FAYETTEVILLE -- Kenny Guiton isn't Arkansas football's (2-6, 0-5 SEC) lone coordinator enduring a mammoth challenge since last week's open date.
Defensive coordinator Travis Williams faces different but compelling challenges heading into today's 11 a.m. kickoff on ESPN2 at the Florida Gators' (5-3, 3-2) "Swamp" in Gainesville.
Guiton's challenges loom obvious. Since Oct. 29, when Coach Sam Pittman fired veteran offensive coordinator Dan Enos after Arkansas' 7-3 home loss to Mississippi State, Guiton, 32, and previously Arkansas' third-year receivers coach, became the play-calling, offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach.
Though a former Ohio State quarterback, Guiton never coached quarterbacks and never called plays. He does both paring 30% off Enos' apparently too large playbook seeking what this so far offensively bad team can do best.
It's a whopping challenge simplifying things and promoting confidence for a dispirited offense whose line has been unable to launch a successful running attack or protect senior quarterback KJ Jefferson. Jefferson was deemed one of the two best quarterbacks in the SEC in the preseason until besieged with duress peaked without a touchdown against Mississippi State.
Coaching the by far star unit of this team vastly improved from the 2022 defense, first-year defensive coordinator Williams' challenges seem to pale vs. what besets Guiton.
"I think a lot of coaching has to do with enthusiasm, spirit, wanting to run through the wall for different people," Pittman honestly assessed. "We just never really had that on the offensive side of the ball. If you look at it defensively, there's a lot of that [enthusiasm] there."
But can the defense stay that way? Pats on the back can induce pointing fingers and eventual defensive decline.
This was observed in 1976, Frank Broyles' final coaching season before devoting full time as athletic director.
Primarily on its defense, even as running back Ben Cowins led the SEC in rushing, Arkansas started 5-1-1. Quarterback Ron Calcagni suffered a season-ending injury and Broyles had used three different coaches calling offensive plays when the defense folded. Arkansas finished a 5-5-1 season with 31-10, 35-31, 30-7 and 29-12 Southwest Conference losses to Texas A&M, SMU, Texas Tech and Texas.
Now with four games still to play, Williams must keep pushing the defense with reminders it's been good but not always great, especially when it was unable to stop LSU in the second half of a 34-31 loss in Baton Rouge and the two touchdown coverage busts in the 24-21 loss at Alabama.
"There's been games this year where we've had the opportunity to win or we were ahead or tied and things didn't always go our way defensively either," Pittman said. "It's easy when it's 7-3 because you're going 'We held them to seven points. You can't score 10 points?' ... But there's been other games too ... That's why it's a team game."
For these Hogs, it will take a whole team playing a team game for any finish with a flourish.