FAYETTEVILLE -- CBS analyst Gary Danielson, who will work the Arkansas Razorbacks' nonconference game against TCU on Saturday, thinks the Hogs will be better this season if quarterback Austin Allen doesn't lead the SEC in passing yardage again.
Say what?
That's right, provided Allen's yardage drop is accompanied by a more productive running attack to balance out the offense, Danielson said.
Allen led the SEC with 3,430 passing yards last season, but he also was intercepted 15 times. He took 34 of the team's 35 sacks allowed, including big shots in losses against Texas A&M, Alabama and Auburn.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville got behind quickly in key conference games against Alabama, Auburn and LSU, and in other games a sputtering running attack forced Arkansas into the air.
Coach Bret Bielema and offensive coordinator Dan Enos would like the Hogs' offensive averages from 2016 -- 264 passing yards and 164 rushing yards per game -- to meet closer in the middle.
Enos reiterated during camp the aim for the offense.
"We want to be a run-the-football team," he said. "That's our goal. Every year that I've been a coordinator calling the plays, and certainly when I came here with Coach B, we've want to run the football and ... be a physical, tough football team that can play-action and create explosive plays through the play-action game and then go from there."
Danielson sees a stronger commitment to a ground game as a necessity for the Hogs.
"I think that Bret's going to have to get back to the basics and be a sound team where their defense is part of the offense, meaning that Austin Allen isn't playing catchup and having to throw the ball," Danielson said on a recent CBS teleconference. "If Austin Allen has the yardage stats he had last year, if he has that this year, they will not be as good a team as Bret Bielema wants them to be. They have to be more balanced."
The Razorbacks' run game was on point with only a few exceptions last week, racking up 236 yards against overmatched Florida A&M, which flashed nice speed on its edges but took a pounding up the gut. Arkansas averaged 5.2 yards per carry and scored four rushing touchdowns.
"The part you could see early on from my point of view ... they were not going to let the ball go outside," Bielema said. "Whatever they take away, you've got to be able to adapt and move forward. Some of our first perimeter plays, you could see they were just racing up the field, so obviously that opens things up inside and vice versa."
The Razorbacks used mainly a three-back rotation against Florida A&M. Freshman Chase Hayden ran for 120 yards and a touchdown and averaged 8.6 yards per carry. Sophomore Devwah Whaley rushed for 60 yards and a touchdown and averaged 5.0 yards per carry. David Williams had 23 yards and a pair of touchdowns and averaged 3.3 yards per carry.
TCU Coach Gary Patterson said the Hogs had no offensive surprises against Florida A&M.
"They basically did what I thought they would do," Patterson said. "They went right at them and forced them to have to stop them. I think we'll see the real answer here this week.
"I was impressed with all three running backs. I thought they did a great job."
In last year's 41-38 double-overtime victory at TCU, the Razorbacks ran for 180 yards and passed for 223 yards. But it was their inability to punch in a touchdown after reaching first and goal from the TCU 2 with a 20-7 lead early in the fourth quarter that turned the game around.
The Horned Frogs threw Rawleigh Williams for a 4-yard loss on first down, then stopped him after a 2-yard gain before Allen threw incomplete on third down.
Cole Hedlund missed a 22-yard field goal and the Horned Frogs scored touchdowns on their next three possessions.
"Arkansas had a tough time blocking that front, and I anticipate they'll have a tough time blocking it again," Danielson said. "They're very active."
Arkansas running backs coach Reggie Mitchell said the Razorbacks won't get away from their bread and butter.
"We're going to play Arkansas football," he said. "Our thing is to run downhill. We kind of play in a phone booth, so to say, a little bit. That's our strength, so we're going to continue to do what we've been doing."
CBS analyst Rick Neuheisel, the former Washington and UCLA head coach, said Bielema's blueprint for winning Big Ten championships at Wisconsin had a very specific formula.
"Going to the Rose Bowl, they had a way of doing it: The Barry Alvarez pound, pound, pound," Neuheisel said. "They put the pass in around the run, but there was a bell cow always in the backfield at Wisconsin.
"They started that way at Arkansas, then he made the choice to go and get Dan Enos. Certainly Brandon Allen and now Austin Allen have benefited from it, but sometimes I think they've gone a little too far in the passing game. I remember they lost a game to Toledo in Little Rock where he threw 52 passes [actually 53], and 52 passes at Wisconsin would have been heresy, right?"
Bielema said he wants the offense to be adaptable to game conditions and defensive strategies.
"I think you've got to scratch where it itches," he said. "If a team is going to load it up and make us go to the air, we can do that. On the flip side of it, if we can run the football, there's going to be a plan for that.
"I think every team makes a decision when they're game planning us what they're going to do or what they're going to take away. We've got to be able to respond to that ... not only to start the game, but more efficiently in the second half. That was our biggest approach is, 'Hey, we're going to do some things in the first half. What are we gonna do in the second half if they change plans?'
"You've got to be able to do both. It's easy to say one way or the other, but you've also got to go with what the defense is allowing you to get as well."
Neuheisel added that the Razorbacks have to reduce their sack count, and he called Allen a "courageous" competitor who knows how to play quarterback.
"I think if he can get more of an internal alarm clock and get the ball out of his hands and take some check-downs or throw the ball away and eliminate those sacks it'll have a huge impact for helping the Razorbacks' offense."
Sports on 09/07/2017