Arkansas Football vs. FAMU: 3 things we learned

No. 2 – Austin Allen needs to shake off the rust

Austin Allen finished this game 14-of-19 passing for 135 yards. He had one touchdown and one interception. In a game that the Razorbacks won in runaway fashion the usage of Allen didn’t really make much sense. The senior quarterback was one of the better passes in the SEC a year ago and appears to have made some adjustments his mechanics. Fans didn’t get to see much of those adjustments.

Arkansas had just 71 offensive plays and 45 of those were run plays. When they did let Allen throw he didn’t venture very far down the field. He hit a lot of check downs and short passes. His lone touchdown pass was one of the furthest balls he threw down field all night. It went 16 yards before it was hauled in by Deon Stewart and it wasn’t a pretty ball through the air.

He was intercepted once, but had another first half pass bounce harmlessly of the chest of a Rattler defender. His downfield passing was inaccurate, and that could pose major problems when Arkansas moves on to play Power-5 competition.  Would it have made more sense to get Allen some more live reps before then? Probably. But when has Bret Bielema ever done things in the conventional way?

Allen did not look sharp in the Hogs’ opener. Failing to crack 150 yards against an FCS team isn’t anything to write home about. It sure didn’t fee like a fluke.