FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ starting cornerbacks, senior Dwight McGlothern and redshirt freshman Jaheim Singletary, both had good games in a 56-13 victory over Western Carolina.

Singletary, playing in his first game as a Razorback, was second on the team in tackles with six, including four solo. He also had 0.5 tackle for loss. Sam Pittman said that Singletary played the most snaps of anyone in the secondary.

“We thought him coming in, he was trying for a starting job,” Pittman said. “It’s big, obviously. You have to hit. Man, can you imagine going into the portal and missing on a bunch of guys? And then you’ve got guys that come in here, going, ‘Well, I’m going to play. And I don’t.’ You might have some locker room issues and stuff like that.”

Singletary was a five-star recruit out of Jacksonville (Fla.) Riverside High School. As a senior at Riverside, Singletary, who was rated the No. 2 cornerback in the nation by Rivals.com, had 28 tackles, 21 solo, seven passes defended and four interceptions. At Georgia in 2022, Singletary was limited to three games with no stats.

“There are a lot of reasons to hit in the portal,” Pittman said. “One of them is so they can go out and start for you and play football. But I was really pleased with him. We have to understand, he didn’t play a whole lot of ball over at Georgia. He played, but not a lot of ball. So that was really his first opportunity to play collegiate football and obviously we trust him, because we left him in there a little bit longer and we knew we wanted to look at him a little bit longer. And not having (Kee’yon) Stewart, being suspended from the game, we might have gotten him out a little bit more. We just weren’t comfortable with more at the time than a three- or possibly late four-man rotation.”

McGlothern had a solo tackle, one for loss and intercepted a pass that he returned 16 yards. It’s the second season in a row that McGlothern has intercepted a pass in the opener. Pittman also praised McGlothern for another improved aspect of his game.

“Well, in his tackling,” Pittman said. “He’s a willing tackler now. He hasn’t always been that way, to his credit. The weight room’s helped him with that, as well. But he really baited that throw the other day. It was really cool. He baited the throw and then got it and made a nice return on it. Guys blocked for him. Nudie, he’s very conscious about route progression for the offense.

“He’s very rarely out of position. Sometimes they’ll run a deep route on him and, like any corner, they may get by him for a second, but when he’s in zone coverage and things of that nature, he’s very savvy and I think that’s why. So is Hudson Clark. I think Hudson Clark’s pick was pretty savvy deal. I don’t know how… We’re going to tell him it’s the first game out here next week, too.”

Sophomore Quincey McAdoo is out for the season following a car accident. True freshman Jaylon Braxton had four tackles, including three solo and a pass breakup in the opener. Redshirt senior LaDarrius Bishop added an assisted tackle. As noted earlier, TCU transfer redshirt senior Kee’yon Stewart was suspended for the game, but is back with the team now.