3^rd quarter

14:07: Randle catches a 14 yard pass for a first down, tackled immediately, but a good job of ignoring the footsteps of the closing defender and hanging onto the ball.

11:34: Randle with great instincts, going deep as the quarterback rolls out to his side, beats his man, catches a high, back shoulder throw in stride for 37 yards before getting tackled.

10:53: Tramain Thomas with another big play, a red zone pick. This guy always makes plays when I watch him. In a weak safety class, I can’t wait to spotlight him to get a better feel for his abilities. His stock could be on the rise.

2:19: Randle open in the end zone, but just overthrown. Made a good effort at it, however.

4^th quarter

12:42: Randle overthrown again.

10:57: Claiborne on Wright, picks it off. He’s having yet another good game. This one was more on the quarterback.

7:58: Randle keeping it up despite a big lead, 15 yard reception.

5:49: Randle almost catches one in the end zone for a touchdown, but catches it out of bounds. Would have been a very tough catch to keep in bounds.

4:26: Jairus Wright catches one short and takes it for 12 yards.

0:00: Morris Claiborne came into this game as a potential top-10 pick as the top cornerback in this draft class. However, this would be Claiborne’s toughest test yet as Arkansas has 3 senior receivers who could get drafted next April, as well as a potential future first round pick throwing them the ball at quarterback.

Claiborne allowed 1 catch in the game, a 20 yard gain by Joe Adams, on a play in which Claiborne slipped. Claiborne almost allowed another reception on the very next play when he slipped again, but a good hit by another LSU defense forced Jarius Wright to drop the pass. Claiborne also had an interception in the game on a deep ball by Tyler Wilson to Jarius Wright. It was a great play by Claiborne which killed any chance of a comeback for Arkansas. The interception was Claiborne’s 5^th of the year after 5 last year. His 5 this year are more impressive because he’s being thrown on significantly less. Last year he was thrown on often with Patrick Peterson opposite him. This year he’s the #1 guy and he’s holding up well.

Claiborne matched up against all 3 of Arkansas’ receivers, Jarius Wright, Joe Adams, and Greg Childs, at one point during the game, but he was on Wright for the most part. Jarius Wright came into the game with 61 catches for 1002 yards and 10 touchdowns on the season. He’s also Arkansas’ all time leading receiver. Wright was held to just 2 catches for 27 yards and a touchdown. Neither of those catches were against Claiborne. His touchdown was over the middle out of the slot for 13 and his 14 yard reception was a dump off against prevent defense late.

This game really helped solidify Claiborne as a top-10 pick and the top cornerback in the draft class. Claiborne now has a pick against Alabama and against Arkansas, LSU’s two biggest games of the season. He also had a kick return touchdown in another big game against West Virginia in West Virginia. He’s played his best football in LSU’s biggest games.

Meanwhile, this game hurts Jarius Wright’s stock. 2 catches for 27 yards and a score was not the type of performance he needed against tough competition to boost his stock. He’s undersized at 5-10 180 and not the most athletic player either. He’s got great stats, but he’s also got a great quarterback and almost a 4^th of his receiver yards on the season game in one game against Texas A&M. Consistency is not his strong suit. He looks like a fringe day 2 prospect at the next level.

Joe Adams, meanwhile, had 3 catches for 35 yards, including that one impressive 20 yarder against Claiborne. A poor statistical game against a tough defense like LSU won’t hurt him as much as it will for Wright because Adams has his athleticism and special team abilities to fall back on. He should get drafted higher than Wright, a statistical more impressive player on the season. Like Wright, Adams has 3 years of good production. He looks like a 3^rd rounder.

Cobi Hamilton actually led Arkansas in receiving yards with on 2 catches, however, 60 of those yards came on one big play. The junior Hamilton will get a chance to be the #1 receiver next season and could have a very good year if Tyler Wilson returns for his senior season. After Hamilton, Greg Childs actually led the way with 3 catches for 40 yards.

Childs is still not 100% after a bad knee injury last season. He once again was not in the starting lineup and though he flashed some of his abilities, he still didn’t play very many snaps and didn’t have a ton of explosiveness when he was on the field. If he gets drafted, it’ll be a mid to late day 3 pick as a flier by a team that hopes he can return to full strength and become the type of player he was last season when the 6-3 Childs got 46 passes for 659 yards and 6 touchdowns in 8 games.

The reason for low receiving totals all around did have a lot to do with Arkansas’ game plan. Arkansas ran the ball on 28 of their 50 plays and that ratio was even higher before they got down big late and had to pass. On top of that, LSU ran 77 plays to Arkansas’ 50, controlling the clock with a good running game and keeping Wilson off the field. Wilson went 14 of 22 for 205 yards, a touchdown, and a pick in the 41-17 loss. That’s actually pretty good considering that his offensive line wasn’t giving him anytime and considering how good LSU’s secondary is. Wilson took 4 sacks, but showed good pocket presence as he could have been sacked 7 or 8 times.

LSU ran on the majority of their plays as well, as is normal for them. They had 46 runs to 29 passes and were able to establish all 3 of their running backs. Quarterback Jordan Jefferson played the whole game, going 18 of 29 for 208 yards, 1 touchdown, and a pick. Considering their conservative game plan, the numbers that leading receiver Rueben Randle put up were even more impressive.

Unlike Arkansas’ receiver, Randle had a huge game, catching 9 passes for 134 yards. He didn’t score, but he was overthrown in the end zone twice and almost made a very tough catch to bring one in from out of bounds. He had half of Jefferson’s completions, 9 of 18, and more than half of his yards, 134 of 208. He showed great physicality and great hands. He was very tough to bring down in the open field and made tough catches all game. He showed a good catch range as well.

At 6-4, his height will be very valuable at the next level. He’s having a very good year with 48 catches for 889 yards and 8 touchdowns on a conservative offense, but he really struggled against tougher competition in Alabama’s Dre Kirkpatrick. He’s had 4 games of 2 catches of fewer so consistency is something he really needs to work on. He has the whole package, but with just one year of good production and lack of consistency, his stock would really prevent from him returning for his senior season and having a good year. If he does that, he could be a first rounder. If he declares after his junior season for the 2012 NFL Draft, he looks like a day 2 pick.

LSU’s game plan was to pick on Arkansas’ weak cornerbacks. They felt they had the advantage against their pass defense with Jordan Jefferson throwing to Rueben Randle and they were right. Arkansas’ secondary is very good. However, one standout from the bunch is Arkansas safety Tramain Thomas.

Thomas was involved with both of Arkansas’ forced turnovers, a forced fumble and a pick. Those 2 turnovers led to 10 of Arkansas’ 17 points, included a forced fumble returned for touchdown. Thomas had 73 tackles coming into the game, including 2.5 for loss, and 6 pass defections. That pick was his 5^th of the season. He’s always making plays when I watch Arkansas and given that this is a weak safety class, I can’t wait to spotlight him. He could grade out as one of my top 3 or 4 safeties in this class after Mark Barron, Harrison Smith and behind Markell Martin.

Arkansas has two other draftable prospects on defense, middle linebacker Jerry Franklin and defensive end Jake Bequette. Bequette has 8 sacks on the season, including 7 in the last 4 games and was gaining some steam as a day 2 pick, but he didn’t have a sack in this game. He was double teamed for most of the night and was part of the reason why the opposite defensive end was able to abuse LSU’s right tackle Alex Hurst for a couple of sacks. Hurst is trying to get drafted so this game doesn’t help his stock.

Against the run was where Bequette really disappointed. Arkansas’ front 7 as a whole struggled to contain LSU’s grind it out run game. They ran 46 times for 285 yards and 3 touchdowns. Keeping up a 6.2 YPC on 46 carries, despite a few sacks, was very impressive. Bequette and the rest of this Arkansas defensive front was getting manhandled by this LSU offensive front. Middle linebacker Jerry Franklin didn’t help his stock at all in this game either, though he did show up with a few nice plays.