10 Keys to Arkansas vs. South Carolina

Arkansas punter Max Fletcher (31) is shown during a game against Cincinnati on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. Against South Carolina this week, Fletcher will face the SEC special teams unit with the most blocked kicks since the start of the 2021 season.

Special Teams

This is the No. 1 key for the second week in a row. If you watched much SEC football in Week 1, you know why.

The third phase was key to outcomes in the LSU-Florida State and South Carolina-Georgia State games. LSU left points on the field because of special teams and lost by one point, while South Carolina created its winning margin with big special teams plays.

Special teams play contributed to three touchdowns during the Gamecocks’ 35-14 victory over Georgia State. South Carolina returned two blocked punts for touchdowns and set up another score with a successful fake field goal.

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer is the son of Hall of Fame coach Frank Beamer, whose special teams units at Virginia Tech made game-changing plays for more than two decades. The Hokies’ special teams expertise was dubbed “Beamer Ball.”

“My dad was so good on special teams because they were so good at blocking (kicks). People would get so worried about that, next thing you know they’re returning them for touchdowns,” Shane Beamer said this week. “Then you’re trying to get more people out in coverage to keep them from returning them for touchdowns, and now you’re blocking punts again. That’s what we want to be at all times.

“We want to be aggressors on special teams.”

The younger Beamer was special teams coordinator at Georgia in 2016-17, when Arkansas coach Sam Pittman was on staff as the Bulldogs’ offensive line coach. Beamer was also a tight ends coach at Georgia, so he worked closely with Pittman.

He also worked closely with Arkansas special teams coordinator Scott Fountain, who was a special teams analyst for the Bulldogs in 2017.

“We know a lot of things they’re doing and they know a lot about what we’re doing,” Pittman said.

South Carolina’s punt blocks against Georgia State were not necessarily the result of scheme, but of missed blocks, Pittman said.

Still, Arkansas is aware of the Gamecocks’ potential — they led the SEC with four blocked kicks last season — and mindful of its own troubles in punt protection early the past two years.

“Anytime you have a team coming in that had that much success on special teams, you better be ready for it, because they’ve got juice over there for special teams,” Pittman said. “We’ve got to be really well prepared, which we will be.”

Morning Kickoff

Pittman has drawn from his Georgia experiences many times in the three years since coming to Arkansas.

But it was his experience on the other sideline of Sanford Stadium last October in Athens, Ga., that seems to have stuck with Pittman this week as he has been vocal about his desire for a boisterous crowd at 11 a.m.

Those who were at the Arkansas-Georgia game last year all remark how loud it was. Leading up to the game — a top-10 matchup featured as the “College GameDay” game of the week — Georgia coach Kirby Smart implored the crowd to make a difference. Scheme and talent played a role, but so did the noise in the Bulldogs’ 37-0 victory.

“Georgia’s crowd last year was deafening,” Pittman said. “When we went out there it was a problem for us, just like hopefully our crowd is going to be Saturday for South Carolina.”

Although not always this way, crowds have a reputation for being sleepy and late arriving for games with morning kickoffs. Before the Arkansas game last year, Georgia linebacker Nakobe Dean referenced a 2019 home loss to South Carolina and said players were not as energized for a game early in the day.

Arkansas’ only home loss last season was for a game against Auburn that began at 11 a.m.

Pittman said morning kickoffs can be used as an excuse, but players should be ready for games at that time. Arkansas, for instance, scheduled six morning practices during the preseason to be prepared for games that start before noon.

South Carolina practices in the morning, “so 11 a.m. is right up our alley,” Beamer said. “We’re basically done with practice every day by the time kickoff will be Saturday.”

The Gamecocks were winless in SEC road games last season at Georgia, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Missouri, and lost three of those games by at least 25 points.

New Faces, New Places

Injuries are an unfortunate part of the game. Arkansas experienced that last Saturday against Cincinnati at nearly every level of its defense.

No area, though, was dealt a bigger blow than the secondary. Safety Jalen Catalon, fresh off missing most of 2021 due to injuries, and Myles Slusher left the opener banged up, and their status moving forward is unclear.

So who steps in to potentially replace them? The open viewing periods of practices this week were an indicator, and Arkansas could field new faces — Georgia transfer Latavious Brini and defensive back Khari Johnson — in those places.

South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler is likely to test each member of Arkansas’ secondary Saturday with quick throws, screens and deep balls. Cornerback Hudson Clark is confident Brini and Johnson will be up for the challenge.

“I thought (Brini) did a good job stepping in whenever his number was called (last week),” Clark said. “We get the same number of reps in practice, so I was as comfortable getting in the game with him as I was with (Catalon). He filled that role pretty good.

“(Johnson) has been able to kind of cross train at corner, nickel and safety. I really have a real big respect for him and have confidence wherever he plays.”

Brini totaled five tackles in Week 1. Johnson did not record any statistics.

Asked about Johnson’s prospects at safety and nickel, Pittman said, “He’s going to have to be able to play both of those. We moved him to corner for a reason. We moved him to safety for a reason. At times last week he was in the two deep at corner. He’s a good player.

“He hasn’t played quite as much, obviously, as the other guys, but he’s probably going to. He’s smart. He’s probably going to have to be a guy that’s going to have to play both of those spots.”

Gamecocks’ Pass Rush

Six South Carolina players finished Week 1 with at least one-half tackle for lost yardage. Three were edge defenders.

Gilber Edmond, a 6-5, 255-pound sophomore, led the way with 2, and Jordan Strachan, another 6-5 talent, added 1.5. Edmond posted a run defense grade, according to Pro Football Focus, of 79.0 and pass rush grade of 72.8 over 21 snaps.

Jordan Burch (6-6, 275) and Strachan played the most defensive snaps last week and will test the SEC readiness of Arkansas left tackle Luke Jones and right tackle Dalton Wagner. The 6-9 Wagner stood out in pass protection with a PFF grade of 85.3 last week.

The Razorbacks will likely need a similar effort against the Gamecocks and a more impressive showing from Jones (64.5), who last week made his first start for Arkansas since transferring from Notre Dame. He received praise in the preseason from offensive line coach Cody Kennedy for not standing out for the wrong reasons.

Beamer said the Razorbacks’ linemen are a reflection of Pittman.

“If you’re watching (the Cincinnati game) from the end zone copy that we as coaches do, there’s times on offense where if you just pause the video you literally can’t see anyone on the front seven from Cincinnati because they’ve got two double teams that are covering up the two defensive tackles,” Beamer said. “And then their 6-9 offensive tackle has completely covered up the guy on the edge. The offensive guard is up on the linebacker.

”They’re just big and physical. They want to maul you. You can tell they believe in what they’re doing.”

Edge defenders and linebackers, Pittman said Monday, are a strength of the Gamecocks’ defense.

“They’ve got good size,” he said. “Anytime you have good linebackers, in my opinion, you have a chance to have a good defense. They’ve got a lot of experience.”

Backup Linemen

South Carolina’s offensive line is hearing criticism for its play last weekend. According to The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., it isn’t all that different than what happened a season ago.

The Gamecocks rushed for 79 rushing yards against Georgia State, and they allowed Rattler to be sacked three times. Several players, including Rattler, took to social media earlier in the week in an attempt to calm the storm.

There is some optimism coming out of the win over Cincinnati that Arkansas’ front has enough able bodies to be consistently productive.

“Everybody’s going to get a chance,” said Jordan Domineck, a transfer from Georgia Tech who was named SEC defensive lineman of the week. “Everybody’s going to get their shot to play, so whether you’re first string, second string, third string or reserves, somebody could get hurt, somebody could go down and you’ve got to be ready to step up. Next man up. That’s how I was really thinking about it.

“I just wanted to be able to play. I don’t really count the amount of plays I get. I just want to try to make those plays count.”

The Razorbacks’ second-team defensive line may have fared better than the starters. Domineck made a game-changing fourth-quarter strip sack of Ben Bryant and recovered the fumble, and LSU transfer Landon Jackson flashed with quickness and athleticism at 6-7.

Arkansas State transfer Terry Hampton also tallied a tackle for loss against the Bearcats.

Generating a pass rush with three down linemen will be critical for Arkansas. If the top line is unable to do so, the second group will be ready and waiting. Against Cincinnati, Domineck posted the top defense grade among Razorbacks edge defenders in just 19 defensive snaps (87.9), according to PFF, and Jackson had the best run defense mark (74.9).

“We’ve got to be the more technically sound team if we want to win,” Domineck said. “That’s just us, and I know we can do that. We have the potential to do that, and that’s what we’re striving for every day.”

Don’t Press

During Pittman’s appearance at the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club on Aug. 24, he mentioned a number of times the valuable lesson learned from the Razorbacks’ 38-23 home loss to Auburn last season.

Time and time again he referenced pressing when he didn’t need to. Since then, Pittman appears to have grown as an in-game manager. The opener against Cincinnati was a great example.

Arkansas on more than one occasion was faced with a fourth-down decision near midfield. Some coaches may have opted to keep their offense on the field. Likely to the dismay of some in Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Pittman chose to punt.

The decisions to keep the game moving, trust his players to do their jobs and not give the Bearcats momentum were sound then and in hindsight. That is not to say Pittman will never give the keys to KJ Jefferson and the offense on fourth down, but he recognized in those moments that the time was not right to go for broke.

So long as Arkansas’ defense does what it is supposed to, the offense — possibly with advantageous field position — will get another crack at finding the end zone.

“Just stay in the game,” Pittman said. “Let them mess it up, because we’re not going to.”

Expect the same mindset from Pittman on Saturday and throughout the season. Cincinnati’s mistakes cost itself a win. South Carolina was not without error last week, and Pittman is certainly aware.

3rd Downs

Glancing at the third-down efficiency numbers from Arkansas’ first win, Pittman was fairly pleased to see that the Razorbacks converted on half of their 16 opportunities.

Passing the ball, Jefferson was 8 of 10 for 84 yards on third down, and Arkansas carried 6 times for 64 yards and 4 first downs in those scenarios. The 50% figure was a vast improvement over last season when the Razorbacks’ conversion rate sat under 37%.

Pittman, though, is shooting for additional progress in Week 2. He would like Arkansas to finish in the 60% range each week.

“(That) is not that bad depending on the distance,” he said of the Week 1 numbers. “We certainly made some key third downs and a lot of them were catches. Trey (Knox) had a nice one, Warren Thompson had a really nice one and of course KJ had some nice runs in there.

“I thought the offensive staff did a good job with their short-yardage game plan.”

On the flip side, the Bearcats converted 8 of 16 third-down attempts, too. Pittman noted Wednesday that getting off the field on third down was an emphasis in practices this week. Bryant hit 8 of 13 throws for 109 yards on third down alone.

Cincinnati was also 3 of 4 on third-and-short.

“We’re working on it. We’d like to be, certainly, much lower than that,” Pittman said. “That’s really what we’ve been doing this entire week. We do have good players. We just have to clean the details up to be more successful.”

Georgia State finished 5 of 17 on third down at South Carolina last week. The Gamecocks were 3 of 14.

Containment

Which defense will do a better job when the quarterback gets outside the pocket?

Pittman called South Carolina’s Rattler one of the best he has seen throwing on the move.

“We have to keep him inside the pocket because when he gets outside the pocket, he’s as accurate of a quarterback as I’ve seen in a long, long time,” Pittman said. “He’ll hurt you.

“I can see why Coach Beamer went to get him. He’s an excellent player and he’s got a strong arm and can run. The same thing I saw at Oklahoma on his tape is the same thing we’re seeing here after one game at South Carolina.”

It would not surprise if Arkansas defensive coordinator Barry Odom consulted his brother during South Carolina game preparation. Brian Odom, now the inside linebackers coach at Southern Cal, was a defensive assistant at Oklahoma the previous three seasons and schemed against Rattler in practices.

Rattler completed 23 of 37 passes for 226 yards and 1 touchdown, and was intercepted twice during his first game with the Gamecocks. Aside from sacks he only had one rushing attempt for six yards.

Jefferson is difficult to defend, Beamer said, for a number of reasons: the ability to break tackles, but also the ability to keep his eyes downfield when it appears he might run the ball.

Jefferson completed 18 of 26 passes for 223 yards and, when adjusted for sacks, rushed for 81 yards on 16 attempts against Cincinnati.

Beamer said there is no way to prepare for Jefferson’s size and skillset in practice.

“We’d have to take a defensive end and make him a quarterback,” Beamer said.

WR Blocking

Two of Arkansas’ touchdowns against Cincinnati were aided by great blocks from wide receivers.

Jefferson’s 15-yard touchdown run in the first quarter included a pancake block by Matt Landers that helped create an angle to the end zone. In the fourth quarter, Trey Knox caught a pass near the line of scrimmage, got a block from Ketron Jackson to seal to the sideline and ran 32 yards for the score.

“We really have emphasized that big time at practice and we even have perimeter drills and just things about blocking and strain,” Pittman said. “If we’re going to tell the defense to they’ve got to run to the ball, we’ve got to continue to play hard on offense and all those type things, and both of (those blocks) were really big.”

Landers’ block on Jefferson’s touchdown run caught the eye of Beamer, who was on the Georgia staff when Landers played for the Bulldogs.

“Landers is over there on the sideline and kicks the DB’s butt to allow Jefferson to get into the end zone,” Beamer said. “They do a great job on the perimeter.”

RB Additions

Both teams might add running backs for this week’s game.

Dominique Johnson, who rushed for 575 yards and led the Razorbacks with seven rushing touchdowns last season, appears to be a game-time decision. Johnson has been working his way back from an off-season knee injury and did not play in last week’s opener, but has increased his workload in practice this week.

Pittman said Johnson has improved over the past 10 or so days.

“I think we still have two pretty good days that he can build some confidence and see if he’s ready to play or not,” Pittman said Wednesday.

“To be honest with you, right now, it’s kind of up to him.”

South Carolina is expected to add Christian Beal-Smith back to the lineup. Beal-Smith suffered what Beamer referred to as a foot or ankle injury during preseason practice.

Beal-Smith transferred to South Carolina from Wake Forest during the offseason. He led the Demon Deacons with 604 rushing yards and seven touchdowns last season while splitting carries with two other backs.

Beamer said Beal-Smith’s size and experience will benefit the Gamecocks.

“He produced at Wake Forest and had a lot of really big games,” Beamer said. “We could certainly use his maturity and his experience.”