Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Kody Walker no doubt looks like a guy who could get tough yards for Arkansas on the ground. He’s 6-foot-2 and somewhere in the neighborhood of 245 pounds.

Walker plowed his way to a couple one-yard touchdowns runs against Missouri State in Arkansas’ 51-7 victory to open the season. That seemed to suggest he was can be the answer on the goal line and perhaps short-yardage situations.

Right, Coach Bobby Petrino? Walker is the guy? 

“Ehhh… He was tonight,” Petrino said with a shrug immediately following the game.

Don't take that as any disrespect to Walker. Petrino was — in his own way — reminding folks not to read too much into what we saw from the running game against Missouri State. Good or bad, this game was in no way an accurate representation of what No. 14 Arkansas (1-0) is capable of on the ground.

Walker’s success is a guarantee of nothing as the degree of difficulty increases for the Razorbacks. They’ll stair-step up to tougher opponents each week until taking a huge leap up to Alabama in Week 4. Walker might or might not be the guy for short yard carries in what figures to be a Top 10 matchup that gets the coveted 2:30 p.m. CBS kickoff.

Likewise, the Razorbacks’ 102 net rushing yards shouldn’t be an indictment on the ground game. Take out lost yardage for sacks and Arkansas’ running backs averaged 4.5 yards per carry, which still seems like a modest total against a team from the Football Championship Subdivision.

Ronnie Wingo Jr. averaged 3.9 yards per carry and netted a mere 43 yards.

Wingo’s production doesn’t guarantee success or failure this season any more than his 9.4 yards per carry against Tennessee Tech determined the type of 2010 he had.

Are the totals worth noting, especially when considering the Razorback have two inexperienced tackles and no Knile Davis? Sure. But these numbers are not an outright guarantee that doom, gloom and the Liberty Bowl await.

Don’t take my word for it. Here’s what Petrino had to say:

“Offensively, I feel like we need to run the ball better. But in the same respect, we didn’t call a lot of runs. I’m not patient enough to just sit there and keep calling runs when you’re seeing what you’re seeing out there on the field. I say, ‘Just throw it. What am I doing? Just throw the ball.’ And we threw the ball at a very high percentage and made a lot of plays throwing the football. So it’s just a matter of continuing to work hard at the running game, call more runs.”