FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema stood at a podium Saturday in the small, stuffy women’s lacrosse locker room at High Point Solutions Stadium and explained why the Razorbacks came armed with what he called “exotic” plays for their game against Rutgers.
Bielema and his coaches wanted to give the Razorbacks a spark and help first-time starting quarterback AJ Derby any way they could in the Razorbacks’ first road game of the season, so they went with some bold play-calling.
“We knew we would have to kind of steal some first downs today in order to be productive,” Bielema said.
They were right.
The Razorbacks stole 24 yards and set up a field goal on punter Sam Irwin-Hill’s pass to deep snapper Alan D’Appollonio in the first quarter. In the third quarter, just after Trey Flowers forced a fumble that was recovered by fellow defensive end Chris Smith, the Razorbacks stole six points when tailback Jonathan Williams took a pitch from Derby, pulled up and lofted a 21-yard touchdown pass to tight end Hunter Henry to put the Razorbacks ahead 24-7.
Arkansas eventually lost 28-24, but the gimmickry folded in neatly with Bielema’s promise to his team that he didn’t come to Arkansas to build the Hogs into a competitor two or three years down the line. While none of the college football experts gave his Razorbacks a chance to contend this season, Bielema told his seniors he wouldn’t treat 2013 as a rebuilding season.
He and his staff haven’t.
“We’re obviously going to have some issues throughout this process as we’re building our team and our identity, and we’ll do anything we have to do to win a game,” Bielema said Wednesday during the SEC coaches teleconference.
“I think every team goes into it with a few tricks here, a few tricks there,” said fullback Kiero Small, whom Williams credited, along with tackle Grady Ollison, for peeling back for key blocks on his touchdown throw. “Coach B’s got a lot of confidence. He called it, and when he called it they executed the play.”
The Razorbacks’ use of tricky also gave players something fun to rally around, unlike last year’s coaching staff, which had little to lose after an upset loss to Louisiana-Monroe in the second week of the season but almost never drew outside the lines with their play-calling.
“I think it’s fun to be under Coach B and him being a little risky at times and wanting to take risks,” said Henry, who also played for Pulaski Academy’s Kevin Kelley, one of the state’s most entertaining high school coaches who is well known for incorporating unorthodox plays into his offense.
“I think it energizes kids that they know you’re going to take a few shots once in a while, and we did that,” said Arkansas offensive coordinator Jim Chaney, who described the halfback pass as one of the easiest calls he’s ever had in his career. “I think the kids knew it was coming and they were energized when they got the call.”
Arkansas’ staff has lined up Small and Alex Collins to take direct snaps from center for Wildcat plays, and they called three end-around runs for Keon Hatcher last week in addition to the other exotic plays.
“A trick play is always nice because it gets the crowd into the game and it gets the sideline into the game,” Hatcher said.
“It definitely brings excitement,” Williams said. “We had just had a touchdown play, so we were already kind of excited. Then we threw the halfback pass and that kind of brought new life to the football team.”
Arkansas nearly parlayed the momentum of its quick strike touchdown through the end of the game, succumbing to a late Rutgers rally in which the Scarlet Knights outscored the Razorbacks 21-0 to end the game.
“It’s nice knowing we have that in our back pocket, but if we would have been doing better we wouldn’t have even needed it,” offensive tackle David Hurd said. “It is nice to see it on film so you can study it and be like, OK, maybe we could tweak it like this or tweak it like that and learn from it.”
Bielema said he has a high standard when it comes to using gadgetry.
“You don’t run a fake or a gadget with the intention to fail,” he said. “You want to be batting 90 percent on those things, and obviously it worked well for us on Saturday. But I think, also, anything you put on film to make your opponents aware of things is a good thing as well.”
Sports, Pages 17 on 09/26/2013