Ole Miss vs Arkansas: Rebels Will Have to Stop Austin Allen to Win
By Randy Morgan
Most Rebel fans know of Brandon Allen, former quarterback of the Arkansas Razorbacks, but there is another Allen to watch for this year.
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A lanky, 6-foot-2 high schooler named Austin from Fayetteville, Arkansas followed his older brother to the local university. His brother, named Brandon, was a quarterback on the football team and Austin decided to join in on the fun.
Last season was Brandon Allen’s senior season and he had a magnificent final season, which including defeating a ranked Ole Miss squad on a miracle play.
Now that Brandon is in the National Football League, it is Austin’s turn to take over the Arkansas football team.
So far this season, Austin Allen 63.6% of his passes for 1632 yards, leading the SEC West. He has 15 touchdowns to 5 interceptions.
The key to defeating Arkansas is to keep Allen from making good throws and keeping his completion percentage down. In the two losses for Arkansas, Allen completed 66.7 and 52.1 percent of his passes.
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While the 66.7% is actually a pretty good outcome, that was the game against Texas A&M where the Aggie defense shut down the Hogs in the redzone.
When playing TCU, Allen completed just 58.6% of his passes, a game where the Hogs snuck away with a victory after double overtime.
So far this season, Allen has thrown five interceptions, but those five were all thrown in two games. He threw two against Louisiana Tech and three against Alabama.
For Ole Miss, Allen is a pretty good matchup. A pro-style quarterback who doesn’t really get outside of the pocket too much. So far this season the Rebels have only played one true pro-style quarterback and that was Jacob Eason, and we all know how that game turned out.
The game is in Fayetteville, so Arkansas has the home field advantage, but for the Rebels to defeat the Hogs they must contain the Razorback offense and keep Allen moving around in the pocket.