Arkansas takes double-digit lead at Auburn thanks to 65-yard run
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Arkansas was clinging to a 3-0 lead early in the second quarter on Saturday afternoon at Auburn, and the Razorbacks needed a spark.
Enter senior running back Sutton Smith, who took a handoff from quarterback KJ Jackson, scooted around left end and saw nothing but room going down the left sideline. It was a 1st-and-10 play from Arkansas‘ own 34-yard line, and it ended up setting the Hogs up for a quick touchdown and a double-digit lead.
Smith turned that opening play of the drive into a scintillating one, chugging 65 yards down the sideline untouched until he was tripped up on a touchdown-saving tackle just short of the end zone. The run put Arkansas in the shadow of the Auburn goal line, and 3 plays later, on a 3rd-and-goal from the Tigers’ 2, it was junior Braylen Russell’s turn.
Russell took a handoff and plowed up the middle through the Auburn defense for a 2-yard touchdown that gave Arkansas a 10-0 lead with 11:21 left in the first half.
In a battle between struggling SEC teams who are in dire need of something to build on, it was Arkansas (3-5, 1-4 SEC) that got the jump on Auburn (4-4, 2-4 SEC) thanks to its running combo of Smith and Russell.
Here are both of those runs, 1 a long one and the other a short 1, that gave the Razorbacks some early momentum:
Arkansas settled for a 10-3 lead at halftime, thanks to those 2 runs, but there was a lot of work still left to be done in the second half as the Hogs tried to be the team that gets off the canvas in the battle of 2 teams searching for some momentum on the first Saturday of November.
Thanks to its running backs, Arkansas was halfway to making it happen on Saturday on the Plains.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
