FAYETTEVILLE – The Arkansas Razorbacks begin their week of play with their season opener against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Thursday. There is a lot that is known, but also a lot of mystery that suggests the start of the fifth year of the Sam Pittman era.
The familiar begins with the largely aggressive defensive strategies of second-year coordinator Travis Williams and a staff that returns unchanged with third-year Deke Adams on the line and second-year co-coordinator Marcus Woodson and Deron Wilson in the secondary.
Williams won’t stop applying pressure to disrupt offensive timing and the opposing quarterback, but Pittman said last week he felt good about applying pressure with a four-man rush from the veteran defensive line led by Landon Jackson, Cam Ball, Eric Gregory and the duo of Nico Davillier and Anton Juncaj.
The Razorbacks have imported a number of players for various positions such as Doneiko Slaughter, Anthony Switzer and Larry Worth. How they fit into the schemes will be of great importance.
Williams and his team have also worked a lot with the “buck” position, a sort of stand-up edge player who can rush, run or drop into coverage. It will be interesting to see how that position develops, as Davillier and second-year linebacker Brad Spence play it most often.
Offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino also has a name. Razorback fans will remember the potent offense he led as Arkansas’ head coach from 2008-11, including a school-record 6,273 yards in 2010.
Those offenses featured plenty of play-action passes and long balls, but the running game was tough, too, and the Razorbacks finished 34-17 in those seasons, capped by a two-year streak of 21-5 in 2010-11. Those seasons are still the last the team finished with 10 or more wins.
Petrino’s starting quarterbacks during his tenure — Casey Dick (2008), Ryan Mallett (2009-10) and Tyler Wilson (2011) — were all primarily pocket passers, and the strategies played to that strength. Now he has redshirt junior Taylen Green, a 6’6″, 230-pound dual-threat, in his arsenal.
Petrino and Pittman have said the play-action passing game will be a major element of the offense, but the quarterback’s running game as part of a run-pass option scheme is also in play. The Razorbacks have also regularly used two tight end sets during training camp, sending them into the backfield to form the I-formation as well.
This sounds like the omens of an attack from several directions, but Petrino wanted to focus on a few specific parts of his package in order to start the season with a good feeling.
“We have time to work on it, but I feel better when we understand what we do best in the running game,” Petrino said last Tuesday.
“But running right, running left, what do we do with the tight end? How do we get to certain things? We’re still working on those parts of the identity, but I think we know what we’re doing in the run game. Our protections have been pretty solid. Our communication has been pretty solid on that. And then it’s just the aspects of the passing game that we like the most, and we’re getting closer and closer to that.”
Utah transfer Ja’Quinden Jackson began training camp as the top tailback, but was held out of the final scrimmage on Aug. 15 and was barred from participating in practices last week during the open media window, allowing junior Rashod Dubinion, the only returning tailback on the roster, to play on the first team.
Whoever starts at tailback, it’s likely we’ll see a lot of both, and rookie Braylen Russell and transfers Rodney Hill and Tyrell Reed may also be active Thursday.
Another position with some uncertainty is left guard, although redshirt sophomore E’Marion Harris seems to have settled in there for more than a week as new position coach Eric Mateos tried many combinations since returning starter Patrick Kutas was sidelined with a back injury at the start of training camp. Even if Kutas is fully healthy, it would make sense for Harris to get early playing time and potentially a starting spot.
Williams emphasized the unity he sees on the field and in the locker room, even saying he likes seeing offensive players like Green and tackle Fernando Carmona make an impression as leaders.
“When you look, you immediately see, ‘OK, these guys like each other,'” Williams said last Wednesday at the final media event before Pittman holds his regular press conference on Monday.
“The group I really like to watch is the defensive line. They have a special kind of bond. During spring break, they all go to Miami together, stuff like that. Man, it’s just cool to see what Coach Pitt has built here and you just see how these guys buy into it and how close these guys and the staff are. It’s really fun to watch.”
