Arkansas braces for more of same
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas defensive coordinator Robb Smith was asked this week if the flare-up between Razorbacks Coach Bret Bielema and Texas Tech Coach Kliff Kingsbury added any fuel to his fire heading into Saturday’s game against Texas A&M in Arlington, Texas.
Smith steered clear of Kingsbury’s prediction that the Aggies would beat Arkansas
after the Red Raiders handled the Hogs 35-24 last Saturday, but he pushed the gas pedal on the fuel theme.
“The only fuel that I need
on my fire is to go back and watch that film and see what occurred there,” Smith said of Texas Tech’s performance, which included 486 total yards and touchdowns on five of its first seven possessions against Arkansas. “He can say whatever, that’s his prerogative.
“I know the thing I’m focused on is this football team and this defense and making sure we’re ready to play this Saturday, and we’ve got some work to do.”
The Razorbacks have plenty to work on after failing to contain Texas Tech quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Red Raiders’ quick-paced passing game. Mahomes completed 26 of 30 passes for 315 yards, with two of the misses going for deep-pass interceptions on third downs that were essentially punts. The Red Raiders, who converted 7 of 10 third-down plays, never actually had to punt.
Texas A&M runs a similar Spread offense with the tendency to hurry the tempo and attack all over the field. Starting quarterback Kyle Allen hasn’t been as dynamic a runner as Mahomes, but his 61.4 percent completion percentage is slightly better than Mahomes’ before he faced Arkansas.
The Aggies have access to first-hand information from Kingsbury because of his relationship with Texas A&M as a former coordinator for Coach Kevin Sumlin, and they can mirror how the Texas Tech attack worked against the Razorbacks because of their scheme.
“I think that’s going to be a lot of tape that we watch this week,,” Allen said.
Bielema agreed that the Texas Tech game will serve as quality prep work for Arkansas’ defense.
“I really do think there is probably a blessing in disguise for our defense to have the opportunity that we did for four quarters to line up and play, execute and do the things we did well, see the things that we don’t do well get exposed,” Bielema said. “There could’t be any better preparation for A&M as far as that goes.”
Bielema’s optimism can be skewed the other way for the Aggies.
Asked if Texas Tech’s rushing success against the Razorbacks provided any insight for the Aggies, Texas A&M center Mike Matthews said “absolutely.”
“They run a very similar offense to ours, a very similar scheme and play-calling, runwise,” Matthews said. “So for us to be able watch that the week before and see how they successfully did it is just more confidence for us.”
Texas A&M offensive coordinator Jake Spavital has
worked for a who’s who of coaches who run the up-tempo Spread, including Kingsbury, West Virginia’s Dana Holgorsen and Auburn’s Gus Malzahn. He said he likes the blueprint Texas Tech put on tape last Saturday.
“Kliff has a lot of speed on the field and you see how he tried to expose Arkansas in his certain ways,” Spavital said. “They’re such a base defense and they play sound. They’re a four-down front and they’re going to be a quarters [zone coverage] team. … Because they play sound football, they’re going to be in the right spots at the right times.
“You really have to try to create mismatches in personnel to try to take advantage of these guys.”
Texas Tech cashed in five touchdowns out of a total of 23:17 possession time against Arkansas, excelling on third down and getting good work from Mahomes on called runs and scrambles. The Red Raiders averaged 6.3 yards per carry on 27 run plays and 8.4 yards per play for the game.
“We didn’t play well enough last week,” Smith said. “That’s an understatement. I thought our offense and our kicking game did a great job, good enough to win that football game. We didn’t hold up our end of the bargain, and that’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s where we are right now.
“We’re going to find out a lot about our defense this week. We’re going back to work, and we’re going to have a better plan and we’re going to execute better and hopefully have a different result.”