State of the Hogs: Trench moves coming

Arkansas offensive line coach Kurt Anderson watches practice Saturday, April 8, 2017, in Fayetteville.
Arkansas offensive line coach Kurt Anderson watches practice Saturday, April 8, 2017, in Fayetteville.

— They are called stunts, stems and slants. That's the way defensive linemen move after they line up to confuse and defeat the massive offensive linemen in college football, often 30 pounds heavier.

It's a simple concept. It's much harder to contain a target on the move. Since I can remember, it's the great equalizer for defenses.

Obviously, someone bigger and faster is even better. But speed kills in most things, especially football. There's no place in college football with more speed than the SEC.

So it's not a surprise that the Arkansas offensive line -- intent on being the biggest, baddest unit in the SEC -- has sometimes struggled with speed, especially when there is a movement piece either before or after the snap and sometimes both.

Do you recall what happened in the second halves of both the Missouri and Virginia Tech losses to end last season? The Hogs could not block movement in the running game. Eventually, quarterback Austin Allen was swamped, when defenders were teeing off in obvious pass situations.

So what's happening with the Arkansas offensive line this spring to figure out movement? It's no surprise that it's something that is going to be a major focus in the switch to a 3-4 defensive front. Movement will be featured with the likes of McTelvin Agim and others on the line with a quick twitch.

There wasn't much of that last week in the first major scrimmage of the spring, open to the media but not the public. In fact, head coach Bret Bielema was fast to point out afterward that the defensive front did not offer much movement as it worked to master base technique first.

"It's coming, though," Bielema said. "We'll have more movement in our next scrimmage."

That's what I'll be watching for Saturday, another open day for the media. However, defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads hinted Thursday that maybe that's still going to be under wraps in this scrimmage, too. Rhoads has also said he may use more base, instead of nickel. His idea is to play linebackers more in zone, than lock them all up in man-to-man, as last year's 4-3 played out.

"Maybe a little more movement," Rhoads said when asked about stunts and slants. "We've had some of that and we've worked on that this week. But I think you'll see a lot of the same thing as last week. And, I want to continue to put that base together, get those linebackers trained."

The large-scale movement up front is not what's happened so far this spring. But there has been some. When there has been a little, offensive line coach Kurt Anderson has been pleased that his group has handled movement over the first half of spring drills, if not in the scrimmage time. He's seen maturity in the way his top unit has handled much of the movement.

"It might have been a little more vanilla last Saturday, and maybe what we see this weekend won't be a lot different," Anderson said. "But, we've seen movement and we've done well against it this spring. We've seen it in a lot of the other days (when media has not been present)."

The inexperience of the offensive line and the change in blocking technique might have contributed to the lack of success against movement last year. Anderson thinks that will be a thing of the past in his second year.

"The thing about it last year in those last two games, we did some very good things against movement -- in the first half," Anderson said. "We can block movement. But we didn't handle it in the second half.

"It's one of the things we've really worked hard against in the offseason, movement, mastering our technique. We've drilled it in individual portions of practice. We've worked hard on that and we've improved."

It's a three-step process to handling stunts.

"The first piece is communication," Anderson said. "Do they talk about what is happening?

"Second, you have to know where your eyes are supposed to focus, so you can see it when it happens. That's one of the things I'm checking, do the eyes follow the movement in the right way.

"Then the third piece is the footwork. The guys have done a great job of working on their footwork over the past few months.

"What I've told them all along, a six-inch step the wrong way will cost you a play and that can cost you a quarter and that can cost you a half and lead to a game."

There are some plays that have been perfected this spring against movement.

"It might be an outside zone, it might be something else," Anderson said. "It's about the eyes and the footwork. I see the improvement, the maturity in this bunch."

New defensive line coach John Scott sees the same thing, but it's still about growth in his group, too.

"We've just scratched the surface to what we can do as far as movement," Scott said. "There is so much available in the 3-4. It's something we are getting to and will be important to what we do the rest of the spring."

It starts with the potential of the nose tackles -- Austin Capps, Bijhon Jackson and Jonathan Marshall. They are playing a two-gap style in the middle, able to shoot on either side of the center. And they may move opposite a guard, too. That hasn't been shown, but it's available after the base is mastered.

Anderson said all of them have been a handful at times this spring.

"Capps is a big, strong guy who has a style that fits what our defense is doing with the 3-4," he said. "He can get after the center and so can Bijhon.

"In reality, those guys are making us much better, and I think those nose tackles going against the best center in America in Frank Ragnow has helped them, too."

It's a teaching process with the defensive front. Scott may be about where Anderson was at the same point last spring, trying to mold a young group with new technique. Scott likes what he sees.

"It all starts with the nose tackle," he said. "If that position is weak in the 3-4, you are going to have a weak defense. It's the center piece in this defense. I've told them that. If the nose can't handle the A gap, it puts everything in a bind. But we are getting there."

Scott thinks his personality fits what's needed this spring with the front.

"I'm a teacher as far as my background, so I'm using every tool available to make sure our meeting room is focused throughout the time we've got," he said. "You want to keep then engaged in that room so they can learn."

Because the spring is stretched out with only three practices each week, there are a lot of meeting days. Scott knows these are as important as the days on the field.

"My first two years of coaching, I was a high school teacher," Scott said. "My major was communication, with a minor in English, and that's what I ended up teaching, English. I loved that. I'm a good writer."

However, those days were a challenge. English teachers grade a lot of papers. It leads to long days for someone doubling as a coach. Do you grade papers, or watch football tape? You do both.

"You have some students who were very smart, some not so smart," he said. "But you find ways to teach them all. Some learn one way, some others. It's almost exactly the same way in coaching now. You have all levels as far as learning.

"Some I can tell. Some you reach by showing them tape or maybe a power point. Then, there are others, the only way is for them to go on the field and see it there.

"One of the things I've figured out, it's so important to keep them plugged in throughout that time in the meeting room. So I can be loud, I can crack a joke. That's how I teach."

Rhoads likes what he sees and hears.

"Very much so," Rhoads said. "My room is next to his room. His players are in and out of his room all day. I'll tell you this, Coach Scott has a loud voice and he's a teacher.

"I love it. I was raised by a hall of fame high school coach, a history teacher. There are stories about his class room."

Then, Rhoads offered his own version of humor, twisted around the great American film pioneer Cecil B. DeMille.

"There was usually a film projector in class," Rhoads said. "His students got to watch a lot of football. My dad's name was Cecil. They called him Cecil B. DeRhoads."

OK, the defensive line coach is not the only one cracking jokes in the football offices.

Sports on 04/15/2017

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