State of the Hogs

Clay Henry's Top 10 Keys: Arkansas vs. Mississippi State

Arkansas defensive line coach Jim Washburn (right) yells toward defensive end Steve Conley during a practice Aug. 15, 1994, in Fayetteville.

This is not real advice for Sam Pittman on how to find a pass rush specialist in time for this afternoon’s date with Mississippi State, but it wouldn’t be a mistake.

If the Arkansas football coach knows of a great athlete on campus who tried both track and basketball and is ready to skip a trip to Maui, sign him up to play against the Bulldogs.

Steve Conley didn’t do exactly that just ahead of making the key plays for the Razorbacks as they clinched their first trip to the SEC Championship in 1995. But all of that was in his background before he became the sack man for Joe Lee Dunn’s defense that beat MSU’s Bulldogs 26-21 to clinch the SEC West for head coach Danny Ford.

The idea for this column came during the open date when I got a call from Jim Washburn, heart broken that his close friend, Dunn, had died.

Washburn was defensive line coach for the one season Dunn coordinated the Arkansas defense. They also worked together at New Mexico and South Carolina.

Retired now near Nashville, Tenn., Washburn said Dunn wasn’t just the best coach he’d ever worked for, but a pure genius.

Conley, owner of Conley Fitness in Fayetteville and getting started in boxing promotions, didn’t argue when reached by phone this week. Just like Washburn, Conley raved about both the way Dunn conditioned the defense, then strategized with amazing blitzes and coverages.

Conley had sacks on back-to-back plays, the last for a safety to help the Hogs rally past the Bulldogs in 1995. Conley led the SEC with 14 sacks, not counting a 15th in a bowl game when those stats didn’t count toward season records.

Conley also had a school-record 23.5 tackles for lost yardage that year. His 14 sacks are tied with Wayne Martin for the single-season record at Arkansas.

“Joe Lee was the best,” Washburn said. “Just so aggressive with everything he did.

“When we were at New Mexico, we played BYU with Jim McMahon. We sacked him 14 times. (BYU coach) LaVell Edwards went crazy.

“What he did worked against anybody. If you could run it, but not throw, you were screwed. If you could throw it, but not run, he killed you. Wishbone teams, West Coast offenses — it didn’t matter. He wrecked them all.

“I’m telling you, Joe Lee was badass and the players loved him.”

Conley said they learned to love his insane conditioning drills called “Packer Days,” along with the unorthodox blitzes.

“What you had with Joe Lee was a dominant personality that you would follow,” Conley said. “We had great leaders on that ’95 team on both sides of the ball, but Joe Lee was perfect for us.”

Packer Days were named for Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay coach who loved “up-down drills” where players hit their bellies, then bounced back into a jogging position.

But Dunn took it to the next level.

“We built up over a 14-day period in August,” Conley said. “The first day, you did it for one minute. Eventually, you’d do it for 20 minutes on the whistle. The mental part is what gets you.”

Conley was a team captain. The tough part that August for him was a broken hand sustained early in practices. Trainers thought he might be unable to do the up downs.

“I was going to get out of them, even the coaches said OK,” Conley said. “There was no way I was going to stand and watch my teammates do it when I was a captain. So I did them with a cast. Joe Lee kept telling me, ‘Steve be careful,’ but I did them.”

The benefits of Packer Days returned great dividends.

“It instilled toughness,” Conley said. “We knew the teams we played had not done anything like that.

“I’m not saying any one of us wanted to do them, but we all knew what we’d become. We were all nervous when we’d heard about Joe Lee. But it was so great to play for him. It was tough. It’s like they say, ‘It was the worst of times, but the best of times.’

“To say we’d been through some tough times is true. But it was incredible what we did in ’95. I don’t think we knew what we could be on defense until maybe the Alabama game (a 20-19 Arkansas victory), but after that we knew what we had.”

For Conley, what he saw was the genius that Washburn described.

“He called the defenses from the sideline with no head phones, no play sheet,” Conley said. “We didn’t have a lot of calls, but he knew when and where to use them.

“Joe Lee was a man’s man. He was somebody who was prepared, straightforward, knew how to game plan and could explain it all where it made sense. He taught us not to be shy of hard work. He was not wishy washy.”

Conley’s favorite call put Marcus Adair, the tight side end, to his side, the wide side. Adair had five sacks, so they combined for 20 counting the bowl.

“Mad was the strong side, bad was the weakside,” Conley said. “If the call was ‘Mad Bad,’ we were together. When that was called, I loved it. One of us was going to get a sack. We were going through the same gap.”

Washburn said that was the Dunn genius.

“No one was doing that, two to the same gap,” Washburn said. “Joe Lee was far, far ahead of everyone at that time.

“I never coached with anyone in the NFL who was that good. The offensive coaches saw us overload one side and they thought it was a free path to the strong side, but it wasn’t.

“Joe Lee was incredibly smart. I saw him fill out the income tax form in 15 minutes. Coaching with him was so much fun.”

Some of it was difficult.

“I felt like I did Packer Days with the players,” Washburn said. “The linemen would struggle. I’d be grabbing them off the ground and throwing them down so they would finish. I was exhausted.

“The deal is that you wanted the players to graduate at the end of the 14 days. It was almost unbearable.”

Washburn convinced Kim Helton, then head coach at Houston, to try Packer Days during his one year with the Cougars in 1998.

“We did them and it worked, but Kim told me, ‘You got to stop this,’ and I’m sure that you couldn’t get away with anything like this now,” Washburn said. “Joe Lee could get the players to do it. It was just outrageous conditioning.”

The old heads around the Arkansas program thought it reminded of the tough drills Wilson Matthews ran in the early days of the Frank Broyles era. They loved them, too, and most were disappointed Dunn left for Mississippi State after just one year.

That was before the NCAA allowed summer scholarships and continuous out of season conditioning in the weight room.

“A lot of people left for the summer, but if you stayed, you got a job,” Conley said. “I painted the stadium one summer, but that was after I went on scholarship.”

Conley followed his older brother, Mike, John McDonnell’s all-time best, to Arkansas as a track man. He moved to basketball as a walk-on for Nolan Richardson.

“I had played football in high school (in Chicago) and was recruited by Barry Alvarez to Wisconsin, but didn’t think that was my best sport,” Conley said. “I was trying basketball that winter with Coach Richardson and the team was about to go to Maui and I told him that I’d like to try football. I probably should have gone to Maui and told him the next week.

“I finally realized that what Coach Alvarez told me was right and that football was always in my blood.”

Conley made the right choice. He lettered four years in football, earning a scholarship as a junior. The Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him in the third round of the 1996 NFL draft.

“Steve was a good player, but Joe Lee made him a great player,” Washburn said. “I saw him do that everywhere he coached. He knew how to utilize the talent and he’d condition the best players so they could stay on the field.”

Conley said there was no defensive line rotation.

“Most of our defensive line — and Mark Smith at linebacker — never left the field,” Conley said. “That was Marcus, me, Geno Bell and Junior Soli.”

Ken Anderson and David Sanders manned another tackle spot, but Dunn played a lot of nickel scheme with an extra safety without that tackle.

“It was beautiful stuff,” Washburn said. “Joe Lee would come in at 3 a.m. and be ready for the staff with our plan. He made the game plan by himself. No one else said a word. He’d go home early Monday with 10 No. 2 pencils and come back and hand us a sheet of paper Tuesday with what we were doing and it didn’t change. There was no input from any of the rest of us; all Joe Lee.”

Some of the magic was in the effort from the players. Washburn said players always worked hard for Dunn. It’s part of what he sees watching Arkansas now.

“I have come to like watching Arkansas under Sam Pittman,” Washburn said. “I’m pulling for them because of how hard they play. You can see effort. He must be a good guy.”

Conley sees the same thing.

“I see energy,” Conley said. “I see it from the defense. This is the best D-line group I’ve seen in a while at Arkansas. The offensive line is progressing. I see good running backs.

“The secondary has had injuries, but I see a lot of great young talent there. I think the future is great. I think players are bought in and recruiting is going well.”

That leads to the first of the keys to victory, that magic that Dunn brought to his players, the ultimate weapon in any sport.

Energy

The Hogs were in energy overload mode early in the season, but they were worn down by the time they got to the open date. The combination of playing Arkansas-Pine Bluff and a week off should do wonders for Pittman’s team.

The Hogs play hard, but there is just so much energy in the tank. They may have been running on empty at the end of eight straight weeks of games. Pittman has talked about starting a winning streak in November after the open date. Energy is the starting point.

On his weekly radio show Wednesday night, Pittman indicated his plan of lightning the load over the previous two weeks in practice seems to have worked. Players looked fresh.

“Today was a nice practice,” Pittman said. “We practiced really well.

“We still have some guys a little beat up, but if practice is any indication, our legs are fresh and we are ready to go on a run.”

Turnovers

Both teams are solid in ball security, both at plus-3 in turnover margin. The Hogs have gained 10 and lost seven. Mississippi State has gained eight and lost five.

“We need more (takeaways) than them,” he said. “We’ve been good with ball security. Certainly, our defense will have an opportunity for some (turnovers). We need tipped balls. Our linebackers have to get in (quarterback Will) Rogers’ throwing lanes. We need a pass rush to move him.

“We have really made a big deal on whoever wins the turnover battle wins the game. Hopefully, it will be us.”

The Run

Arkansas will run more than throw. Mississippi State will throw more than run. But both teams have tried to become more balanced of late. The Bulldogs leaned more heavily on the run in last week’s win over Kentucky.

The Hogs average 249 yards rushing, fourth nationally. The Bulldogs allow just 89.4 on the ground, fifth nationally. Something has to give there.

The Bulldogs throw for an average of 370.9 yards, fifth nationally. The Hogs allow just 167.5, eighth nationally.

So which team can make its strength hold up? Kentucky ran the ball a little more last week than typical for a Mike Leach-coached team, but Pittman indicated it may have just been because the Bulldogs had the lead.

November

Arkansas fans have long repeated the favorite Broyles quote, “They remember what you do in November.” But Arkansas players have broken it down to a week-by-week thought centered on the four Bs.

Ricky Stromberg, speaking on Pittman’s radio show, said it’s been the saying in the locker room for the last two weeks.

“It’s the four Bs,” said Stromberg, junior center. “We talk all the time to make it about those.

“This week (against Mississippi State), it’s about a bowl game. Then, it’s the Boot Trophy (against LSU), then ‘Bama and then it’s the Battle Line game (against Missouri).”

Indeed, it starts with the bowl game thought. The winner of the game becomes bowl eligible because both enter at 5-3.

Protection

This comes back to the pass rush, with the asterisk that defensive coordinator Barry Odom is not likely to find a defensive end like Conley on Eric Musselman’s basketball team.

But he’s got a good one in end Tre Williams, if he’s healthy. Williams was a beast against Texas A&M, but not so formidable since.

Mississippi State has given up 13 sacks; the Hogs have allowed just five. The Arkansas defense has 13 sacks, while the offense has given up just five.

So it likely will come down to who can pressure the other quarterback.

Washburn provided an interesting unconfirmed stat last week: an offense scores only 47% of the time when there is a sack on a possession. That was likely an NFL stat, but I’d think it might be higher in the SEC.

“Probably so,” Washburn said. “But I like this Arkansas defense, minus one Steve Conley type. I have not watched Mississippi State, but I think this Arkansas defense can get after the quarterback a little better than the last few I’ve seen.”

It may not be that the Hogs have to sack Rogers. Pittman said, “We just have to move him off of his spot,” and drop linebackers deep enough “to tip some balls.”

Penalties

This is interesting because both Arkansas and State have struggled with penalties this season. Mississippi State is 13th in the SEC; Arkansas 12th. They flip as far as average number of yards with Arkansas just a little worse.

The Hogs seem to have gotten a handle on penalties since a horrible game at Georgia when there were five flags on two plays.

Tackling

This key is about which team can tackle best in space. That’s the idea of both offenses, to put ball carriers into space. Arkansas does it with the run-pass option. Mississippi State has an Air Raid passing game that features the dump down.

Arkansas had success with a three-man rush last year, dropping eight and setting linebackers deep.

“We have to rally to the football,” Pittman said. “Our (defensive) team is totally bought in.”

The Bulldogs are unique on offense with two backs often set on either side of the quarterback. That can help them in pass protection, or it may be that they offset blitzes with wide passes.

“They will flare both backs out of the backfield,” Pittman said. “They will do that on third-and-2 when most teams run in the A gap. They dink you and that’s the style of Coach Leach.

Blocking

Yes, that’s always a key, but the Bulldogs’ defense is a unique scheme with linebackers set directly behind lineman in an effort to protect them from blockers.

“Defensively, (MSU) has a great scheme and great linebackers,” Pittman said. “They have a different stack to their linebackers and we have to be ready for that. We have a super offensive line coach and we think we are.”

The Unknown

With what amounts to two weeks to prepare, it’s unclear what new wrinkles Arkansas might have added for the November stretch run. Could some young players be ready to contribute?

True freshman wide receiver Bryce Stephens might be the most likely candidate to gain added playing time. He was elevated from the scout team to second-team slot receiver this week.

“He had a really good practice (Wednesday),” Pittman said. “He’s becoming more comfortable with our offense and catching it better. He was a state champion (in Oklahoma) in the 100. He’s got speed, a lot of talent.”

Pittman also praised offensive lineman Devin Manuel, although it would seem improbable that he’d see playing time. Pittman said, “He’s coming on.”

The Best Player

The last key and probably the most important one each week is how offensive coordinator Kendal Briles utilizes wide receiver Treylon Burks. Bothered by a foot injury all season and held out of practices last week, Burks still has managed 42 catches for 717 yards despite double coverage.

Radio host Chuck Barrett told Pittman that the game just “looked easy” for Burks the week before against UAPB when three of his six touches went for touchdowns.

“It is easy for him,” Pittman said. “That’s why it looks so easy. UAPB came with a total blitz and left him one-on-one. When they blitz like that, someone has to get open early and he can do that. They had no safety in the middle of the field.”

State is unlikely to commit that kind of suicide, but it may be interesting to see what Burks can do after a week of solid rest. Pittman said he’s looked good in practices this week.