HawgBeat - Freshman drama headlines aftermath of Arkansas' loss to Missouri
The Arkansas Razorbacks football program's dysfunction reared its head on social media following the loss to Missouri.
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Following Arkansas Razorbacks football's embarrassing 48-14 home loss to No. 10 Missouri on Friday, the program's dysfunction reared its ugly head on social media.
Backup freshman quarterback Malachi Singleton's mom, Margaret, tweeted some interesting things after her son didn't see any playing time during the blowout loss in the Battle Line Rivalry.
A former four-star prospect from Kennesaw, Georgia, Singleton enrolled early with the Razorbacks in hopes of seeing some potential playing time as a backup to KJ Jefferson.
Instead, he was beaten out by Jacolby Criswell — who completed 12 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown in the loss to the Tigers.
Singleton was heavily recruited by the Gus Malzahn-led Central Florida Knights, but they ultimately fell short to the Hogs. Her comments are made even more interesting because of the history Malzahn shares with the Arkansas program. Malzahn was head coach of Springdale High School from 2001-05 before being named Arkansas' offensive coordinator in 2006.
Unfortunately for the Arkansas football program, some players made their opinions known on social media following the game as well.
As seen in the tweet above, Arkansas freshman wide receiver Davion Dozier commented "spots open?" on an Instagram live hosted by Missouri wide receiver Luther Burden following the matchup.
A four-star recruit out of Moody, Alabama, Dozier has played sparingly this season. In three made appearances, he caught one pass for 14 yards and a touchdown.
It wasn't just a freshman voicing his displeasure, as redshirt junior linebacker Jaheim Thomas made an interesting cryptic now-deleted tweet after not seeing any playing time against Missouri until the third quarter.
Who knows what he had in mind with emoji, but anyone can read between the lines and imagine how displeased he is after seeing little playing time during the Razorbacks' last two games.
It's completely understandable too, as Thomas leads the Hogs with 90 total tackles to go along with 6.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks this season — including three tackles against Missouri. Head coach Sam Pittman talked about his lack of playing time following the loss.
"Well, Jaheim’s done a nice job," Pittman said. "He obviously had some tackling problems, things of that nature. Not (un)like anybody else, but to be perfectly honest with you, I think (Antonio) Grier just played a little bit better when he was in there and he played better in practice when he was there. Jaheim’s got a strong future here. It wasn’t injuries or anything like that. It was just I think we felt like Grier was playing a little bit better."
The social media posts do nothing to help the outlook of Arkansas' program. After finishing the year with a 4-8 (1-7 SEC) record, Pittman has a lot of work to do to get the fans back on his side.
With a crucial offseason coming up, be sure to follow The Trough for daily updates on the Razorbacks' offensive coordinator search and the recruitment of the NCAA transfer portal.
