It's no secret that spring football is geared towards a defense.
The offense must go against a unit that knows the play calls just as well. That was evident in Arkansas' Red-White Game in Fayetteville on Saturday.
Arkansas' first string defense recorded nine sacks and held the the Hogs' second offense to minus-42 yards rushing. Deatrich Wise recorded five sacks alone in the first half.
“I think (Deatrich) Wise has made strides," Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said. "He is so long that it doesn’t matter how good of a pass blocker you are, if he gets a hold of you he is going to cause problems. The one thing about the one defense going against our two offense is that we had to do some things to protect those guys."
Red, the Razorbacks' starters, posted a 61-22 win over White.
The second team defense didn't make things any easier for Brandon Allen and the Arkansas passing game either. Allen completed just 5-of-11 first half passes for 21 yards and was picked off twice.
Allen responded in the third quarter by completing 7-of-9 passes for 86 yards and a touchdown.
“I was very frustrated with the first half but we said at half thatwe got a clean slate," Allen said. "First half is over with, it wasn’t what we wanted so we came back in the second half and did a lot better. We were definitely more proud of our performance in the second half which kind of got us going in to summer. Ended on a much better note.”
The Arkansas rushing game had far more success as they finished with 252 yards on 22 carries, an average of more than 11 per attempt. Korliss Marshall stole the show in the backfield as he rushed for a game high 99 yards, including a 59 yard touchdown.