Razorbacks look to correct mistakes against South Florida

LITTLE ROCK (AP) _ Arkansas may have impressed its fans with a 41-14 season-opening victory over Boise State, but coach Houston Nutt found plenty that could be fixed. <br><br>The Razorbacks will try to

Friday, September 13th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

LITTLE ROCK (AP) _ Arkansas may have impressed its fans with a 41-14 season-opening victory over Boise State, but coach Houston Nutt found plenty that could be fixed.

The Razorbacks will try to correct those things and improve to 2-0 with its game against South Florida at 6 p.m. Saturday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.

There are plenty of little things, such as better communication between quarterbacks and receivers. However, two things struck Nutt as big problems _ two botched punt attempts by Richie Butler and long passes given up by the defense.

One Butler punt was ruled a fumble after pressure caused him to miss the ball, and the second was blocked. Then, in the fourth quarter, Boise State scored twice on passes of 17 and 49 yards down the heart of the Razorbacks' secondary.

``I want to see two things,'' Nutt said. ``We need to improve our punt team, which has always been very good. And I don't want to give up any deep balls.''

The Arkansas secondary should have plenty of chances to defend the pass. Senior quarterback Marquel Blackwell has averaged 31 passes in 35 games at South Florida (2-0) and he's thrown 73 passes without an interception this year.

``They're going to come at our secondary because our secondary is supposed to be one of the best in the business,'' cornerback Ahmad Carroll said.

Against Boise State, the Razorbacks allowed 167 yards passing after three quarters and they led 34-0. Broncos backup quarterback B.J. Rhode almost doubled that in the fourth quarter, completing 9 of 15 passes for 164 yards and the two touchdowns.

Carroll said playing against Blackwell and the Bulls' no-huddle offense will force the defense to play better than it did at any time against Boise State.

``We don't really see any trouble spots,'' Carroll said. ``There's just some things we need to work on. We came up with some big plays against Boise State, but everybody knows South Florida has a throwing game. We're going to try to get off some zone curves and go after the quarterback a little.''

Blackwell has led the Bulls past Division I-AA Florida Atlantic and Northern Illinois in the first two games. He completed 67 percent of his passes and he hooked up with former high school teammate DeAndrew Rubin for a 95-yard touchdown in last week's 37-6 win.

South Florida coach Jim Leavitt will get a gauge on how good his team will be this year in the next four games. After Arkansas, South Florida plays at Oklahoma, at North Texas and then at home against Southern Mississippi.

``We've got to get a lot better throughout,'' Leavitt said. ``Some of it is simple and things that are detail-oriented, but we've got to run the ball a little bit better and we've got to get better on special teams.''

Leavitt sounded a lot like Nutt when it came to improvement, but he said it's rare that he's ever satisfied.

``You're always looking to get better,'' he said. ``Will I ever be satisfied? Probably not. You never know. I'm satisfied if we're always getting better.''