Page 2 - Arkansas Football August 2017

2K Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Sunday, August 27, 2017
Bielema
Rhoads
See DEFENSE, Page 3K
Eight men up
The three down linemen must do their job so the others can create havoc in Arkansas’ new 3-4 defensive scheme.
TOM MURPHY ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
FAYETTEVILLE — By Coach Bret Bielema’s reckoning, the writing was on the wall early in the 2016
season.
The Razorbacks, in their
third season under coordi- nator Robb Smith, strug- gled to contain running quarterbacks Kenny Hill, Trevor Knight, Jalen Hurts and even Alcorn State’s No- ah Johnson in the first half of the season. The Hogs had trouble coping with strong edge-rushing teams
virtually all year.
There was going to be a switch to a 3-4
front, Bielema concluded. Veteran coach Paul Rhoads was going to have a strong hand in designing the new look, almost as soon as the
calendar turned to 2017. Sure enough, Smith was out — taking over as defen- sive coordinator at Minne- sota — and Rhoads was in as the University of Arkan- sas, Fayetteville’s defensive coordinator by the third
week of January.
Rhoads spoke bluntly
about a defense that got punched in the gut repeatedly last season until it ranked No. 94 against the run (205.5 yards per game) and No. 85 in scoring (31.1 points per game).
“Our kids, I don’t know if embarrassed is the wrong word or the right word,” Rhoads said. “But nonetheless, we gave up too ma- ny yards last year and we gave up too many points.
“We gave up too many rushing yards to quarterback-running teams. We gave up too many big plays. There were a lot of things that they know they did wrong that created us not playing great defense, and they’ve had the mindset to improve upon that. I’ve seen that mindset on a daily basis. They are not pleased when they don’t perform well individually and collectively right now.”
No other off-season development, with the possible exception of the team’s mas- sive turnover at wide receiver, will affect the course of the 2017 season for the Ra- zorbacks, like the move from a four-man front to the base 3-4.
Bielema said the decision was made out
NWA Democrat-Gazette file photo
Sophomore defensive end McTelvin Agim (right) is expected to figure prominently in the Arkansas Razorbacks' new 3-4 defensive scheme under first-year defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads. “The 3-4, when you’re playing it, the offense doesn’t know where the next rusher is coming from,” said Agim, who played at Hope High School.
sixth defender, all of whom are standing at the snap, gives the defense more unpre- dictability.
“One of the things that was pretty con- sistent in our play was we didn’t vary a lot from where we set the formation,” Bielema said. “I think that came back to bite us, and we’ll do a lot of variation moving forward.”
The Razorbacks’ defense will show more presnap movement, hoping to con- fuse blocking schemes or slow the recog- nition and reaction by offenses, something Arkansas quarterback Austin Allen learned last year going against three-man fronts.
“They might bring a safety down from somewhere on the field or something like that,” Allen said. “There’s a lot of moving parts with it. They can drop guys [into coverage]. That’s kind of what the teams we play against do. Alabama and LSU run that defense.”
Rhoads said he didn’t employ a 3-4 scheme until late in his tenure as head coach at Iowa State (2009-2015), but told Bielema he wished he had made the move earlier to combat the Spread offenses so prevalent in the Big 12 at the time and in- creasingly popular in the SEC.
Rhoads explained the basics of the 3-4 scheme, using his booming voice to em- phasize key points.
“The nose guard has to have his hands on the center and take care of his A-gap,” Rhoads said, early in camp. “The ends have to have their hands on the tackle and take care of the B-gap.
“Our outside linebackers have to set the edge on anything that comes at them and be involved in the quick passing game. Our linebackers have to go where the backs go.
“And our secondary can’t let people go behind them. If 11 guys are doing those things on a play-by-play basis, regardless of the call, we have a chance to play good, competitive defense.”
Bielema said more and more college teams are going to three-man fronts.
South Carolina Coach Will Muschamp, a noted defensive specialist, agreed.
“It’s a lack of being able to find quality defensive linemen,” Muschamp said. “It’s easier to find a flexible 240-pound hybrid defensive end-linebacker who can play in space. And it creates some problems for offenses. Some run plays work well against a four-man front, but they’re not so good against a three-man front.”
of necessity as well as the need for creating versatility.
There are simply not enough top-lev- el defensive linemen coming through the ranks to stock four-man fronts at all the major colleges.
“Here at Arkansas the 3-4 allows us to get more of those underrecruited, under- sized speed guys on the field, guys who
play well in space,” Bielema said.
A three-man front also helps with
depth-chart numbers.
“You don’t have to have eight to have a
two-deep, you have to have six to have a two-deep,” Rhoads said, referencing the de- fensive line. “I think we can get to a quality depth position.”
The ability to blitz a fourth, fifth or even