Arkansas’ defense will vie to make things hairy for its opposition this season. But it will have to muster that mayhem without Willy Robinson’s mustache.

Robinson, the first-year UA defensive coordinator, looked more like Sam Adams than Yosemite Sam during his press conference at Arkansas Football Media Day Tuesday at the Broyles Center.

Robinson shaved off his unruly, Wild West mustache and modeled his clean, sleek new look Tuesday while giving an assessment of his defense’s progress entering summer practices.

“ I didn’t fit in with my mustache and I miss my mustache, ” Robinson said. “ But I didn’t have that look... the honest answer why I shaved it off is that I wanted to stay one step ahead of the posse. ”

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While Robinson’s comment drew laughs from the audience, his words were serious and sincere. Robinson talked about towing the party line and about making sacrifices for the good of the team. Buzzing his beloved mustache helped lend credibility to his message.

“ It’s about projection and image, ” Robinson said. “ I wanted to conform to that image we’re trying to project. I wanted to be in line with we’re about as a coaching staff. ”

What Robinson’s 4-3 defense is about is a diverse array of blitzes and zone coverage, which Arkansas hasn’t seen much of recently.

Robinson said this year’s defense has the potential to develop into a stout unit but much improvement is still necessary to meet that objective.

“ We’re way ahead of where we were at the end of spring and we’re where we need to be, but still a long way to go, ” Robinson said. “ The biggest area we need to improve in is taking away the deep ball and the cheap yards. ”

That is the primary task of the secondary, which is continuously adapting to Robinson’s defensive philosophies. Robinson employs a hefty mixture of zone coverage in his 4-3 scheme, a much different method than former defensive coordinator Reggie Herring. Herring put his corners on islands with incessant man coverage.

Robinson has his secondary and linebackers playing in the zone. But Robinson said to master his new schemes, it will take more than haggardly pacing through the motions.

“ We could be good but I won’t say great, ” Robinson said. “ We walked out on the field on the first day like we were just trying to get through it and it was not up our expectations on this football team. ”

The expectations were high for cornerback Isaac Madison, who impressed Herring last season. Madison, a sophomore, said the biggest transition this offseason has been adjusting to more complex and frequent zone coverages.

“ You’ve got to pass your man on to the next guy in his zone and that takes trust and communication to get it right, ” Madison said. “ Used to, it was ‘ I got him, he has him, you get him. ’ Now you have to communicate with your teammates and know a little bit about everyone’s responsibilities to understand the whole concept of what we’re trying to do and how everyone has a part and they have to execute it.

“ Everyone has to be on the same page and know instantly who has who in what situation. ”

Senior cornerback Jamar Love said the secondary has developed a much stronger bond amid the transition in stratagems.

“ We talk about different scenarios all the time, ” Love said. “ All the secondary talks a lot about it and we all talk about different things happening and who covers who in those situations. We’re talking about this after practice, before practice. We’re all pretty excited about having different roles and responsibilities. ”

The new coverage scheme has forced the linebackers and secondary to boost their communication on and off the field.

“ You’ve got to let someone know what happening, ” said Elston Forte, UA senior Sam linebacker. “ It all goes back to accountability. You’ve got to know your assignments and let your teammates know they can trust you to be prepared and to execute the gameplan.

“ I’m still going to run around and hit people so that doesn’t change. But in coverage, it’s important that we don’t even have to think about it. It’s got to be automatic. I think we’re doing pretty well so far. ”

While the defense expressed confidence in the new system and their ability to perform at elevated levels, Robinson said they weren’t cocksure enough.

“ I think it’s got to get better, ” Robinson said. “ For us be good, we’ve got to be sound fundamentally, physical, run to the ball full speed and play mistake-free. If we fault in any of those areas, we’re not good enough to overcome those mistakes. We’ve got to turn negatives in to positives.

“ To do all that, you have to work hard, learn and be confident enough to get it done on game day. We can get there but we’re not there yet. ”