and touchdowns (five) in a 52-41 loss to the Bulldogs.

“We lost,” Mallett said, shrugging his shoulders at the record-setting night. “I don’t care about [records]. That was a good football game for four quarters. We weren’t able to pull it off, and that hurts.”

The old record of four touchdown passes had been held by six different players, most recently by Casey Dick in 2007 against Mississippi State. Clint Stoerner held the previous school record for passing yardage with 387 against LSU in 1997.

This was Mallett’s first loss as a starter in college. He went 4-0 in starts for Michigan in 2007, then transferred to Arkansas and sat out last season. He earned the starting quarterback job in the spring and looked impressive in the Hogs’ non-conference 48-10 win over Missouri State. He completed his first nine attempts and finished 17-of-22 for 309 yards and a touchdown in that game.

Georgia figured to provide a stiffer challenge for Mallett and the Razorbacks, but he burned the Bulldogs with big plays from the very first snap — a play-action pass to tailback Michael Smith for 18 yards.

Mallett went on to complete 6 of 9 passes in the first quarter for 161 yards and three touchdowns. Three of those completions were for at least 30 yards.

His first touchdown pass, an 18-yard strike to receiver Joe Adams, put the Hogs up 7-0 and made Georgia pay for a fumble on a punt return.

After the Bulldogs tied it, Arkansas used a reverse on a kick-off return to get to the Georgia 48, and Mallett immediately went deep to sophomore Jarius Wright on a post pattern to put the Hogs up 14-7.

Mallett and Greg Childs connected for 36 yards on Arkansas next possession, but Mallett fumbled while under pressure two plays later, and Kade Weston recovered for the Bulldogs.

When Arkansas recovered a Richard Samuel fumble later in the quarter, however, Mallett put together another one-play drive with a 30-yard pass to a diving Childs for a 21-10 Razorbacks lead.

Childs, who finished with five catches for 140 yards, had four catches of 30 or more yards, including a nifty 40-yard reception on Arkansas’ first drive of the second half. Childs outjumped Brandon Boykin at the Georgia 20 and then eluded him to the 1 and fought him across the goal-line for a touchdown that put Arkansas up 28-27.

Mallett found five different receivers for passes of at least 18 yards, and Childs, Wright and D.J. Williams all had catches of at least 40 yards.

“We’ve got some playmakers,” said Mallett, who was 21-of-39 passing and didn’t throw an interception. “If we keep getting them the football were going to win a lot of games.”

Despite Mallett’s record-setting performance, both he and coach Bobby Petrino saw room for improvement for the offense. For starters, the Hogs rushed for only 77 yards on 24 carries, and Mallett had stretches were was off-target. In the fourth quarter, Mallett completed only 2 of 10 passes for 29 yards.

“We did some good things on offense, particularly early,” Petrino said. “The thing we’ll learn is that when you have a shootout like that you can’t take a play off. Ryan played really well, but he had a couple of plays where his focus wasn’t there. I thought he played well. He gave us a chance to win. He showed he can really throw the ball.”