ARLINGTON, Texas — University of Arkansas Coach Sam Pittman said the Razorbacks’ defense lined up as if it would be vulnerable to the run against Texas A&M.
“It’s going to look like, ‘Man, you could just run the heck out of the ball,’ ” Pittman said. “But that not necessarily has been the case.”
Pittman credited Arkansas defensive coordinator Barry Odom for putting together a game plan that kept the Aggies guessing as the Razorbacks won 20-10 on Saturday at AT&T Stadium.
“Coach Odom and his staff on that side of the ball did an outstanding job, but the kids executed the plan,” Pittman said. “They kept us in the game all night.”
Arkansas opened in a three-man defensive line with ends Tre Williams and Markell Utsey and nose guard John Ridgeway, two linebackers in Grant Morgan and Hayden Henry and six defensive backs.
“You want numbers to be able to tackle the run,” Morgan said. “So when we line up, we have only three linemen and two linebackers. They have five linemen and a running back and a quarterback.
“So they have seven people that can get the numbers against us. We only have five to tackle the run.”
But looks — particularly what the Odom had the Razorbacks show the Aggies — can be deceiving.
“We run it in multiple fronts where they don’t know how we’re going to run and if the guy is going to be inside the tackle or outside the tackle or inside the nose or outside nose,” Morgan said. “ Coach Odom does a really good job, Coach [Jermial] Ashley, our D-line coach does a really good job of being multiple and showing so many different fronts … we disguise it all. So that’s what makes it hard.”
The Razorbacks held the Aggies to 121 rushing yards on 23 attempts, and 67 yards came on Isaiah Spiller’s touchdown run.
“Linebackers,” Pittman said of how the Razorbacks defended the run so well with a three-man front. “It’s a race to the ball.”
Among Arkansas’ top three linebackers, Bumper Pool with 8 tackles, Hayden Henry 7 and Morgan 5. The trio combined for four tackles for lost yards.
“We have a really good linebacker corp right now where we’re running really fast,” Morgan said. “We’re running, making plays.
“We may not make 30 tackles a game because everyone is making plays now, and that’s exactly how it should be. The linebackers’ numbers shouldn’t go up every single game just because we’re so good or something.
“But we should be able to have so many guys spread out along the board because that means we’re playing good team defense.”
Williams, a transfer from Missouri, had two sacks and three quarterback hurries.
“That guy can be as good as he wants to be,” Morgan said. “He’s a guy who could easily play in the next level and be successful in the next level.
“I did watch a lot of it because the way we were playing it I was behind him and just kind of eyeing the quarterback. So I knew he was moving around. And a lot of the times he was getting pushed out to me because of Tre.
“I’m not worried about our D-line, the way they played. … Everyone should know Tre Williams’ name, just because he’s that type of player.”
Utsey also is a transfer from Missouri and Ridgeway is a transfer from Illinois State.
“I’m glad that we made some really good decisions off season to get those three guys over here,” Morgan said of adding Williams, Utsey and Ridgeway.
Spiller’s touchdown run came on a third-and-2 play when he broke free on a run up the middle to cut Arkansas’ lead to 17-10 with 7:51 to play in the third quarter.
“That was completely my fault,” Morgan said. “They ran just a simple zone run, and I have a certain gap. If I see the end crash down through a crease, I have to read out of that gap.
“They blocked it really well. … The O-line was supposed to follow me instead of stay on [lineman] Eric [Gregory] … So me and Eric ended up being in the same gap instead of me staying in my gap.”
The Aggies didn’t score the rest of the game, which was critical with Arkansas starting quarterback KJ Jefferson out because of a knee injury — and redshirt freshman Malik Hornsby taking over midway through the third quarter — until Jefferson returned for the Razorbacks’ final offensive series.
“The defense played like the defense we know,” Arkansas receiver Treylon Burks said.
“The key was just being us,” Morgan said. “We have a one-play mentality where we’re only going to worry about one play at a time and that’s what we did.
“After they had one good play against us on that long run … we were able to go to the next one.”
Texas A&M finished with 272 yards in total offense.
“Our coaches did a really good job preparing us, and [the Aggies] did exactly what we thought,” Morgan said. “The way we got it done was literally just preparation.
“We were the same us that we’ve been week in, week out. As a defense, we know what we had to do. We had to stop the run.”