New DC

[HoggyCat]

y'all can't seem to grasp the fact that it ain't the jockey it's the horse.

And you can't seem to grasp that we just completed year four under the new head moron, and the only name left from the previous era was Kody Walker.  That means they're ALL HIS PLAYERS!!  Which means it's still the jockey, because he chose the horse he's riding!!!

[ricepig]

Is Robb Smith gone or not?

I'll get someone to ping his phone........

[ricepig]

And you can't seem to grasp that we just completed year four under the new head moron, and the only name left from the previous era was Kody Walker.  That means they're ALL HIS PLAYERS!!  Which means it's still the jockey, because he chose the horse he's riding!!!

You might want to check the roster.

[elksnort]

I'll get someone to ping his phone........

laughing !

My goodness, this board gets the cart before the horse.

[GuvHog]

Burns

No doubt about it, Keith Burns' "Code Red" defenses at Arkansas in 1998 and 1999 were indeed very good. If not for the unfortunate incident known as the "Stoernover", The Hogs would have won the SEC title in 1998 and probably would have played for the national title.

[Big Boi]

Is Robb Smith gone or not?

The info has been leaked on purpose. He is either gone or getting a raise.

[26.2Hog]

No doubt about it, Keith Burns' "Code Red" defenses at Arkansas in 1998 and 1999 were indeed very good. If not for the unfortunate incident known as the "Stoernover", The Hogs would have won the SEC title in 1998 and probably would have played for the national title.

The one thing Danny Ford could do was recognize and recruit talent.  Keith Burns and Hootie should always send Ford birthday and Christmas presents for leaving them loaded with players. 

Burns did a good job those two years and iirc was a Broyles award finalist?

[buldozer]

Scheme, tackling and basics, lack of players - recruiting, development & conditioning, speed, motivation..... what ever is lacking, or our weakness is.... it is the coaches responsibility. Thats why they are paid huge salaries and the players are not. Some fans look for anyone and everyone EXCEPT the coach to lay the responsibility off onto, but ALL the responsibility deserves to be laid squarely onto the shoulders of the coaches. And the head coach specifically. Now if the head coach wants to hold some of his assistants accountable for their part of what is wrong, thats his prerogative. But so far he hasn't done so. Until he does, its all on the head coach.

[elksnort]

Well stated.

[Big Boi]

It doesn't matter who the new DC is.  He'll be a Bret yes man. He'll do exactly and run exactly the defense Bret says to run. Look at Ash. He wasn't that great here. He leaves and tOSU has a pretty solid D. We get R.O.B.B. and we still can't pick a time to blitz, still play 7-10 yards off the receivers and still can't bottle the run up; except when we had Flowers & Crew.

The DC isn't the problem, just like Enos isn't the second half problem on offense. It's a scared $hi#less coach that goes conservative at the first hint of pressure. It goes back all4 years here and back to his Wiscy days.

Put the blame where it belongs.

Like most have said you have to have players. However in the absents of players scheme must make up for it. Rob does nothing special scheme wise. Lot of people are down on Rhoads because of DB play. He doesn't come up with the scheme or technique, he just teaches it the way Rob wants. Pauls track record as a D coordinator would be the most accomplished since joining SEC. 

[The NewEra]

I don't presume to know the answers.  But I do have these questions:

What happened to Smart Swarm?  I saw very few guys gang tackles when we finally did get our hands on someone.
Why aren't our guys playing with physicality?
Why can't our guys shed a block?
Why can't our guys tackle?
Where did the "drop your head and stare at the ground" at the first sign of adversity come from?
Why did we give up contain around the end so much?
Why has the D-Line stood in one place and allowed rookie quarterbacks to look like Heisman Candidates?
Why do we not play an aggressive defense and bring someone from the edges or up the middle like all of the tough to play defenses in the league?
Why has it been so difficult to adjust on the fly when we were obviously getting our lunch eaten in one phase of the game?
What's the fixation of playing upperclassmen over more athletically talented kids?

That's just a snippet of my questions about the defense.

Positives:  Ryan Pulley is a Stud along with Sosa Agim.

[Pork Twain]

2013, he was LB coach in the NFL helping 2nd year LB, David, to become an allpro at the position, becoming only the third player in history to have 100+ tackles, 6+ sacks, and 5+ interceptions.

In 2012, he was Rutger's DC/LB coach, ranking 4th in points allowed, 6th in rushing yards allowed, and 10th in total yards allowed and had an all american at LB. That year's draft featured 5 Rutger's defensive players drafted. He was on the Rutger's coaching staff in various other positions on defense in the years before that.

Before that, he was DC for FCS school Maine, ranking 1st in rush defense, 2nd in total defense, 3rd in sacks, and 4th in scoring defense.

The correct answer was...he does not have a history of fielding any type of defense.

[MuskogeeHogFan]

I don't presume to know the answers.  But I do have these questions:

What happened to Smart Swarm?  I saw very few guys gang tackles when we finally did get our hands on someone.
Why aren't our guys playing with physicality?
Why can't our guys shed a block?
Why can't our guys tackle?
Where did the "drop your head and stare at the ground" at the first sign of adversity come from?
Why did we give up contain around the end so much?
Why has the D-Line stood in one place and allowed rookie quarterbacks to look like Heisman Candidates?
Why do we not play an aggressive defense and bring someone from the edges or up the middle like all of the tough to play defenses in the league?
Why has it been so difficult to adjust on the fly when we were obviously getting our lunch eaten in one phase of the game?
What's the fixation of playing upperclassmen over more athletically talented kids?

That's just a snippet of my questions about the defense.

Positives:  Ryan Pulley is a Stud along with Sosa Agim.

One thing to consider, all position coaches have to execute the chosen scheme and philosophy of their Coordinator. Poor tackling? Good question as that was supposed to have been a specialty and strength of what Robb Smith teaches. However, it is necessary to be aligned properly and the scheme itself, is supposed to put you in a position to make a play.

If the scheme is wrong (for who you are playing) or you are misaligned for some reason, you may not be in the proper position to make a play (or in the correct physical proximity to make a clean tackle), which leads to lunging and arm tackling and could also preclude the "swarm" or gang tackling that we would all like to see. Repeated failures in the scheme can disillusion and discourage team members which can effect effort in a negative way.

I'm not saying that those things are necessarily happening, but they could be.

[The NewEra]

One thing to consider, all position coaches have to execute the chosen scheme and philosophy of their Coordinator. Poor tackling? Good question as that was supposed to have been a specialty and strength of what Robb Smith teaches. However, it is necessary to be aligned properly and the scheme itself, is supposed to put you in a position to make a play.

If the scheme is wrong (for who you are playing) or you are misaligned for some reason, you may not be in the proper position to make a play (or in the correct physical proximity to make a clean tackle), which leads to lunging and arm tackling and could also preclude the "swarm" or gang tackling that we would all like to see. Repeated failures in the scheme can disillusion and discourage team members which can effect effort in a negative way.

I'm not saying that those things are necessarily happening, but they could be.

Good points.  As I said.  I don't presume to have the answers, only some questions and I think your thoughts on the scheme are really close to the reason behind a few of my questions.

[Sow Lancelot]

Jockeys win more consistently than horses. That's an irrefutable fact.

Not without horses, they don't.

[MuskogeeHogFan]

Good points.  As I said.  I don't presume to have the answers, only some questions and I think your thoughts on the scheme are really close to the reason behind a few of my questions.

Another thing, and some may disagree, I believe we had the talent up front to apply pressure and you can certainly always attempt to apply pressure through blitzes and stunts, but we did little of that. Who makes that call? It sure isn't the DL or LB's coach.

[longtimeHogfan]

Rhodes has been here the whole time.  if he could have fixed our problems why didn't he?

Because he wasn't DC?  Once promoted to that position could he not address some of those issues discussed here?

[ricepig]

Not without horses, they don't.

I've seen a few horses win without a jockey, unfortunately, they don't pay me for those wins.

[Sow Lancelot]

And you can't seem to grasp that we just completed year four under the new head moron, and the only name left from the previous era was Kody Walker.  That means they're ALL HIS PLAYERS!!  Which means it's still the jockey, because he chose the horse he's riding!!!

As if it's as simple as walking into the local College Football Player Emporium, kicking a few tires, and taking home any model you desire.

[The NewEra]

Another thing, and some may disagree, I believe we had the talent up front to apply pressure and you can certainly always attempt to apply pressure through blitzes and stunts, but we did little of that. Who makes that call? It sure isn't the DL or LB's coach.

My biggest gripe this year was the lack of a willingness to call blitzes. I didn't think we used the talent that was there effectively.

[hawginbigd1]

My biggest gripe this year was the lack of a willingness to call blitzes. I didn't think we used the talent that was there effectively.

I like blitzing, but sometimes you get burned, we sent 5 or 6 on all of mizzou's big plays but didn't get there.

[dsf]

The DC isn't the problem, just like Enos isn't the second half problem on offense. It's a scared $hi#less coach that goes conservative at the first hint of pressure. It goes back all4 years here and back to his Wiscy days.

Put the blame where it belongs.

Not being conservative when passing the ball inside your own 20...Which we did against VPI...and, boom, there goes the lead!

[factchecker]

Not being conservative when passing the ball inside your own 20...Which we did against VPI...and, boom, there goes the lead!

I don't understand the whole "we got too conservative on offense" argument for the Belk Bowl.  I agree with you, if anything we took too many chances on our side of the field.

Here is the run vs. pass attempts per qtr:

1st qtr: Run - 9 Pass - 8
2nd qtr: Run - 10 Pass - 8
halftime
3rd qtr:  Run - 10 Pass - 9
4th qtr:  Run - 5  Pass - 6

Total: Run - 34  Pass - 31

http://www.arkansasrazorbacks.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/belk-stats.pdf

[HOGINTENNESSEE]

And you can't seem to grasp that we just completed year four under the new head moron, and the only name left from the previous era was Kody Walker.  That means they're ALL HIS PLAYERS!!  Which means it's still the jockey, because he chose the horse he's riding!!!

Any 5th year SR like Keon Hatcher, Jeremy Sprinkle, T. Johnson, D Wise were signed by Petrino.

[HawgTide]

My expectations are pretty tempered. The best DC we've had I can remember is probably Reggie Herring for God's sake.

Just no. Reggie was terrible. His game plan for the Cotton Bowl against Mizzou was one of the worst ever

[dsf]

Tracy Claeys?

I think he could be good if BB lets him have it.

[swinesation]

Don't see tons of talent on next year's D.

[Fatty McGee]

Don't see tons of talent on next year's D.

Need a new coach - he'll coach them into dominance!  Stars don't matter!

[Fatty McGee]

I've been keeping up with the razorbacks religiously since 2006. In these 10/11 years I cannot remember us having a defense that ANYBODY feared. How can a wealthy SEC school in such a talent-rich state have a bad defense for so long? Even in the Darren McFadden era we had to put up 35+ points to beat someone...

We have the money... the facilities...the prospects... i don't get it

What's this talent rich state you speak of?  Where do you think the University of Arkansas is located?

[Smithri5]

Les Miles would take the job. He would be here for two years if he has success. He needs to prove himself to get another head coaching job.

[mississippihog]

It doesn't matter, whomever is hired will be the best DC we will ever have hired.

can't get worse¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[lutherheggs]

Why not Wilford Brimley?

I saw him at a party almost 25 years ago. He had a girl on each arm and both of them were the skankiest women you could find. Looked like he picked them up at the whore house.

[Fatty McGee]

Les Miles would take the job. He would be here for two years if he has success. He needs to prove himself to get another head coaching job.

Les Miles needs to prove himself?  And he can do that by taking the defensive coordinator position at a school with middling talent in the toughest conference in the nation?

Huh?

[bennyl08]

Someone asked above what we hoped for in a defense. My answer is 15 shutouts.

Obviously that's not happening. So . . .

1. Stout on the line, no gashing us between the tackles.

Had that in 14 and 15.

2. Able to pressure a passer while also able to maintain contain. This wish may involve one or more linebackers able to spy a mobile quarterback. That means speed, because by spy, I don't mean watch the QB when he runs but tackle the QB when he runs.

We've had the first half of that more often than not over the past 20 years. The 2nd half of your statement, well, the next team that can consistently do that will literally be the first. Also, incredibly difficult to both of those. That's why you so often see a defense be able to do one or the other. Either they maintain their gap control and contain, OR they are an aggressive front that gets penetration to disrupt the offense in the backfield. Even with the best players, you have to choose what times you care more about gap integrity and contain and what times you care more about penetration. If you want a DC good at knowing when to do one and when to do the other, that's great. If you want one that can simultaneously do both, not realistic.

3. DBs able to cover and able to turn and spot the ball in flight.

Check. Got that right now.

4. Safeties who can cover and hit.

That's another toughie to have both of. The last safety we had good at both was Tremain Thomas. It'd love to have both, but to cover well, you have to have speed. To hit hard, you need size (or you can do it while small and then be injured half the time, so I'm assuming that isn't ideal). Those size/speed freak combinations are usually early round draft picks.

5. Corners and safeties who can get off of a wide receiver's block and make a tackle out wide.

Our players have their moments with this. To accomplish this, you typically need bigger corners. More muscular and stronger guys. That typically counters their speed and ability to cover. Unless you are a freak of a player like Patrick Peterson. Technique is good, but will only get you so far. Typically because the opposing player is going to have good technique too. A 175 corner is only going to be able to out-control a 210 pound receiver if their technique is able to compensate for that much of a disparity in strength.

6. Regardless of scheme some LBs able to cover an RB.

That is saying you want LB'ers who are at least as fast and as elusive as the RB's we face in the SEC, if nor more so. Maybe once in 5 years does Bama even sign somebody capable of doing that, much less having multiple at one time. Now, if you factor scheme into the equation, then yeah. A LB should be able to be in a position to make the tackle on a rb over their zone and have somebody else pick up the coverage later. Or, have a pass rush good enough that the LB isn't going to have to keep up with the rb in man coverage for 40 yards before the qb throws the ball.

Otherwise, the fastest LB at the combine last year would have been tied for the 6th fastest rb. Okay, let's say we have the 5th fastest LB in the country. There'd be nearly 20 rb's faster who our LB would not be able to cover if we disregard scheme. Suffice it to say, scheme is very important when asking to cover.

7. A DC who schemes in such a way that our LBs aren't consistently being asked to cover a slot receiver that runs a 4.4.

This one is hard to accomplish as well. Let's look at the options. Starting with man coverage. If there are 3 WR's, and you are in a 3-4 or a 4-3, you are either going to have to have a LB cover one of those receivers, have a safety cover the slot receiver, meaning your corners aren't going to have any over the top help, or not be in one of those bases but instead a nickel. If you are in zone with 3 wr's, then your LB will only have to cover them so far as they are in the LB'ers zone. However, there are always holes in zone coverage and there can often be confusion about who is supposed to pick up the person in coverage. It's even worse if the offense has 4 wide set.

IMO, the best approach to that is to 1, 4-2-5 a team (i.e. nickel) that uses 3 wr's. However, you have to know that any good OC is going to be able to force your defense into less than favorable matchups. The question then becomes minimizing the risk. Make sure the LB isn't covering the slot receiver deep and that there'll be a safety to help in that situation. Have corners that are aware of what's going on in the rest of the defense who can help make the tackle on crossing routes that LB'ers are trying to cover. Then, there'll be a window b/w the LB and the corner, but you can try to make it a tight window and have the qb under pressure.

8. A DC who can adjust when an opponent is trashing the first one or two things he tried.

Hire Willy?

[bennyl08]

The correct answer was...he does not have a history of fielding any type of defense.

The facts were what I posted. Many on hogville may not want to hear them. It goes against their pre-conceived biases. For those looking for that up and comer who was good everywhere he had been and was bred into an aggressive style of defense, Robb Smith is their perfect guy. It's funny so many calling for a new DC with the exact same resume as our allegedly current DC had coming in.

[bennyl08]

Another thing, and some may disagree, I believe we had the talent up front to apply pressure and you can certainly always attempt to apply pressure through blitzes and stunts, but we did little of that. Who makes that call? It sure isn't the DL or LB's coach.

Wise Jr was the only guy we had coming in who had shown an ability to consistently get pressure. However, he had shown such a good ability that as a backup player, many different scouting places had him as a mid round pick who could have been drafted late if he declared last year. His inability to stay healthy hurt us this season.

Ledbetter had all of last season to try and get pressure off the edge, but was matched in sacks by Toliver. However, when he moved inside, he may not have been explosive enough to get past tackles very often, but he was explosive enough to get past guards. Agim showed some good explosion, but not nearly at a Flowers level, at least not yet. Taiwan Johnson hasn't really been an explosive guy nor has Winston.

With a healthy Wise Jr, I think we could have definitely bermuda triangled our defense. Allowing Wise and Led to ignore gap control and be disruptive, have Johnson and Winston/Beanum maintain contain on the other side, and have a Greenlaw/Harris clean up behind the Wise/Led combo. Without the healthy Wise, though, Don't think we had somebody we could count on to always get pressure. Or at least almost always get pressure.

That's the one area of weakness I think our defense will have talent wise next season. We have several guys in TJ Smith, D. Dean, and so on who are very athletic for a DT, but maybe not quite athletic enough to be a Flowers/Bequette/Smith at DE.

[bennyl08]

My biggest gripe this year was the lack of a willingness to call blitzes. I didn't think we used the talent that was there effectively.

When was the last time we had a LB who could blitz well? Nutt era? Even Spaight didn't blitz much.

[bennyl08]

Don't see tons of talent on next year's D.

Really? Agim, Pulley, Capps, Harris, Greenlaw, Ramirez, Toliver. All of them will very likely be drafted when their time comes.

DL. Beanum, TJ Smith, D. Dean, Guidry, Taylor. Beanum has been a solid player for on the DL. Check out the other player's HS/JUCO tape and tell me that the raw athleticism isn't there to be great players. Their only issues is being buried on the depth chart by players who have been here a long time and making sure they can mentally put it all together.

LB: Did you watch Eugene's play last season? Quite arguably our best LB behind Greenlaw. He played very well. Similarly to above, check out LeFrance and AJB and tell me that you don't think they have all the physical tools to be talented SEC LB'ers. Look at what Ramsey can do. I didn't think it would work out at all. Namely, in HS all he did was do the video game cheat where you put in a safety at the DE spot and watch them be faster than the OL players and get sacks. I didn't expect that would work in real life, but Ramsey proved me wrong.

DB: KR3 has been a talented player for us. Colely is a head hunter at that position. Nate Dalton's HS tape shows he at least has the physical tools and the size to be a great DB. Tutt is a promising JUCO player we just need to get healthy. Liddell has the talent to be a late round pick or a priority udfa for a team. 

[King Kong]

Les Miles would take the job. He would be here for two years if he has success. He needs to prove himself to get another head coaching job.

He has never coached defense. Thanks fo proving your ignorance

[LZH]

Is Luther still employed at Minnesota State?

[GuvHog]

I think it would be interesting to have Les Miles as Head Hog. Just imagine how pissed off the LSU fans would be if the Tigers were beaten on their home field this year by a Hog team led by the Head Coach they just fired. That would be a thing of beauty to watch!

[kaiserhog]

Les Steckel would be great for Arkansas at defensive coordinator.

[lamont7906]

Houston Texans run a 3-4 Vrabel is just a linebacker coach and he's learning from one of the best DC's at Houston.

[rzrbackramsfan]

Connor cook sucks.

[lumphog]

I think it would be interesting to have Les Miles as Head Hog. Just imagine how pissed off the LSU fans would be if the Tigers were beaten on their home field this year by a Hog team led by the Head Coach they just fired. That would be a thing of beauty to watch!

I just lost ALL respect for you......Notnobuthellno

[Pig in the Pokey]

With the current state of the program what quality DC would take the job?

that's stupid. anybody would like to step into a historically bad defense. nowhere to go but up.

[go hogues]

Until defensive players want to come here, does it really matter who it is?

[Piggfoot]

Tyrone Nix

[tophawg19]

the Arkansas state DC is kind of an unknown on the big scene but his defense was very impressive and aggressive . they were well coached and loved to hit

[HOGINTENNESSEE]

Tyrone Nix

He available since MTSU let him go