Razorbacks to emphasize defense in practice
FAYETTEVILLE — Pads will be popping today on the University of Arkansas football practice fields.
But it won’t be full pads or live tackling just yet for the Razorbacks. Those milestones are still to come.
Today’s third practice of fall camp will be in modified pads or “shells,” a step up from the helmets and shorts of the first two workouts as part of the NCAA-mandated acclimatization process that will lead to full pads next week.
The workout is closed to members of the media and public, and the Razorbacks, for the first time this camp, will not conduct video interviews afterward.
For an Arkansas defense that has ranked near the bottom of the SEC and the FBS the past couple of years, maximizing talent and schemes and improving the Hogs’ tackling prowess are all needed elements of training camp.
Defensive coordinator Barry Odom was asked last week how he and the staff can improve consistency on that side of the ball.
“It comes down to great preparation and habits,” Odom said. “There’s a lot of deciding going on in the game on how you prepare Sunday through the time the ball is kicked off.
“If you have poor habits and you don’t prepare the right way and you’re not absolutely on point in every area, it’s going to get exposed really quickly.”
The Razorbacks lost team leaders McTelvin Agim, De’Jon Harris and Kam Curl, one standout on each level of the defense, to the NFL, as well as two more starters on the front in defensive tackle T.J. Smith and defensive end Gabe Richardson.
The returning starters on defense are linebacker Bumper Pool, cornerbacks Montaric Brown and Jarques McClellion, safety Joe Foucha, nickel back Greg Brooks Jr., and defensive end Mataio Soli. In that group of returning starters there are no seniors.
While COVID-19 protocols have encouraged distancing, it is self-evident the amount of facemask-to-facemask time for the guys in the trenches will start ramping up, and the live tackling periods are coming.
Coach Sam Pittman said the Razorbacks have to be smart about the amount of live tackling they conduct, but it is a critical part
of preparing for the season.
“You have different people that have different beliefs about tackling,” Pittman said. “Any time you don’t scrimmage live your main concern — because if you’re an offensive or defensive lineman and in shells you’re full speed — [is] about who can hang on to the football.
“And you are concerned about who can tackle. We have a defensive staff that believes they can teach tackling in their individual drills. So we have to decide how many times we’re going to scrimmage. Our depth may not be quite what we like right now, so you have to take that into consideration how many times you are going to tackle live to the ground.”
Odom, who has worked most closely with linebackers and safeties, said tackling fundamentals will have to be huge for the Hogs.
“Tackling is obviously something to anyone that watches a game, that they could say they’re either a good tackling team or they’re not,” Odom said. “It doesn’t take a lot of football experience to notice that. I know that the greatest teams that I’ve been on in terms of playing team defense have been really good tackling teams.”
Odom said there are a number of ways to teach sound tackling.
“The best way to continue to become a better tackling team is to understand how you can play fast and understanding the defense,” he said. “I don’t know the last time you’ve seen a true, pure, how you teach a form tackle.
“Most of the tackles happen when you’re playing your leverage point, you’re using the angles correctly, you’re pressing the line of scrimmage, you’ve got two guys that are vice-ing the ball.
“Everything that we try to do in our individual drills — whether it’s form tackling in our one-on-one, whether it’s pass coverage, whether it’s rushing the passer — everything that we’re trying to structure in our individual drills should look exactly like what our guys at that position would do on game day.”
Once the technique is in place, Odom said, repetitions are huge.
“Then get them drilled so much that it’s repetition and it becomes monotonous, but that’s when you start making up positive ground,” he said. “When you go out and the habits become so natural that that’s how you play, then that is the DNA of your defense.”
Pittman sounded as if he’s debating between holding one or two major scrimmages during the 25 practices that lead into the Sept. 26 season opener against Georgia.
But even on non-scrimmaging days, there will be thud tackling, not to the ground, and plenty of individual work on the art of tackling.
“I think we’re going to do a lot of individual tackling, a lot of individual tackling on our running backs,” Pittman said. “A lot of times what causes injury is a guy leg-whips another guy, a guy falls on the ground and falls on a knee, this, that and the other.
“So we’re going to try to get our tackling and ball handling as much as we can done without having to do it full team, full live. We will have at least one, probably two scrimmages. I don’t know that we’ll get to three. To be honest with you, I’m just concerned about our depth.”