For most of the last decade, the No. 1 problem for Arkansas has been defense. There just was none.
Pull up any tape over that period and there was not one common problem. Everything was a problem. Consider:
• Defensive linemen were blocked, sometimes five yards down the field.
• Linebackers went the wrong way and didn’t chase. They were beaten by backs in the passing game, trailing the play.
• Safeties couldn’t tackle.
• Cornerbacks could not play press coverage, were beaten on slants and gave up deep passes.
Yikes. And, yet, most fans screamed about problems at quarterback or lack of offensive production.
Maybe they just assumed that defense was tough to play in the modern era, or that Arkansas was never going to have elite defenders like Alabama, LSU, Auburn, Georgia and Florida.
No, no, no and no, came my retort. You can play defense today. You can coach toughness, swarming the football and wreaking havoc on the quarterback.
Thank you, Barry Odom, for restoring order with the Arkansas football team.
The national media recognizes what Odom, the second-year defensive coordinator for the Razorbacks, has done in a short time. I loved hearing David Pollock break down the Arkansas defense on the “ESPN College Football Podcast” this week.
Pollock, the former Georgia All-America defensive end, said the Razorbacks play like they have been locked in a cage for three days, then released on game day with one instruction: Go hunt.
I can’t argue.
A little later in the podcast, Pollock said, “They play like wild banshees.”
If you look up that phrase, it does seem to totally fit. A wild banshee is a mythical female Indian who wails in anticipation of a death. OK, maybe the offense is about to die as the Hogs close in on their quarry in the hunt, as described by Pollock.
There is one problem this week for the Razorbacks: Georgia plays like this on defense, too.
It reminds me of the kind of game that everyone predicted in the 1969 Sugar Bowl, the first meeting between the Hogs and ‘Dogs. Arkansas prevailed, 16-2, in a game that featured 20 punts (10 by each team) and 11 turnovers. Georgia committed eight turnovers.
Is that the kind of game that’s on tap for the 11 a.m. Central kickoff at Sanford Stadium in Athens? It could be because these are two fine defenses.
Georgia allows just 5.8 points per game, best nationally. The Arkansas defense is not much different, giving up 14.5 points, 12th in the nation.
Both teams are built in similar fashion. They can stop the run. The Bulldogs allow just 66 yards per game on the ground. The Hogs are good, too, giving up 121 per game. Obviously, those are winning numbers.
The one stat that jumps off the page is the way the Hogs run the ball. They call runs on almost 70% of their plays. They average 261 yards on the ground, while Georgia gives up only 181.8 in total defense.
As they say, something has to give. I would suggest that the Hogs are going to need something big in the passing game. They probably can’t make a living on the ground against the Bulldogs.
Perhaps it could play out exactly as the 1969 Cotton Bowl did. Georgia had only 192 yards total offense, Arkansas just 225.
There was one offensive superlative, sophomore wide receiver Chuck Dicus. The 170-pound flanker toyed with Georgia All-America safety Jake Scott for the entire day. Dicus caught 12 passes for 169 yards and the game’s only touchdown.
Vince Dooley’s coaching staff thought Scott had the quicks to stay with Dicus despite lining up deep at his safety spot. It was a horrible mismatch.
“Our coaches didn’t think he could do that against us, with me in the slot,” said Dicus, who was also an All-American that season and again as a senior. “Georgia had a lot of confidence in Scott, but that is difficult 12 yards off the slot for anyone.
“I ran a lot of short, quick routes. That’s why my yardage wasn’t so great.”
Could the Hogs do that with Treylon Burks against a Georgia secondary that had to replace four starters, all drafted by the NFL?
Burks may be the best player in the game, just as Dicus was in 1969. Burks has 19 catches for 373 yards, an average of 19.6 yards per catch. He scored on catches of 91 and 85 yards the last two weeks for most of that big yardage.
The Bulldogs have top end corners, one of them a former All-ACC performer at Clemson. That’s Derrion Kendrick, a 6-0, 195-pound senior. Or, it could be that they put a bigger man on Burks, 6-3, 211-pound Ameer Speed.
It’s the matchup that Arkansas quarterback KJ Jefferson will try to exploit, unless the Bulldogs opt for double coverage. That would be a win, too. That could allow the Hogs to do what they want to do on offense anyway, run the ball.
That doesn’t seem possible at first glance, but the best way to attack a great defense is straight at it. The Hogs couldn’t muster anything on the ground last year in a 37-10 loss. The Hogs made just 77 yards on 28 rushes.
Don’t look for the Arkansas rushing total to be that low. It would be foolish to force Jefferson into 39 passes, the total for the Hogs last year. That would allow the impressive Georgia blitzes to tee off on the quarterback.
That leads into the first of the keys for the first top-10 matchup between the teams since the 1969 Sugar Bowl when the Hogs entered at No. 9 and the Bulldogs No. 4.
It’s No. 8 for Arkansas at No. 2 Georgia this time.
Run the Ball
Again, the best way to help pass protection is to successfully run the ball. The Hogs have to do enough to keep the Georgia pass rushers on its heels, not in a racer’s stance.
That’s exactly what the Bulldogs are thinking about their offense, although it doesn’t seem like the UGA runners have the same explosive nature as some year’s past. The rotation of Zamir White, James Cook and Kendall Milton is solid, but not scary.
Can the Hogs find a way to slow Jack linebacker Nolan Smith, the nation’s top recruit three years ago? He’s got 2.5 sacks so far. The best way is to run the ball, maybe straight at Smith.
Rushing TDs
Can anyone run for at least one touchdown? This is where Arkansas has improved the most under Sam Pittman. Yes, Texas A&M’s Isaiah Spiller dashed 67 yards for a running touchdown last week.
But it’s stopping the run that has improved. The Hogs have 11 rushing TDs this season. They have allowed just six.
Last year in the 10-game SEC schedule, the Hogs scored 11 rushing TDs, while giving up 21. Obviously, they’ve flipped the script through four games.
Georgia has eight rushing TDs this year. They have not been scored on in a running play.
These are the scary numbers that highlight the UA problems in allowing rushing touchdowns. The 39 allowed in 2016 set the school record. Consider:
• 2019 – 29
• 2018 – 25
• 2017 – 28
• 2016 – 39
• 2015 – 25
If the Hogs somehow win this simple stat, they probably will win the game.
Where It Starts
Of course, every football play begins with the center snap. The man who can disrupt that is the nose tackle.
The two nose tackles in this game might be duking it out for All-SEC honors. The Hogs have transfer John Ridgeway, 6-6, 320. Georgia features man mountain Jordan Davis, 6-6, 340.
Ridgeway was expected to be a solid contributor, but where he’s turned heads and wowed his coaches is his incredible effort.
“We knew he could play, but we didn’t know about his big heart,” Pittman said.
The key might be the man on the other side of the ball. For Georgia, it’s redshirt freshman Sedrick Van Pran. The Hogs start Ricky Stromberg at center, a junior with three years starting experience in the offensive line.
No one doubts Van Pran’s ability. He’s considered a top talent, just inexperienced. Can he handle Ridgeway, the Illinois State transfer who has tossed around freshman centers all season?
Stromberg may be the best lineman on the team for the Hogs. So the totality of these two matchups might favor Arkansas.
The Kicking Game
This is where the game got away from the Hogs last year, with a series of mistakes in the kicking game. Former Georgia assistant Scott Fountain had to wince at the results. He’s done a nice job of rebuilding the UA kicking game over the last 12 months.
The kicking game was a nonfactor in three of the four UA games. There was a blocked punt against Rice in the opener, but everything has been smooth since then.
Georgia’s kicking game is outstanding. The Hogs will have to play well to match the Bulldogs, but if they can get close to a stalemate, it might be the key to an upset.
Georgia punter Jake Camarda is one of the nation’s best. He can give the Bulldogs a 5-yard edge every time the two teams punt and that might be a lot in a defensive struggle. Defense and a good punter might be the difference in the game.
Arkansas placekicker Cam Little is perfect on eight field goal tries this season. Kickoff man Vito Calvaruso booms almost every try deep into the end zone. Punter Reid Bauer averages only 40 yards, but return tries have been nonexistent.
The Pass Rush
Can Tre Williams wreak havoc against Georgia quarterback J.T. Daniels? It’s as big a question as there is ahead of this matchup.
Georgia left tackle Jamaree Salver (6-4, 325) will have the assignment of protecting Daniels’ blind side.
Williams has showed an incredible burst and great effort of late. He was bothered by two injuries that affected his great swim move in his pass rush. He’s full speed now.
Georgia has a good pass rush, but where defensive coordinator Dan Lanning excels is in bringing heat on third down with exotic blitzes. Lanning and Pittman are close friends. Pittman said they exchanged texts on Sunday night and blitz packages came up.
“He sent me a picture of a new blitz they were working on this week,” Pittman said. “He drew 11 on a sheet and it showed a straight line for all 11. I told him we’d already seen that one.”
Confidence
Both teams have it. Kirby Smart’s record at Georgia is 56-14. Sam Pittman evened his career record at 7-7 with a 4-0 start this season. Clearly, both teams believe they can win.
Barry Lunney Sr. spoke at the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club on Wednesday. Part of his message concerned the difficulty in flipping the script in a losing environment; exactly what Pittman has done in his second year at Arkansas.
Lunney piled up state titles at both Fort Smith Southside and Bentonville, but it wasn’t until he built a winning culture where there had been none.
“When I got to Bentonville, I had to make players who expected to lose learn how to believe they could win,” Lunney said. “Once they believed they could win, the hardest part was over.”
Pittman began that task last year when the Hogs beat Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Tennessee in the first half of the season. They outplayed Auburn, too. It was early in the season that he announced that fans should understand that the days of the Hogs going on the road and not representing the state in the right manner.
Toughness
With the way Pittman has preached toughness, it’s almost a given that the Hogs will bring that to the game. So will Georgia.
It promises to be a tough, hard-hitting affair, much like Georgia won in the season opener with Clemson, a 10-3 game that was decided by an interception return for a touchdown.
The Hogs displayed incredible toughness against Texas A&M in a 20-10 victory last week. Key players battled through injuries, including Stromberg and right tackle Dalton Wagner. Both missed practice time because of injuries sustained against Georgia Southern, but performed admirably against the Aggies.
Jefferson and Burks both have battled injuries, but should “be fine” for the trip to Athens, according to Pittman.
The toughness issue is the No. 1 thing Pittman prides himself. It’s one of the promises he made to fans when he was hired, that his teams would play tough.
I’m reminded of an interview with Pittman before covid-19 restrictions canceled spring practice in his first year as coach. What would be one of the goals and how would he achieve it?
“It’s the same thing we say all the time,” he said. “It’s toughness. There is mental toughness, there is physical toughness, there is attitude, there is the way you compete.
“We talk to them all the time about those things. We are trying to relate it on and off the field.
“We will treat them like a man. I want the development toward a young man.
“Whatever I say I want it to be the truth. Kids are smart.”
Containment
Which quarterback can make plays with their feet? It would seem like Arkansas has an advantage with Jefferson, more of a runner than Daniels.
Jefferson is the No. 2 rusher for the Hogs with 230 net rushing yards. He has two TDs.
Daniels has three carries on the season for a net of minus-15. He’s not going to extend plays with the run. He’s going to throw.
That helps the preparation for Odom. He can call blitzes with man-to-man coverage with confidence that Daniels is not going to call a quarterback draw or scramble. It’s just not in the makeup of the UGA quarterback to take off on a scramble.
Conversely, Jefferson goes into games knowing that he’s going to take off anytime there’s an opportunity. At 6-3, 245, he’s bigger than defensive backs and will try to punish them. It’s a great deterrent to blitz calls. You leave your secondary in man-to-man, Jefferson will exploit it with his feet.
Free Yards
The Hogs have drawn too many flags in most games this season. The exception was against Texas when a Big 12 crew kept flags in their pockets for 60 minutes. Otherwise, it’s been way too many penalties for the Hogs.
They can’t keep giving up free yards, especially against good teams on the road. Georgia qualifies.
The Hogs average 78.8 penalty yards, that’s a national rank of 122. Georgia is somewhat better at 52.5 penalty yards per game, 59th nationally.
If this number is close, the Hogs have a much better chance at an upset.
Physicality
It’s one of my keys almost every week. Football is a mean, nasty game at its core.
If ever there was a game that smacks of physicality, it’s this one. Defense should reign supreme.
There is little doubt that Georgia coaches and players know what they are up against in Pittman, someone who preached physical nastiness when he was assistant head coach under Smart.
They know Pittman’s goal is to outhit the opponent. Expect the Bulldogs to step up to the challenge. That’s respect.
For the most part, the Hogs are 4-0 because they outhit their opponents at the line of scrimmage on most plays.
Texas A&M did not take one snap in the Arkansas red zone last week. It’s an incredible statistic.
To do that, two things must happen: you can’t turn the ball over or make mistakes in the kicking game. Arkansas was perfect in those two categories and you must be physical for four quarters.
That’s the recipe for an upset and the Hogs are an underdog by 18.5 points on this road trip.
Is it doable? Yes, I went with the Hogs on Sunday morning for our magazine prediction, still in the euphoric condition of a big victory. It’s almost one week later and I feel no different.
Georgia has better players if you go through an entire roster, but the Hogs know the recipe and have begun to get all of the key ingredients correct to win in the SEC. No one is counting out Pittman’s team.
They play like wild banshees, or to put it in the right perspective, like Fighting Razorbacks.