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DALLAS (Ticker) -- Clint Stoerner tossed three touchdown passes to Anthony Lucas and No. 22 Arkansas used a dominating defense to open coach Houston Nutt's second season with a 26-0 victory over annual rival Southern Methodist. Stoerner tossed scoring strikes of 28 and 70 yards to Lucas in the first half before the pair hooked up for a 63-yard touchdown in the third quarter. The three TD receptions tied a school record for Lucas, who finished with six receptions for 194 yards. Alton Baldwin had three TDs against Arkansas A&M in 1944 and Texas Christian the following season. The 194 receiving yards rank third on Arkanas' all-time single-game list. Mike Reppond had 204 yards against Rice in 1971 and James Shibest totaled 199 against SMU in 1984. "We (Stoerner and Lucas) read each other like a book," Lucas said. "When they started to crowd me, I told him after the first quarter that he had a great chance to hit me deep and that's what happened on the 70-yard pass play in the second quarter." "It was all a matter of busted defensive assignments," SMU coach Mike Cavan said of the long scoring plays. True freshman Cedric Cobbs added a 53-yard touchdown run with 4:14 remaining in the second quarter that gave the Razorbacks a 19-0 halftime lead. "I saw a huge opening between left guard and the center and then I just broke past the linebackers and before I knew it, there was nothing but green in front of me," Cobbs said. Despite the three TD passes, Stoerner completed just 12-of-29 passes for 239 yards, including only 1-of-11 in the third quarter. "We had four big plays offensively but other than that, we struggled with our game plan," Stoerner said. "Sure, I'm happy that we won our first game, but we certainly have an awful lot to work on offensively." Arkansas outgained SMU 373-175 in total yards, including a 122-35 edge on the ground. Rodnick Phillips, who rushed for 1,000 yards for SMU last season, was held to just 26 yards on 11 carries. The Razorbacks increased their lead in the all-time series to 37-31-5 and blanked the Mustangs for the first time since a 41-0 victory here in 1986. SMU's deepest penetration was to the Arkansas' 30 early in the final period. "First of all, I think their football team resembles a top 10 program and they certainly played like a top 10 program tonight," Cavan said. "As far as how our offense performed, I expected that we would be in for a very tough night and I'm not surprised by anything that happened out there." Today marked Arkansas' first trip to the Cotton Bowl since 1995 and the indefinite end to a series involving former Southwestern Conference rivals. The schools have played every season since 1931, except for 1987 and 1988, when SMU's program was snuffed by the NCAA's death penalty. "It's very important to win the first game and set the tempo for the early part of the season," Lucas said. "We definitely need to get better in some areas of our offensive game. We weren't all that consistent but it was a win and we have to be happy with it." Cobbs rushed for 85 yards on eight carries in his first college game. "It was a great feeling to a score a touchdown like that in my first collegiate game," he said. "It was a good introduction to college football." SMU's Josh McCown completed 9-of-25 for 72 yards with one interception. The Mustangs' receiving corps included two true freshmen in Cody Cardwell and Chris Cunningham. "I missed a couple times and they also had a couple drops," McCown said, "but that is expected when you're dealing with a young group of players. They were very aggressive and kept coming at me and taking a lot of hits is part of being a quarterback." The Razorbacks went 9-3 in Nutt's first season and played in the Florida Citrus Bowl despite being picked to finish near the bottom of the SEC.
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