CLAY HENRY: There is still hope for the Hogs

“It’s the hope that kills you.”

That’s from the final episode of Ted Lasso, one of my favorite conclusions in any series I’ve ever watched. It ties together three great seasons on the story of the American football man who goes to coach an English professional soccer club.

Lasso’s wit and one-liners delighted throughout, but his locker room speech in the finale pulled together the theme for the entire series. You must believe or there is no hope. My daughter Sarah gave me a pennant with that word. It is attached to the desk in my study. It’s the first thing I see when I walk into the room.

Do you still believe if you are an Arkansas football player? Do fans still believe in Sam Pittman, Bobby Petrino and Travis Williams? That’s the collective brain trust for the Razorbacks.

Do you still have hope? Can this 3-2 football team somehow get to the promised land? Is a bowl trip possible?

That’s for each person in Razorback Nation to decide. Some still believe and have hope as powerful Tennessee comes to town for an ABC-TV national telecast set for 6:30 p.m. Saturday night in Razorback Stadium. The Vols are heavily favored. The betting line has been around two touchdowns this week.

Results from the first five weeks tell us that this is an average Arkansas team that probably doesn’t stand a great chance against the Vols. The Hogs make too many mistakes. Penalties and turnovers are the constant.

Coaching has been both good and bad. I wince when I see a team with obvious strengths play away from them.

For example, the Hogs can play defense. I thought Williams, the defensive coordinator, did a marvelous job in his first season in the Ozarks and he’s off to a good start in year two.

Until the last two games of 2023, the defense gave the Hogs a chance in most games. They held the lead in the fourth quarter at Ole Miss. They went toe to toe with mighty Alabama in Tuscaloosa. They did the same against LSU in Baton Rouge. All three were winnable games. Along with Georgia, that’s the strength of the SEC.

We are seeing about the same thing this year. Defense held stout for much of the Oklahoma State and Texas A&M games, the two losses this year. Both should have been wins if the offense had not made so many mistakes. Penalties and turnovers doomed the Hogs.

I winced as I saw pass after pass called in the loss to the Aggies. A defense that was dominant should have been helped with more run calls. There were 41 passes thrown. A few more were called but were sacks or fumbles.

If half of those were run plays, the game would have been over in quick fashion and the Aggies would have run out of time and lost before that fourth quarter touchdown drive when the Arkansas defensive front gave out. It’s best to protect a great defense with a more conservative offensive operation.

Taylen Green | Michael Morrison-HitThatLine.com

It appears too much is being placed on quarterback Taylen Green. He’s running for his life because of protection issues or poor center snaps. “Wide” isn’t so much a term to be used for the Arkansas field goal kicker this season. It’s about the center snaps.

Pittman addressed that in his Monday media briefing. He said center Austin Nichols has a tendency to deliver a wide snap one way when he’s reaching for a block the other way. It’s something that is being worked on in practice, but it still shows up a few times a game.

I love Petrino’s offense. It’s a deep playbook that I’d have trouble toting to and from the meeting room. Petrino said in August that the main mission was to figure out the identity of the team. The translation: what in that massive playbook fits this collection of players, especially the new quarterback?

And remember this, it’s a new quarterback with new coaches and new players around him. I laughed when someone on a message board wanted Green to measure up to the slick execution they recalled from Ryan Mallett and Tyler Wilson when they played for Petrino.

OK, how about comparing Green to Casey Dick and Nathan Dick? They were the two quarterbacks who started the 12 games (seven were losses) in Petrino’s first season. Mallett was sitting out after transferring from Michigan. Wilson also redshirted and then played behind Mallett for two seasons.

Casey Dick did put everything together in the Petrino offense for the season ender, a glorious 31-30 victory over LSU in Little Rock. He had been benched for poor play the week before in Starkville in favor of his brother.

That’s the game that gave Razorback Nation hope for the next season. Of course, Mallett would be the man in 2009 and 2010. Wilson would take over in 2011. Those three re-wrote the Arkansas passing records.

What would be waiting for them was a great collection of wide receivers tutored for two years by Paul Petrino, the best wide receiver coach at Arkansas since Raymond Berry. Petrino gave Joe Adams, Jarius Wright and Greg Childs the kind of disciplined leadership like Berry did for Chuck Dicus, John Rees and Mike Reppond.

Bobby Petrino | Michael Morrison-HitThatLine.com

The point is that these quarterbacks and receivers are in year one of the offense, not year two like was the case with Mallett. The option routes are delicate. The quarterbacks and receivers are learning and adapting on the fly. They make mistakes. The passing game is not yet the strength of this team.

It’s frustrating to watch. There are too many penalties, some by the defense. Facemask penalties were the problem in the Alabama-Birmingham game, but not so much since then. But a swipe to the helmet of a quarterback by a rusher on an incomplete pass was a big mistake in the A&M game. And there was another face mask penalty. There were too many pre-snap penalties and fumbles.

I went to a trusted old coach to learn how you eliminate that sort of stuff. Houston Nutt’s teams were disciplined, like those coached by Frank Broyles, Lou Holtz and Ken Hatfield. Nutt said it’s the Arkansas way.

“I learned from those great coaches,” he said. “It was the same with Jimmy Johnson when I was at Oklahoma State. He learned from Coach Broyles. It’s accountability 365 days of the year. All of those coaches ran practice with two to three periods on ball security. You didn’t fumble.

“You run the bleachers if you jump offside. It’s not good feeling if you see one of your linemen running to the top of the bleachers. It’s a bad sign.

“Ball security was preached. You talked about the three pressure points in the chow hall, in fourth quarter class. You saw Reggie Herring and Keith Burns with a towel simulating the center snap in fourth quarter class. It was constant detail for discipline. You didn’t jump offside.”

In other words, it’s not about what you say in the pre-game speech about discipline and character. It was preached daily and every time a coach was with a player. It’s the Arkansas way.

The other tenant, get it right in practice before you run it in a game. And if you can’t run it right, delete it. Reduce the offense to the point that you only carry into a game what can be run efficiently.

“What you emphasize is going to happen,” Nutt said. “Emphasize character. Emphasize ball security. All the little things add up.

“You don’t have to be the best team, but you have to be the team that makes the fewest mistakes. They may be better, but you can emphasize the things that don’t beat yourself.”

That can still happen for this Arkansas football team. I have hope because I see enough talent. The kicking game is improving. Defense and kicking can win games, if you don’t put either unit in a bad spot with penalties and turnovers.

Landon Jackson | Michael Morrison-HitThatLine.com

Tennessee is a juggernaut, but not unbeatable. They do have one huge advantage over the Hogs. They are confident. They don’t have to rely on hope.

Nutt just returned from a trip to Knoxville to speak to a touchdown club. He is in a rotation of speakers for that group.

“I go every fourth year,” he said. “They are all excited about their team. It’s funny, four years ago it was a different feeling. (The room) was half full. I told them, ‘Ya’ll will come back.’ They said yesterday they didn’t think it would be this quick.

“They are good and it starts with that defensive front. They have a great defensive line. They rotate eight. They just keep saying next, next, next and keep them fresh.

“They also have a great point guard. The teams winning this year all have great point guards. That’s the quarterback. He can throw and he can run and he doesn’t make mistakes.”

I watched Tennessee build a lead in their victory at Oklahoma, then pull back with a conservative approach. That is how you protect a young quarterback. Texas A&M won by taking a conservative approach with a young quarterback in the fourth quarter.

Arkansas will have to contend with a great defensive line for the second straight week. That was also Auburn’s strength, but both A&M and Tennessee are better.

Most are pointing to the Arkansas offensive tackles as the problem, but Pittman mentioned issues with the interior of his blockers, too. The bull rush is shoving the pocket back into Green’s lap and he’s bailing and that takes him into the unprotected area outside the tackles. Then, it’s a foot race to the boundary where he looks down the sideline in desperation.

The middle of the field has been open, but Green hasn’t stayed in the pocket enough to see that soft spot vacated by blitzing linebackers and safeties.

I do have hope that Petrino will continue to massage the offense and his play calling to the point it meshes with Green’s strengths. This is not his first rodeo, but it is the first one for these players in his system.

I have hope that the return of Rashod Dubinion will help the running game. Ja’Quinden Jackson is a superior running back, but he sure could have used a few plays off the last few weeks when Dubinion was first injured and then suspended. Pittman said if Dubinion practices well this week, he’ll get some snaps.

I don’t think Petrino will call 41 pass plays this week. That gives me hope for an upset victory. Hope can kill you, but it’s about all there is to look forward to right now.