Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett threw for 301 yards and three touchdowns in the Hogs’ 44-3 season-opening win over Tennessee Tech.

The junior might put up better numbers Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe when the Razorback offense faces a Warhawk defense predicated on stopping the run.

“You’d like to come into the game and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to go run the ball and do this,’ but they put so many guys down (in the box), that we’ve got to go in and throw the football,” Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said. “We’ve got to do a good job of executing our passing game and taking advantage of matchups, throwing the ball until they remove somebody from the box.”

Louisiana-Monroe had the top rush defense in the Sun Belt last season, allowing just 110.1 yards per contest. The Razorbacks ran for 196 yards against Tennessee Tech, but Petrino said the Hogs’ four running backs needed to produce more big plays.

“It wasn’t good enough, particularly in the first half,” Petrino said about the running game. “I came in at halftime and was not excited about the fact that at that time we had 13 carries for 51 yards, but they did come out in the second half and pushed the defense off the line. We still have to do a better job of creating chunk plays with our running game.

“Our efficiency was pretty good as far as four yards a crack on first down…but we need to get bigger plays in the running game.”

Sophomore running back Knile Davis and junior Dennis Johnson both fumbled on the Hogs’ first scoring drive Saturday. The Razorbacks recovered both fumbles, but Mallett threw an interception, back-up Tyler Wilson was picked off and senior tight end Ben Cleveland fumbled after catching a 6-yard pass. The Razorback defense failed to force any Tennessee Tech turnovers.

Arkansas ranked second in the Southeastern Conference and sixth nationally in turnover margin last year, and Petrino said the Hogs need to flip their minus-three stat line from the Tennessee Tech contest.

“We’ve got to get it switched to where we’re the one creating (turnovers) and we’re the ones taking care of the football,” Petrino said. “We’re lucky we didn’t have more turnovers; we put the ball on the ground two more times, which we cannot have. That’s something that we’ll really concentrate on and make sure we take care of the football.”

The Razorbacks went scoreless in the first quarter and Petrino said getting off to a fast start will be important against Louisiana-Monroe.

“We don’t want to have that difficulty at first,” Petrino said. “We need to come out of the locker room and execute and do things right, right off the bat and make sure that we don’t make critical errors early in the game. We’ve got to challenge our offense to do a better job in preparing to take the field and starting fast.”

The Razorbacks will be making the first of two trips to Little Rock on Saturday.

“Whenever you ask about Little Rock, there’s always a smile on a guy’s face,” Mallett said. “The crowd here is awesome, but there is something different about Little Rock. The whole time you can’t really hear anything.

“They are always loud and know when to cheer. They know when we have the ball not to cheer, and I think that gives us a big advantage.”

Razorback defense preparing for new-look ULM

The Arkansas defense has had to work overtime in preparation for the Louisiana-Monroe offense, Petrino said.

The Warhawks had a bye Saturday and Todd Berry will be making his head-coaching debut for the Razorbacks. Berry served as co-offensive coordinator at UNLV alongside first-year Arkansas offensive line coach Chris Klenakis.

“It’s kind of hard because when they have a new staff, we’ll be preparing for what we believe they’re going to do, but you don’t get to see their players doing it,” Petrino said. “We also went back and made highlight tapes of (Louisiana-Monroe’s) skill guys and what plays they made, so we can study the scheme and the personnel.”

The Razorbacks held Tennessee Tech to just 155 yards and held an opponent to single-digit points for the first time in Petrino’s tenure at Arkansas. The effort wasn’t perfect, but Petrino said the Hogs energy and technique was solid.

“We weren’t aligned correctly all the time and we missed assignments here and there,” Petrino said. “I was really happy with the way we utilized our technique. We have to continue to build on the fact that we played with great effort and sprinted to the football.

“We got 10-to-11 guys to the ball a lot, so we build on the positive and correct the things we need to work on.”

The Hogs last played Louisiana-Monroe in 2008 and had to rally for a 28-27 win in Petrino’s second game at Arkansas, but the coaching change means the Razorbacks will face a different offense.

“I’ve talked to Coach (Willy) Robinson, and he says that they have a lot of different tendencies this year,” junior linebacker Jerico Nelson said. “We need to communicate. We need to look at formations and recognize them faster.”

Tennessee Tech quarterback Tre Lamb completed just 6-of-13 passes against the Hogs’ defense. Arkansas will try to pressure Warhawks’ redshirt freshman Kolton Browning, who will be making his first career start, Nelson said.

“We always try to get the quarterback rattled early in the games, tee off on him if you can and send blitzes,” Nelson said. “Get him nervous, because once he gets a little shaky, you never know what can happen after that.”

Tejada, Hocker shine on special teams

Senior Alex Tejada wasn’t the Hogs’ placekicker against Tennessee Tech, but the Springdale product made his mark kicking off.

Tejada had four touchbacks in seven attempts and his average kick traveled to the goal-line. Arkansas didn’t record a touchback until the South Carolina contest – the Razorbacks’ eighth game – last season.

“He did a really good job in the weight room and he’s bigger than he was a year ago,” Petrino said about Tejada. “He’s stronger. He worked harder on his flexibility and concentrated more on kickoffs than he did the previous summer and off season. That really showed up the first time we did kickoffs in camp, the fact that he was knocking the ball into the end zone. It wasn’t something that just happened the other night; it’s been going on the entire camp.”

Freshman Zach Hocker handled the placekicking duties and hit all six of his extra point attempts. Hocker earned the starting job, despite not being in the competition at the beginning of fall camp.

Tejada and freshman Eddie Camara competed for the job until the Razorback coaching staff added Hocker to the mix midway through fall camp.

“We started off camp and thought it was a two-guy race for that and that Zach would compete for the punter and kickoff,” Petrino said. “He did an excellent job in kickoffs and a nice job punting the ball. I was very impressed with his demeanor and his confidence and the way he carries himself, and I thought, ‘Let’s give him an extra shot to kick extra points and field goals,’ and right from day one he’s done a really nice job.”

Hocker and Tejada would have swapped duties if the Hogs had scored again, Petrino said.

“We went into the game saying we didn’t want to have too many kick-offs by Tejada,” Petrino said. “There was a time a few years back (at Louisville) that we probably had one player kick-off too many times. His leg got sore and he was never the same.

“We had a number in mind and once we hit that number, we were going to switch the two of them.”

Quick-hitters

• Petrino said he was unsure if reserve linebacker Brett Harris and senior defensive tackle Patrick Jones would be available Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe. Both were on the sideline dressed in game jersey and sweat pants during the Tennessee Tech game.

Freshman defensive tackle Jeremiah Jackson saw action because Jones was unable to play, Petrino said. Jackson started fall camp at defensive end, but was moved inside.

“Jeremiah’s a very, very intelligent football player,” Petrino said. “He’s very explosive inside and can use his hands. We felt like with the number of games we have left, we were not going to redshirt him. He did a good job. He was productive when he got into the game.”

• Petrino declined to comment about the status of junior defensive tackle Zach Stadther. The 6-foot-1, 295-pounder wasn’t on the sideline during the Tennessee Tech game and had practiced with the scout team the week leading up to the contest.

“We’ll determine (if he’s available this week) and at some point you’re going to have to understand that I’m going to talk about guys who play and practice,” Petrino said.