FAYETTEVILLE — Sometimes you wonder why someone is elected captain. I don’t wonder anymore when I see Santos Ramirez play these days or when he stands before the media for an interview. He looks and sounds like a captain.
Ramirez was involved in two big plays that contributed to Arkansas’ 50-43 loss to Texas A&M last week. So he’s not perfect yet, but he’s a solid player. Voted team captain last spring, Ramirez was first to step in front of his teammates in the post-game locker room at AT&T Stadium.
“I just told them not to question why this keeps happening to us,” Ramirez said. “I also wanted them to know that this does not define us.
“The ‘why’ doesn’t matter. It’s just upon us to grind through this season to the best of our ability.”
Why does seem to be the question, though. Why are the Hogs still struggling in the offensive line, giving up six sacks against a team that had only seven in its first three games? That’s supposed to be one of the constants for a Bret Bielema team. He has always produced good offensive line play.
That issue isn’t on Ramirez. He’s a junior strong safety.
As it pertains to him, why are the Hogs still giving up big plays, the same issue as last year?
Ramirez did try to explain the big plays. He was the defender who left wide receiver Christian Kirk on Kellen Mond’s scramble play that turned into an 81-yard touchdown play.
“I turned him loose because I assumed I had inside help,” Ramirez said. “Put that one on me.”
Ramirez was in man coverage for the game’s final play, another touchdown pass to Kirk. The coverage was tight, but Mond hit Kirk with a perfect out throw for a 10-yard TD pass near the sideline.
“Perfect, yes it was,” Ramirez said. “You give that to the quarterback. It was a great throw.”
As disappointing as those plays were to Ramirez, he said he’s learned to move on.
“That used to get me down,” he said. “You can’t let that happen. You have to let it go. You have to have a short-term memory.”
That’s not to say mistakes aren’t addressed.
“We’ve done that in practice,” he said. “But mainly, what we have to control and worry most about is attitude. That’s why I talked to the team after the game. I’m captain. I have to champion adversity. That’s my job and this is my team.
“It’s frustrating, yes. It’s frustrating to give up the big plays. What you have to work on is to be disciplined for every snap. You just keep putting good plays together. Never hang your head and keep going.
“Our attitude has been good this week in practice. You can’t let a loss keep you down.”
Then, Ramirez seemed to step into his leadership role in front of the media. He began to pound a fist into an open palm, then repeated, “Improve, improve, improve.”
Linebacker Dre Greenlaw said there have been minor tweaks in how the Hogs will play in the back end. Greenlaw leads the team with 33 tackles and fellow inside linebacker De’Jon Harris is next with 27.
“We’ve got things to fix,” Greenlaw said of the linebacker play.
“It’s not big things, but you always have room for improvement. As far as the big plays, maybe one thing we are trying to change is maybe for the safeties not to fly up so quickly. Maybe they aren’t going to attack the line of scrimmage as much.”
Safeties will continue to be available in run fits, but perhaps they won’t fly up and make their angles so tough if they are the last line of the defense.
“Like I said, just be as disciplined as possible,” Ramirez said. “I will say that I do feel responsible since I’m a captain. I don’t like to see my teammates get down when things get tough. I just will be an echo of what needs to be done: improve, improve, improve.”
It’s not going to be easy this week. New Mexico State boasts a balanced offense and outstanding playmakers. The Hogs will need to be ready for the 11 a.m. kickoff.
“This is a good opponent,” Ramirez said. “They will require is to stay disciplined in the back end. They have a great passing game with a quarterback completing 70 percent of his passes. They have a great running back.”
Actually, quarterback Tyler Rogers is hitting 65.3 percent. He averages 353 yards per game and has 12 touchdown passes against just four interceptions.
Running back Larry Rose III is an NFL prospect. He’s shifty and strong. He averages 93 yards per game, 5.9 per rush. The Hogs have not handled the run well through three games, so there are concerns.
“You see him make people miss,” said Paul Rhoads, UA defensive coordinator. “He is very talented.”
So far, the Razorbacks seem to have responded well from another tough loss. Arkansas coach Bret Bielema said, “What I’ve seen, they are angry. That’s what I saw on Sunday.”
Defensive line coach John Scott saw some of the same things Tuesday and Wednesday at practice. Perhaps the players took a cue from the coaches. They may have coached a little mad.
“Practice has been outstanding,” Scott said. “Guys are all playing with a chip. Players are practicing hacked off. Coaches are coaching hacked off. We’ll see what happens this week.”
Why doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that the Razorbacks have to get back to winning.
“That’s our focus, winning,” Ramirez said. “We want to get back on the field and get a win, then get on to conference play and get some wins.”
Here are the keys to getting more wins, our top 10 things that need to go right for the Hogs to end a two-game losing streak.
Quarterbacks
This list has grown of late. Yes, Austin Allen is the main trigger man for the Razorbacks. Tyler Rogers is New Mexico State’s guy. Both are fifth-year seniors. Rogers is off to a better start. He’s thrown for 1,413 yards, a 353.2 per game average. Allen is at 502 yards overall with one less game, and is averaging just 167.3 per game.
There are others taking snaps at Arkansas, short-yardage specialist Cole Kelley and running back Chase Hayden. Both Kelley and Hayden added some zip to the offense against Texas A&M. Kelley is the masher, moving the pile with his 6-7, 268-pound frame.
Hayden is a race horse, circling the flanks in quick fashion. That combination worked for five touchdowns in the red zone last week.
Wide Receivers
Things are starting to evolve at this position for the Hogs. Junior college transfer Jonathan Nance came up with two bombs against the Aggies in the fourth quarter, becoming Allen’s “go-to” man in the process. Once a defensive back at Southern Miss, Nance is displaying the skills that made him transfer to junior college for a chance to play receiver.
New Mexico State’s featured receiver is 6-6 Jaleel Scott. He’s got 26 catches - just 12 fewer than the entire Arkansas team. Scott has four TD catches.
The Arkansas Blitz
Arkansas has shown few blitzes so far, with a preference for dropping into coverage more than shooting linebackers. Rhoads said there might be some “tweaks” going forward, but it seems clear that the transition to the 3-4 has resulted in a lot of base looks.
Rhoads said, “When you face running quarterbacks, you don’t blitz as much because that can put your team at risk.” Rogers has some running ability, but is not a big-play threat with his feet as much as what the Hogs have seen the last two games. Might the Hogs bring a few more blitzes?
The New Mexico State Blitz
New Mexico State defensive coordinator Frank Spaziani is all about the blitz. He sharpened his blitz calls during a four-year stint in the Canadian Football League, then perfected them during a 10-year run as a successful defensive coordinator at Boston College.
The Aggies will shoot linebackers, safeties and corners in a multiple blitz package. It should be a challenge for a UA protection system that allowed six sacks last week and ranks No. 125 out of 129 FBS teams in sacks allowed per game.
Tight ends coach Barry Lunney said 2.5 of those sacks last week were on his unit. The Hogs have to keep Allen protected. Bielema said Allen was on the ground “eight or nine times” against the Aggies. That has to improve against New Mexico State.
The Blitz III
The good offensive units look forward to the blitz. It’s a feast of big plays if handled right. Allen knows that. He said his offensive mates have progressed to the point they look forward to blitzes. The key is communication, starting with center Frank Ragnow. Allen said, “Frank Ragnow has got those guys working hard this week in practice. He’s the leader of those guys.”
The wide receivers are excited because they know they are going to get man-to-man coverage and know offensive coordinator Dan Enos has a plan to get them the ball.
"Our coaches have a good game plan on how to pick up the blitzes," Allen said. "We can pick it up. It’s exciting to go against this kind of a defense. We watched the tape of them and they do bring it from a lot of directions.”
It’s a chance to show off some of the screen and blitz release moves built into the offense. The tight end game is built on taking care of blitzes. The Hogs hit some plays against A&M’s blitzes. “We’ve got some new wrinkles, like you saw last week,” Allen said. “We keep getting more guys involved. Whether it’s the tight end screens or some other releases, we’ve got some things for the blitz. What you saw is that a lot of things come into play once we get the run game going. Our play-action is big and so are the screens. The key for us is to keep the momentum going for our offense. We’ve got some now. We stayed on the field more this last game and got some rhythm.”
Special Teams
There was some improvement last week, although the end of the game was ugly. The Hogs gave up a 100-yard kickoff return to Kirk, then allowed an 18-yard return on a sky kick that gave A&M the ball at the UA 49-yard line on the game-tying drive to end regulation. Those two mistakes wasted two great offensive drives that had given the Razorbacks the lead.
Bielema said, “We had maybe four replacements on our kickoff unit. They had played pretty well until those last two kicks.” It’s a unit coached by Scott. He had some expertise there as an NFL coach. Rhoads said, “The shame about it, they had done pretty well on the previous four or five.”
Connor Limpert did not get a field goal try, but was perfect on all of his extra point attempts. Limpert hit a 54-yarder in pre-game warmups, clinching that he was going to get the job for the week after Cole Hedlund had been benched after the TCU game.
If there is anything to note about New Mexico State’s special teams, the Aggies average just 11.6 yards on kickoff returns. There is some danger with the punt return game. Rose, always slippery, is the punt return specialist, but his long on the year is just 5 yards.
Patchwork O-Line
It’s anyone’s guess how the UA offensive line will line up this week after trying several new combinations last week against A&M. Senior Paul Ramirez played both tackle spots in his first meaningful action. He had a hold and a false start, but settled in for a good fourth quarter. There was a hint that another big tackle might be getting close to game ready.
True freshman Dalton Wagner (6-9, 311) hasn’t cracked the depth chart after missing time with a leg injury, but is rounding into form. He could give the Hogs a push in the running game that’s been missing on the outside.
With Ramirez and Wagner available, that might provide an opportunity to get freshman Ty Clary some rest with Johnny Gibson sliding back to right guard. The 330-pound Gibson might be needed against the bigger tackles in the SEC. Clary is 295 pounds. New Mexico State’s tackles aren’t small. The Aggies feature a pair of 310-pounders at the two inside slots in their defense.
Mindset
This is always the delicate matter that head coaches must weigh. When do you push, when do you scale back the heavy work? Bielema has always had a good touch in this regard. It seems like he did both this week. There were some choice words to set the mood Sunday. It was clear that both coaches and players were mad at another loss to A&M, especially after leading again.
Bielema said on Monday, “You can’t allow any part of failure to creep into your program.” But after hitting on the negatives, Bielema switched to the positives in at attempt to rebuild some confidence. He said, “I do think our players were pissed at not being able to capitalize on the opportunity.”
How will the react against the Aggies? Will they still be angry on Saturday? That seems to be the goal: play angry.
Kamren Curl
Arkansas is getting good play at cornerback from true freshman Kamren Curl. He’ll start his third straight game after replacing the injured Ryan Pulley, out for the year with shoulder surgery. Curl was targeted much more last week against A&M than he was against TCU. Rhoads expects that trend to continue.
Rhoads said, “They went after him on the first play and they did a lot of first down calls. He gave up the 50-yard catch, but he was in position to compete for that one. He was targeted by A&M but it won’t be the end of it.”
The biggest play of the game was one that Rhoads was happy with how it was played. The Hogs thought they had a stop on third-and-8 in overtime, but Curl was flagged for pass interference. Rhoads liked the coverage. “If you are doing things right, you encourage them to keep doing it that way,” said Rhoads, careful not to criticize the call by the SEC officials.
Asked specifically if Curl’s coverage on that play was one of the seven busts, Rhoads said, “There were no busts on that play. It was a great play by the defensive back.”
Kevin Richardson’s Return
The Hogs are healthier this week. Nickel back Kevin Richardson wasn’t full-speed against Texas A&M and barely played. A high ankle sprain sustained against TCU is now 100 percent. He’s back in the defensive package and on special teams. He had been in on all four special teams units in the first two games.
Richardson’s return will allow Josh Liddell to return to free safety. Greenlaw said, “Kevin solidifies our defense. He’s a good tackler and a playmaker. He helps us get lined up better. It will be great to get him back. He’s an important player.”
Rhoads said the only time Richardson played against A&M came on the three plays following Mond’s long run that was incorrectly ruled out of bounds. Liddell was kicked in the stomach on that play, so Richardson played the next three snaps when the Hogs forced a field goal. Richardson would have been assigned to cover Kirk throughout the game and Rhoads didn’t think his limited ability with the ankle injury would allow it.