Coach’s Corner
Vanderbilt at Arkansas
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Sentinel-Record will follow up with a head football coach of a local high school after each regular season game this year for the Arkansas Razorbacks. This week’s installment features Sam Counce, head coach of the Mountain Pine Red Devils.
Arkansas was officially eliminated from bowl eligibility on Saturday with a 45-31 setback to Vanderbilt after weeks of perceived improvements.
The Razorbacks (2-7, 0-5 Southeastern Conference) opened the
game with a nine-play, 75-yard drive to get on the scoreboard first. Arkansas traded scores with Vanderbilt (4-5, 1-4) through much of the first three quarters.
“I think they scheme really well, but you know how it is at that level,” said Sam Counce, head coach of the Mountain Pine Red Devils.
“It does not take very many series — it is like getting through the third time in the batting order — people figure out what you are doing. With the talent level they have right now, they have to hide some people and do things like that. Once they figure out what you’re doing, they get exploited pretty quickly.”
Arkansas suffered disappointing non-conference losses in September, but the Hogs were perceived to have competed well in their SEC losses. A 23-0 victory over Tulsa (1-7, 0-4 American Athletic Conference) at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium ended a sixgame losing streak, including the first four SEC games of the season.
“That is a long year, and they get LSU next,” Counce said. “You get these kids, you get them believing in what they are doing, they get after it and they play hard. If they do not have a lot of success early whenever they are in that situation, it does not take long for the wind to come out of your sails when you realize you are up against better talent or equal talent as what you have.”
The Arkansas offense has moved the ball more efficiently with junior quarterback Ty Storey, but the offense has yet to emulate what first-year head coach Chad Morris coordinated at Tulsa and Clemson, nor the SMU offense he led as head coach in Dallas the past three seasons.
“Ty Storey is a talented young man, but whenever you are playing in the SEC and you are in the West division, you have to be the dude, like they say,” Counce said. “He has to be the leader and he has to be very talented. I think he is talented, but I just don’t think he can get them elevated to the play where they need to be.”
Storey now has 1,223 passing yards this season with a 58.4 percent completion rate, nine touchdowns and seven interceptions after passing 23-for-36 on Saturday for 240 yards, two touchdowns and a pair of interceptions that Vanderbilt turned into 14 points. He missed a wide open Jordan Jones on a deep route in the third quarter with Arkansas trailing only 24-17.
Former Clemson quarterback Kelly Bryant visited Fayetteville during the Tulsa game and was in Missouri on Saturday when the Tigers (4-4, 0-4) lost on the last play to Kentucky (7-1, 5-1). Morris helped recruit Bryant to Clemson before taking the head coach job at SMU.
“They need to get him and let these young guys settle in, learn what’s going on, him play one year and let coach Morris get everything going in the right direction with his people,” Counce said. “Ty Storey has a ceiling, I think. I just don’t think that ceiling is high enough to get a lot done in the SEC.”
Bryant was 16-2 as a starter for the Tigers before opting this season to transfer after coach Dabo Swinney decided on freshman Trevor Lawrence as the team’s starter. He has 3,338 passing yards with 16 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in his career, but he has also rushed for another 819 yards and 16 touchdowns. “They want to put a lot of pressure on the defense,” Counce said. “They want to put them in bad situations really quick and move the ball.
“I think coach Morris wants to do some RPO stuff and he has got to have a guy that understands what he wants to do and where to attack the defenses. It is a tough road for them right now.”
Arkansas was still able to gain
447 yards of offense despite the complications in the first year of Morris’ system. The Razorbacks only outgained their opponents by five yards as the defense surrendered 442 yards to Vanderbilt a week after shutting out Tulsa.
“They have kids in positions that coach (John) Chavis did not recruit,” Counce said. “If he has a rush end or a linebacker that has to cover in the secondary, he is kind of fighting with a short stick right now until they can get their own people there.”
The Commodores hit back on their own opening drive with a
63-yard touchdown run by playmaker Ke’Shawn Vaughn, who finished with 172 yards and three touchdowns on 26 carries. Vaughn scored twice in the fourth quarter as Vanderbilt entered the final frame leading, 24-17. Backup running back Khari Blasingame added a five-yard touchdown run of his own with 1:20 left in the game.
“They got pushed back on the defensive line,” Counce said. “They got pushed around pretty good. I just think sometimes they are trying to put a round peg in a square hole as far as what they are doing. They got pushed around on the line.
“Coach Morris said this earlier, ‘If you don’t have speed, you are chasing speed.’ That is easy to spot pretty quick whenever you have corners and linebackers who can’t cover.”
Senior weakside linebacker Dre Greenlaw is third on the team in tackles with 60 despite missing all or most of four games this season, including Saturday’s loss to Vanderbilt. Freshman Bumper Pool played in his stead to sit ninth on the team in tackles with 23.
Junior middle linebacker Scoota Harris moved into the lead in the SEC with 93 tackles after making 12 against the Commodores. Vanderbilt middle linebacker Jordan Griffin fell into second place with 91 after making five on Saturday. LSU linebacker Devin White is third in the conference with 76.
“Greenlaw is a talent and that Bumper Pool is a great talent,” Counce said. “They are having to put too much pressure on those guys or expect too much out of them, like whenever the defensive line is not making tackles and putting pressure on the quarterback.
“Those guys can only do so much. They are getting a lot of mileage out of them, but the physicality of the SEC is just not there yet for the Razorbacks.”