Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Quiz Arkansas offensive players about what they hope to get out of Saturday’s game with Missouri State and the answers given are fairly generic. Quarterback Tyler Wilson is zero — and I mean, ZERO — help.

“It's our job to come out and be crisp and execute the way we can execute.” Wilson told reporters earlier this week. “We have to go out and do what we can do.”

Initial reaction: Gee, thanks for the insight, Tyler.

Execute. Score more than the other team. Blah. Blah. Blah.

Upon further review, though, maybe there’s more to Wilson’s statement than what appears on first glance. He’s not being intentionally vague with his answer.

Think about it. What exactly does this offense do?  

Until we see the 2011 Razorbacks in action for a game or two, strengths and weaknesses of this group will be up for debate. Even with six offensive starters returning, things have changed and the offense will have a different feel than the one that stretched defenses with deep passes and outside running a year ago.

Arkansas meets Missouri State at 6 p.m. Saturday with a quarterback who hasn’t started a game since 2007, his senior year at Greenwood High. Major pieces of the offensive line and D.J. Williams, the best tight end in the country in 2010, have departed. Leading rusher Knile Davis is out for the season with a broken ankle. The go-to for goal-line/short-yardage situations, Broderick Green, is out as well.

Replacing last year’s key contributors are guys with vastly different skill sets than their predecessors, something I’ll detail further in a bit. Even Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino seems intrigued by the possibilities.

“We’ve got to get in a game, get in a couple games and find out what it is we do well, who we believe in, where we’re going to run the ball, how we’re going to get the ball to our playmakers,” Petrino said.

Not that Petrino doubts his team.

Petrino and staff recruited and coached these players. They have helped develop them with an assist from the strength and conditioning staff and hours of film study.