FAYETTEVILLE — It took the Arkansas soccer group some time to get up Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. 

The Razorbacks discovered themselves in a struggle with 37.5-point underdog Kent State nicely into the second half earlier than pulling away for a 28-6 victory in entrance of an introduced crowd of 73,173. 

Arkansas improved to 2-0, however not with out pink flags heading into its first game in opposition to a Power 5 opponent, BYU of the Big 12, subsequent Saturday night time. 

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Arkansas coach Sam Pittman advised SEC Network after the game. “[First-year Kent State coach Kenni Burns] had them prepared better than I had ours prepared. They played better than we did today and we were fortunate to win.” 

The Razorbacks struggled for a while offensively against a defense that allowed 723 yards the week before at Central Florida. Even with the return of veteran left guard Brady Latham, Arkansas’ offensive line had difficulty creating lanes for a running game that was without All-SEC back Raheim Sanders. 

Quarterback KJ Jefferson put the offense on his back with a dual-threat performance that included 136 passing yards and 48 rushing yards, and numerous timely plays. Jefferson threw a pair of touchdown passes to Andrew Armstrong. 

“We needed to run him in the present day as a result of if we didn’t, we’d have been in large bother,” Pittman said. “We needed to run him to win. The plan was not to try this, so we’ve obtained to do higher up entrance, higher at wideout and…our backs have gotten to run higher. That all goes again to me and I’ve obtained to get it mounted.” 

Rashod Dubinion’s 1-yard landing run with 5:50 remaining within the third quarter gave the Razorbacks their first multi-score lead at 21-6. It capped a 12-play, 91-yard drive that just about doubled Arkansas’ offensive manufacturing to that time. 

The Razorbacks had solely gained 112 yards on 26 offensive snaps when the drive started at their very own 9-yard line. 

Jefferson accomplished 4 of 4 passes for 55 yards and likewise rushed 4 instances for 27 yards on the drive, together with an 18-yard scramble on third-and-2 from the Arkansas 30. 

Jefferson hit Jaedon Wilson for 31 yards down the precise sideline on the following play, and accomplished consecutive passes of three and 12 yards to Isaac TeSlaa later within the drive to arrange first-and-goal on the Kent State 5. 

Dubinion scored out of a three-back look two performs later. 

Arkansas went forward 28-6 on Jefferson’s 9-yard landing move to Armstrong to finish a 15-play, 73-yard drive with 10:16 remaining. The drive lasted 7 minutes, 54 seconds. 

A 3-yard quarterback keeper by Jefferson on fourth-and-2 from the Kent State 44 saved the drive alive. He transformed third-and-8 moments later with a 10-yard move to tight finish Luke Hasz, and the Golden Flashes have been flagged for move interference on a deep move to TeSlaa to arrange a primary down on the 12. 

Kent State quarterback Michael Alaimo hit Trell Harris for a 31-yard achieve to the Arkansas 2 on the following drive, however the Golden Flashes failed to attain on three snaps from the 1. Gavin Garcia’s fourth-down run resulted in a 4-yard loss as defensive ends Landon Jackson and Trajan Jeffcoat crashed by the offensive line. 

The Razorbacks’ defensive entrance created havoc for the Golden Flashes and completed with seven sacks and 11 tackles for loss. Kent State was held to 200 complete yards — together with 26 speeding yards on 36 makes an attempt — and with out a landing for the second consecutive game. 

“We did a lot of things that were better today,” Burns mentioned. “[We] didn’t win. Obviously we want to win the games — that’s why we play — but I’m encouraged with how we played. They had a tough week of practice and they came out and they responded.”

Arkansas took possession with 6:05 remaining and by no means gave the ball again to Kent State. The Razorbacks rushed 11 instances for 61 yards to expire the clock. 

After a gradual begin, Arkansas completed with 172 speeding yards on 45 makes an attempt. Jefferson accomplished 13 of 19 passes and the Razorbacks had 308 yards total. 

Arkansas is averaging 343.5 yards by two video games. 

Coming off of a 43-point victory over Western Carolina to open the season, the Razorbacks appeared to sleepwalk by a lot of the primary half — an uninspired begin in opposition to a Kent State group that misplaced its opener 56-6 at UCF. 

“We have no excuses,” Jefferson mentioned. “We’ve just got to lock in to the details and execute the game plan, and come out with an edge and play with passion from the start. We kind of did that second half, with a chip on our shoulder, with an edge to want to go and pull this thing out…and get the victory. 

“But I really feel like we have got to return out with an edge, with a chip on our shoulder early on within the game to go and set that tempo and set the usual.”

The Golden Flashes controlled possession early and took a 3-0 lead on Andrew Glass’ 48-yard field goal with 3:24 remaining in the first quarter. 

Arkansas’ first two offensive drives resulted in 21 yards, but the Razorbacks took the lead for good with 1:12 left in the first quarter when linebacker Antonio Grier perfectly timed a jump at the line of scrimmage to intercept Alaimo. Grier, a South Florida transfer who was playing his first game at Arkansas, returned the interception 25 yards for a touchdown.

It was the second defensive touchdown in as many games for the Razorbacks, who had an 85-yard interception return by Brad Spence in the opener. Arkansas did not return any interceptions for a touchdown the previous two seasons, and the Razorbacks recorded pick-6 scores in back-to-back games for the first time since 2016.

Glass added a 38-yard field goal with 6:29 left in the second quarter to cut the Razorbacks’ lead to 7-6. Arkansas responded with an 8-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a 5-yard touchdown pass from Jefferson to Armstrong to give Arkansas a 14-6 halftime lead. 

The Razorbacks nearly botched the scoring opportunity that was set up after Jefferson hit TeSlaa with a 36-yard deep ball to the Kent State 9. 

AJ Green followed with consecutive 4-yard runs and appeared to possibly score on the second carry. Indecision followed on the Arkansas sideline, which led to a delay of game penalty that backed the Razorbacks up from inside the 1 to outside the 5. 

On third-and-goal, Jefferson dropped the snap from center Beaux Limmer, but had time to pick up the ball and look upfield. He found Armstrong alone in the back of the end zone. 

The Razorbacks’ offensive struggles continued into the third quarter when Dominique Johnson was tackled for a 2-yard loss on fourth-and-1 from the Arkansas 34. 

That set up a short field for Kent State, but Alaimo was sacked for a 15-yard loss by Jackson on third down to knock the Golden Flashes out of Glass’ field-goal range. It was one of four times Alaimo was sacked on third down. 

Arkansas scored on its next two drives and never looked back.

“It’ll be a superb wake-up name for us,” Pittman said. “We talked all week about not needing a shock, not needing to be awoke. But we obtained awoke. We’ll be able to play subsequent week.”