Chris Marshall beat Tulsa’s secondary. Can he do it to SEC defenses?

Tulsa isn’t Texas A&M.

That’s worth remembering before anybody starts carving Chris Marshall’s name into anything this week.

The fifth-year senior had himself a night Saturday as Arkansas beat Tulsa 34-6 on a wet evening in Fayetteville.

Marshall finished with 195 receiving yards on nine grabs, and one of them found the end zone.

His catches and yards were both career highs. So was his longest catch, a 50-yarder in the second quarter.

It was a good night. It also came against a team from the American Athletic Conference.

That second part matters more than folks might want to admit right now.

What the numbers actually say

Look, the yards count. Nobody’s arguing that.

Depending on who’s keeping the book, 195 yards is either the sixth-best single game in school history or the seventh.

That total bumped Anthony Lucas, whose 194-yard game against SMU in 1999 had held the spot.

Not since Andrew Armstrong has a Hogs receiver topped 100 yards in two straight games.

Arkansas converted eight third downs. Marshall caught four of them.

He also had the two biggest gains of the night, going for 50 and 44 yards.

KJ Jackson kept looking his way. The junior quarterback threw for 309 yards, and his only touchdown pass went to Marshall.

Marshall didn’t make it about himself.

“It’s a blessing to even be back in this position,” he said.

Why Tulsa is the wrong yardstick

Here’s my issue. The Golden Hurricane showed up unbeaten at 3-0, but being unbeaten in September doesn’t mean they’re built like the teams waiting down the road.

They beat an Oklahoma State team in the opener that couldn’t hang onto the ball and wasn’t playing like the Cowboys turned around and did against Oregon.

On a third-and-8 in the opening quarter, Marshall sprinted past a pair of Tulsa defensive backs. Jackson simply gave him a ball to run under.

SEC secondaries don’t usually leave that much room. Not for free, anyway.

The Hogs needed this win in a bad way. The victory stopped a two-game slide. Even bigger, the Razorbacks had come up short in their previous 12 tries against FBS teams.

Twelve. I had to read that one twice.

Beating Tulsa ended a drought. It didn’t start a trend.

Arkansas sits at 2-2 and 0-1 in the SEC. The non-conference part of the schedule is done, and eight games remain.

The Georgia game is the counterpoint

To be fair, Marshall also cleared 100 yards against Georgia a week earlier. That’s a real SEC defense.

But the Hogs lost that one 45-17. Receivers tend to collect yards when their team’s chasing the scoreboard.

Even his coach sees an adjustment coming. “I have a sneaking suspicion that teams are going to start rolling coverage to him,” Ryan Silverfield said.

That’s where this gets interesting. Safeties will drift his way. Some teams will stick their best corner on him.

Silverfield said Arkansas will have answers. Now the Razorbacks have to show them.

Jackson’s trust isn’t the question. “My belief is through the moon with Chris,” the quarterback said.

Marshall pointed to the game plan more than himself. “I feel like we executed to a high standard,” he said.

First stop is a familiar place

The first chance to quiet the doubters comes Saturday at Texas A&M. He’ll be lining up against the program he once suited up for.

The Hogs and Aggies get going at 6 p.m., with ESPN2 carrying the game from College Station.

Silverfield wants the Tulsa win to be something the team can stack on. That’s a fair goal.

Still, one strong outing against a Group of Five team isn’t a season.

Marshall’s talent looks real. His connection with Jackson looks real too.

Whether any of it holds up for eight straight weeks against SEC defenses is a different question.

Check back in November. We’ll know a lot more by then.