FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas can thank good fortune on fourth down for surviving an upset bid from Louisiana Tech and its freshman quarterback in Saturday's season opener.
Successful fourth-down conversions contributed to two of their touchdown drives -- -- including Austin Allen's 4-yard throwback pass to Jeremy Sprinkle for the go-ahead score with 6:37 left in the game. There was a third fourth-down conversion, coming on Kody Walker's second-effort run on fourth-and-inches at the Arkansas 37 with 1:27 remaining to run out the clock on a 21-20 victory over the Bulldogs.
Arkansas, which came into the game as a 25-point favorite, dodged the upset bug that affected some of its SEC brethren on the opening weekend, winning the kind of nail-biter that eluded the Razorbacks during last year's 1-3 start.