Connections aplenty between Hogs, Tigers

Posted: October 8, 2009 at 6:22 a.m.

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FAYETTEVILLE — This Arkansas-Auburn rivalry seems to take on more relatives than Jim Bob Duggar’s family.

Let’s see: Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn coordinated Arkansas’ offense in 2006 and formerly was the head high school coach in Arkansas of Hughes and state championship teams at Shiloh Christian and Springdale.

Auburn defensive line coach Tracy Rocker was a former Arkansas defensive line coach, including the 2006 staff with Malzahn.

Dallas Cowboys linebackers coach Reggie Herring, Arkansas’ defensive coordinator from 2005-2007 and a former Auburn defensive coordinator before that, is the father of Auburn backup linebacker Adam Herring. Adam Herring finished high school in Arkansas at Shiloh Christian.

Auburn starting left offensive tackle Lee Ziemba hails from Rogers. Auburn receiver/ Wildcat formation quarterback Kodi Burns is a Fort Smith Northside alum.

Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino was an offensive coordinator for former Auburn head coach Tommy Tuberville in 2002 when current Auburn head coach Gene Chizik was Auburn’s defensive coordinator.

Petrino said he knew Chizik “real well” during their Auburn campaign together.

Only 5-19 in two seasons at perpetual Big 12 North doormat Iowa State, Chizik was not a popular hire to succeed Tuberville at Auburn. The Tigers are now 5-0 under Chizik.

“I imagine they’re smiling now,” Petrino said. “He’s a great person. Unbelievable family. He has twin daughters that used to come up to the office, as cute as you could ever be around. And he’s a great defensive football coach. When I was with him, we played awesome defense, and he did the years after that at Auburn. He was always very sound, very speed oriented. He’s a good person and a great coach.”

GRAYSON THE GUARD

Harrison’s Wade Grayson, last year’s 12-game starting weakside guard who became a backup combo center-offensive guard for Petrino’s 2009 Hogs, is now more guard than center again.

Against A&M, sophomore Grant Cook of Jonesboro divided guard time off the bench with Grayson instead of Grayson coming off the bench.

“He played well,” Petrino said of Grayson. “We kept him fresh. We’ll rotate him at guard with Cook and he also hasto be our backup center. So we have to take one day a week in practice where he takes a lot of reps at center.”

Sophomore Seth Oxner of Monticello has started and played the bulk of all four games as Arkansas’ center.

DEFENSE GROWS UP

Other than one touchdown bomb Texas A&M caught early taking a 10-0 lead and another wouldbe touchdown bomb the Aggies dropped which likely would have given them a 17-7 lead, it appeared Arkansas played its most complete defensive game so far last Saturday night.

“We grew up and got better,” Petrino said. “I think it started with our pass rush. It was a different style game. There was a lot of throwing, a lot of scrambling by their quarterback. It changes styles this week.”

Unlike many Spread offenses, including Texas A&M’s offense that attempted 58 passes and did much of its running on quarterback scrambles, Malzahn’s Spread offense runs the ball well with running backs led by108-yards per game rusher Ben Tate.

“People think of their hurry-up no-huddle as a pass happy offense,” Arkansas third-year sophomore defensive end Jake Bequette said, “but in reality they are a runfirst offense. Establishing a running game is critical for that offense to be successful. As a defense, we have to understand like any SEC game we have to stop the run first.”

Sports, Pages 9 on 10/08/2009

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