Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Coach Steve Mullins of Arkansas Tech will always remember the long-distance phone call.

A quarterback named Nick Graziano was looking to transfer from the University of Nevada at Reno following a change in the school’s offensive scheme. He was hoping to move to a place where he could play immediately. He was looking for a coach who would let him pass the ball — a lot. Since he was going to be a senior, he also needed a school where he could transfer his engineering credits.

Talk about an engineer.

In his one season as a Wonder Boy, Graziano engineered Tech to a 9-3 record while breaking both the school and the Gulf South Conference single-season passing and total offensive records. The California native passed for 4,313 yards and accounted for 4,768 yards of total offense. He was 333 for 538 passing, completing almost 62 percent of his passes while finishing second nationally in NCAA Division II in total offense and third nationally in passing.

Graziano threw for a school and a state record 38 touchdown passes with only 12 interceptions in Tech’s 12 games.

The Wonder Boys had a 3-2 record after five games, but with Graziano catching fire, they got on a roll that saw them close the regular season with victories over Southern Arkansas, West Georgia, Henderson State, Delta State and Harding.

The 8-2 record was enough to earn Tech a home game in the first round of the Division II playoffs, and the Wonder Boys responded by thrashing North Carolina-Pembroke, 41-13, on a sunny November afternoon in Russellville. The following week, however, Tech fell to conference foe North Alabama, 41-28, on the road. The Wonder Boys finished the season ranked 14th nationally in the D2Football.com poll.

Now, Mullins must rebuild his offense.

Graziano is gone. So are his two favorite receivers, Frantz Simeon and Landon Turner. And there were no surprise phone calls during the off-season.

During the spring, Mullins worked with both redshirt freshman quarterback Rico Keller from New Orleans and junior quarterback James Landry from Belle Rose, La. He’s counting on one of the two Louisiana products to lead the offense this fall.

“Both of our quarterbacks continue to improve,” Mullins said at the end of the spring.

Sophomore wide receiver Roger Jackson from Siloam Springs had five catches for 135 yards in Tech’s spring game. The Wonder Boys should also be solid in the kicking game with junior kicker Jorge Vasquez, a California product.