Gameday Extra

9.17.2022 KEYS TO VICTORY MATT JONES & SCOTTIE BORDELON WHOLEHOGSPORTS.COM FAST START Former Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick, who was a senior in Bobby Petrino's first season coaching the Razorbacks in 2008, has a word of advice when preparing for a Petrino-coached team: watch the first offensive drive. "He's going to have something formulated just because that's who he is," said Dick, now the head coach at Fayetteville High School. "He always felt like the first drive of the game was the most important. He knew that was going to kind of set the tone, so he puts a lot of time into the first drive and typically the first three plays." Dick made that comment during a speech at the Hawgs Illustrated Sports Club this week, which included great insight into the level of preparation required to play quarterback for the coach who will lead the Missouri State Bears into Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday. "I'll never forget, before every game we played he would give us a 6-inch ring binder and it would just have still-shot photos of…whoever we were playing," Dick said. "You had to go in there and write what defense they were doing, then who was blitzing, based off of a still shot. "It really made you a better player to understand his system. He's just very demanding." Petrino's philosophy was to put immense pressure on a quarterback during practice so that it would seem easy on the first drive and throughout the game. "He was on you about every single thing you did in practice, whether it was you stepped out from under center with the wrong foot or you didn't audible to the right play," Dick said. "For those of you that don't know, trying to learn Coach Petrino's playbook is like trying to learn English in like five days. There's a whole lot of freedom at the line of scrimmage." The game-day call sheet includes great detail about when and where to target certain receivers. "If it was (former Arkansas tight end) D.J. Williams, there were like eight plays that said, 'Get to No. 45,'" Dick said, "if it was a situation where he felt we needed 10 or 15 yards. (Receiver London Crawford) was a straight-line runner who had a lot of speed, so he would have two plays for London where he thought we could have a big play, and there was a section on the play-call sheet that would be about getting the ball to No. 2. "He's very meticulous about the things he does and why he does them, and where he call them at in the game." Missouri State has not started to Petrino's liking this season. The Bears went three-and-out in their first drive against Central Arkansas and Tennessee-Martin with minus-9 yards combined. Arkansas started well against South Carolina last week with touchdown drives on its first three possessions that totaled 199 yards. The fourth drive gained 43 yards before a missed field goal. Pittman spoke this week about the importance of setting the tone on the first offensive drive. "We're going to show our opponent who we are," Pittman said on his radio show. "That doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to score points. That doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to get a first down. We want to, but we're going to show our opponent that we're a physical group, that we're going to play hard and that we're going to strain to the ball and strain blocking for our ball carriers. "I want the opponent to know who we are by the first play of the game. To me, that's starting fast. And, of course, part of that is holding onto the ball, which we've been very good at." KEEP IT SIMPLE Third-year Arkansas offensive coordinator Kendal Briles has thrown a number of unique looks, sets and formations at opposing defenses through two weeks. From those, we have seen a few interesting, outside-the- box ways of getting the ball in the hands of playmakers. But Arkansas has largely kept things simple offensively to this point. That should continue this week against Missouri State. The Razorbacks have not truly opened up their passing game because of the solid push and success of the offensive line and running backs, particularly Raheim "Rocket" Sanders. Against South Carolina, it was evident early that Pittman believed his front could lean on the Gamecocks' defensive line. Arkansas mixed in a pass here and there, but handoffs to Sanders and runs for quarterback KJ Jefferson and tailback AJ Green worked just fine. Pittman and Briles went to them again and again, and basically tested South Carolina's manhood. The Razorbacks' 65 rush attempts in Week 2 were the program's most in a game since the 2014 season when Arkansas, whose offensive line coach was Pittman, ran the ball 68 times at Texas Tech in a 21-point rout. Of Jefferson's 21 pass attempts last week, 11 were within five yards of the line of scrimmage. He completed each of them and gave his talented pass catchers an opportunity to make things happen, and they did. Jefferson, who was terrific last season in his accuracy on deep passes, has only six long attempts this season. He has completed three. Don't be surprised if he airs it out early against the Bears, but one should expect the Razorbacks to stick with their power run game. If it isn't broke, don't fix it. PENALTIES Seven times in Pittman's 25- game tenure, the Razorbacks have been penalized at least 10 times. Arkansas' 10 penalties in its 44-30 victory over the Gamecocks cost it 122 yards. Seven of the miscues came on defense, three of whcih were personal fouls for illegal hands to the face. Holding was also called three times, including twice on the offense. The offensive holdings negated a 5-yard pass to receiver Matt Landers and a 46-yard gain by Raheim Sanders in which he was brought down at the South Carolina 1. Asked Monday if anything stood out in his film review of last Saturday's game, Pittman said the penalties jumped off the screen. The Razorbacks are averaging 92.5 penalty yards per game this season. Only five teams — Liberty, Baylor, Central Florida, Houston and Massachusetts — have more penalty yards than Arkansas this season. The Razorbacks were one of the nation's most-penalized teams a year ago. "The No. 1 thing is our penalties," Pittman said. "We've got to figure out how to get those cleaned up. Most of those, if not all of them, on defense happened on third down. It just can't happen. We've got to really emphasize it. "We've got good coaches. They'll help with that, and we've got to get it fixed because it's going to come back and bite us if we don't." The Razorbacks (17) are the third-most penalized team in the SEC. Only Missouri and Alabama have more. DEFENDING SCREENS Arkansas linebacker Drew Sanders' bone-rattling first- quarter hit on South Carolina receiver Antwane Wells after a 2-yard reception fired up the Reynolds Razorback Stadium crowd last week. But moments later, all that could be heard was the section of Gamecocks fans sitting in the lower northeast corner. South Carolina hurt the Razorbacks with a screen pass to running back MarShawn Lloyd to the tune of 43 yards to the Arkansas 15. The Gamecocks then called another screen on the next snap, and then another. The Razorbacks defended the final two screens of the drive well and ultimately forced a field goal, but quarterback Spencer Rattler totaled 64 yards on 8-of-12 passing in the screen game in Week 2. One week earlier, Cincinnati totaled 36 screen- pass yards and completed 7 of 7 attempts. Missouri State is more than likely to test the Razorbacks in this area. Add quick passes to the perimeter into the mix, and Arkansas' ability to tackle in space and in traffic will be of the utmost importance. In periods of practices open to reporters this week, defensive coordinator Barry Odom, who also works with the team's safeties, led a defensive backs drill in which the focus was meeting and wrapping up receivers on hot throws to the boundary. "We had a missed assignment on a screen, we had a bust on a screen and… part of success of screens is poor tackling," Pittman said. "We've got to get the guys on the ground. If he makes 12 yards or whatever, get him on the ground instead of 38. "Certainly we have emphasized that from last week, and the fact Missouri State will run them as well, or backs out of the backfield." Running backs Jacardia Wright and Celdon Manning combined for 5 catches, 113 yards and 2 touchdowns in Missouri State's victory over Tennessee-Martin last week. Manning scored on a 64-yard pass play and Wright from 19 HOGS NEED TO PREPARE FOR ANYTHING AS FORMER COACH PETRINO COMES TO TOWN See KEYS, Page 4 Bobby Petrino has Missouri State ranked fifth nationally in the Football Championship Subdivision. Sue Ogrocki/AP Missouri State at 10 Arkansas 1 Georgia at South Carolina 20 Ole Miss at Georgia Tech 22 Penn State at Auburn Mississippi State at LSU 13 Miami at 24 Texas A&M 6 Oklahoma at Nebraska Arkansas Georgia Ole Miss Auburn LSU Texas A&M Oklahoma Arkansas Georgia Ole Miss Penn State LSU Texas A&M Oklahoma Arkansas Georgia Ole Miss Penn State LSU Texas A&M Oklahoma Arkansas Georgia Ole Miss Penn State Mississippi State Miami Oklahoma Arkansas Georgia Ole Miss Penn State LSU Miami Oklahoma Arkansas Georgia Ole Miss Penn State Mississippi State Texas A&M Oklahoma Arkansas Georgia Ole Miss Penn State LSU Texas A&M Oklahoma Arkansas Georgia Ole Miss Auburn Mississippi State Miami Oklahoma GAMES PREDICTIONS Matt Jones 6-1 Scottie Bordelon 4-3 Tom Murphy 6-1 Ethan Westerman 7-0 Paul Boyd 6-1 Andrew Joseph 5-2 Rick Fires 5-2 Chip Souza 3-4 OVERALL LAST WEEK 13-1 9-5 13-1 12-2 11-3 10-4 11-3 9-5 http://www.bentonvilleglass.com/ 507 South main St. • bentonville, ar 479-273-5545 • residential • automotive • commercial Bentonville Glass Inc. serving nw arkansas since 1971 Window Tinting for your home and car!

• Cover