Forget Texas
The plan this week is to forget the Longhorns and get back to work. It’s the Sam Pittman way.
Oh, that’s easy to type, but hard to do. It was part of the discussion Wednesday when Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek addressed the third weekly meeting of the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club.
Is there a way to recreate the atmosphere of the Texas game when the Hogs play host to Georgia Southern at 3 p.m. Saturday?
“It’s natural to have a letdown,” Yurachek said. “No, we are not playing Texas, but we are the No. 20 team in the AP. As Razorbacks, it should be the mission to recreate the same energy for this game. Students and our fans should try to bring the same energy to the stadium.”
Pittman believes the former can be done. He did not speak for fans, but said he thought the work ethic of the program helps avoid a letdown. The Hogs played hard after victories last year, some that were highly celebrated like Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee.
You do that with daily work ethic in practice, something Pittman thinks is the foundation of the program. The most common descriptive phrase used by players to describe this team is blue collar.
That will serve the Hogs well against Georgia Southern. They are a 23 ½-point favorite, but their mission is to work harder in practice even as they prepare for a big underdog.
“We showed the team on Tuesday three different recent games where teams had such a great win, and then the next week they got beat by an unranked opponent,” Pittman said. “They got my subliminal pretty good about what can happen if you get lazy. You’ve got to do what got you there.”
Running Back Depth
The old adage of never having enough running backs is true. As an old football man once told me, running backs get hurt. The other team tackles them on every play.
So, it may not be long before the running back room seems empty, but it’s full now.
In looking for an Arkansas running back group that compares to this year’s team, I went all the way to 1975 when the Hogs won the SWC. The group of Ike Forte, Jerry Eckwood, Michael Forrest, Ben Cowins and Roland Fuchs was deep and talented.
The current group of Trelon Smith, Raheim “Rocket” Sanders, Dominique Johnson, Josh Oglesby and AJ Green has similar talent, although that 1975 group had more experience.
It’s also interesting to compare the quarterbacks. Like 1975 quarterback Scott Bull, KJ Jefferson can beat you with his legs. Bull had developed into a solid passer by 1975, something Jefferson still hasn’t done on a consistent basis.
It was just a few weeks ago when Pittman said one of the big goals of August camp was to find a No. 2 running back. When the season is over, how that backup developed might be the story of the year.
Little did he know – and if did, he wasn’t sharing it – the Hogs have plenty capable of playing that backup role. Johnson dazzled with some big plays, including a block on a big pass play on perhaps the biggest drive of the night, the one following a Jefferson interception.
With all of the excitement over the young backs and the development of a No. 2 man, Smith is still the man. He’s not only the best of the backs, he’s also the clear leader in the room. He plays unbelievably hard.
Don’t be fooled by an average that’s below that of his younger teammates. He has not benefitted as much from playing when the defense has been softened. He leads the team with 177 yards on a team-high 34 carries. That’s a 5.2-yard average.
Jefferson, the quarterback, is next with 162, but a higher 8.5 average.
The Game Plan
No doubt, it’s different this week. Georgia Southern offers a rare blend of option running and ball control offense rarely seen these days in the SEC. It’s what the Hogs have known all summer.
Pittman spent part of August camp working against a scout team running Georgia Southern’s option game. He said you couldn’t get ready for that style in two or three days of practice game week. He wanted more.
It’s the kind of stuff that has impressed Yurachek, who has a son, Jake, on the team and another, Ryan, working for Pittman as a grad assistant.
“What I’ve seen that’s important is that the players believe in Sam as a coach and the coaches believe in the players,” Yurachek said. “The players know that they are going to have a good game plan every week.
“The players know that if they execute the game plan, they are going to win a lot more than they lose. I thought they had great game plans last year.”
The defensive game plan against Texas mirrored the one defensive coordinator Barry Odom used against Alabama in a 52-3 loss last year. Odom thought it would slow down Steve Sarkisian’s UT offense because it did at some points in the Alabama game when Sarkisian was the Crimson Tide’s offensive coordinator.
“We played Alabama last year and our defense played fairly well,” Pittman said. “I know it’s hard to think when they scored so many points on us, but (we) had some success. Barry felt like that was the way he wanted to go, with a three-man front, and we put a couple of wrinkles on it, too.
“The kids believed in him, they believed in us, and whatever we design up there, they’re going to go execute.”
The Air Game
Everyone is talking about the Arkansas running game after the Hogs averaged 7.1 yards on the ground against Texas. The Hogs attempted only 19 passes.
But it might not be as easy as just handing off against the Eagles. They actually do better against the run than the pass. They rank third best in the Sun Belt, giving up just 132.5 rushing yards per game.
Look for a change in what Texas tried, a 3-3 front, that sometimes was close to a 2-4. Texas dared the Hogs to run, perhaps thinking they had better strength with their defensive tackles. That was terrible thinking.
It’s probably a good bet that Georgia Southern will bring a safety in the box for extra run support. Texas never did. They played both safeties 15 yards deep and kept a nickel back in pass coverage, too.
The Eagles will probably make Jefferson beat them with the air game. He probably can after completing 14 of 19 against Texas.
The Georgia Southern game plan will likely be to stuff the box with eight. It may lead to a big day for Jefferson. The Eagles allow 348.5 yards per game in the air, 125th best nationally.
Linebacker Depth
Grant Morgan sustained a knee injury (released as a lower leg issue) early in the fourth quarter against Texas. He was a guest on a Little Rock radio show Monday with promises that it was just a “tweak,” much like the injury suffered to the other knee last year against Missouri.
But, that doesn’t mean Morgan, the sixth-year senior and All-American, should play against the Eagles.
This could be a good week to rest him with the trip to play Texas A&M next week, followed by road games to Georgia and Ole Miss.
The Hogs appear to have good linebacker depth for the first time in perhaps one decade. Hayden Henry and Bumper Pool, both seniors, are solid.
Behind them, Andrew Parker and Jackson Woodard are solid players, too.
Linebacker depth against the option is important, so the Hogs are in good shape this week.
The Triple Option
Yes, the Eagles are a triple-option team. It’s an offense similar to what Army runs, a system that gave Oklahoma trouble in recent seasons.
The key component in stopping the triple option is eye discipline. Generally, blitzes and stunts are not a good plan. The goal is to make the quarterback pitch and cover the outside with good pursuit.
Pittman said, “You have to be sound….It’s going to be a challenge for us.”
The good news is that the Hogs have been great at pursuit so far this season. They chase the ball in Odom’s scheme as well as any Arkansas defense in recent memory.
Physicality
The Hogs had it in big doses against Texas. If ever there was a time that linemen were the stars in a big game, it was in the 40-21 thumping of Texas. Everyone noticed that the home team was more physical.
Can the Hogs bring that same physical intensity against a lesser foe? You’d think that would be easy, but sometimes when intensity wanes, so does the hitting.
Pittman praised center Ricky Stromberg for his work against a good Texas nose tackle, along with both tackles, Dalton Wagner and Myron Cunningham. I was so impressed with Wagner that I jumped at the chance to put him on the last cover of Hawgs Illustrated. Seldom has our magazine featured offensive linemen on the cover.
Pittman also raved about the play of backup right guard Beaux Limmer. He played almost two quarters in relief of starter Ty Clary. Pittman said Limmer “is a guy who wants to dominate a defensive lineman. We need more of that. We need guys who want to finish.”
The Hogs didn’t dominate on every play, but they did provide some cutback lanes for both the running backs and Jefferson.
Pittman praised backs after the game for looking for their first key, then moving to the second or even the third if holes were not open. That’s an exciting development because it means they can take advantage of cutback schemes when teams over play Jefferson on the run-pass option game.
Clean and Mean
The Hogs were flagged only four times last week, but was that because the Big 12 crew assigned to the game just doesn’t throw many flags?
There is a suspicion that’s true. There were some possible targeting calls that were not made, including a key play on a fourth-and-1 stop by Henry.
That raises eyebrows among fans alarmed that the Hogs have lost several players because of targeting calls the last two seasons. Can they avoid targeting penalties? They want to have everyone available next week for the SEC opener against Texas A&M.
I do think it’s almost impossible to avoid all targeting calls. It’s built into a football player’s soul to lower the crown of the helmet in an attempt to cause a fumble. A tendency and desire to hit them hard and low is just going to be hard to get out of the game.
The main problem is that defensive players are trying to hit a moving target. A ball carrier doesn’t always twist or dive in the way a tackler expects.
The Hogs want to retain an aggressive hitting style, but they also need to avoid penalties.
The Quarterbacks
Is this a week when the Hogs unleash a two-headed monster at quarterback? Jefferson could get some help from backup signal caller Malik Hornsby, possibly the fastest man on the team. Cunningham called it “a show” when Hornsby ran the ball in an August scrimmage.
On the other side, it’s not clear what Georgia Southern will do at quarterback. They may play two. Justin Tomlin, the Eagles’ top quarterback, sat out the first two games because of an academic suspension. He’s cleared to play this week.
Cam Ransom was the GSU quarterback in the first two games. He ran 12 times for 50 yards and was 20 of 34 passing for 188 yards.
It could be that both teams play both quarterbacks. That’s what happened last week when Texas benched Card in the second half. Hornsby played in the game’s final series as the Hogs ran out the clock.
Pittman used the second offense with Hornsby in practice this week to give the defense a good look at quarterback speed. He thought the defense reacted well to the speed of Hornsby.
“I know Tomlin is good, but he can’t be faster than Malik Hornsby,” Pittman said, referencing the Georgia Southern QB. “We’ll see, I guess. They really did a good job of fitting that up today.”
Start Fast
It probably goes without saying that the goal when you play a team like Georgia Southern is to play younger players – if you can get a lead.
So the key is to start fast. They did last week against Texas, but did not against Rice. The Hogs were lethargic and out of rhythm in the opener.
It would be nice to see more of freshman backs Sanders and Green. Pittman has promised Green is going to play more. When he does, the coach wants more big plays. He teased Green about that after the Texas game.
“I saw him Monday and asked him, ‘How many carries did you have?’” Pittman said. “He said six. I said, ‘How many touchdowns did you have?’ He said one. I said, ‘Well what the hell happened on the other five?’
“He’s really fast.”
So if the Hogs can start fast, maybe they can play their two fastest players more. That would be Hornsby and Green.