Questions remain about Arkansas' base defense in 2020
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FAYETTEVILLE — Projecting Arkansas’ defensive depth chart will be tougher than ever in 2020.
Even after nearly two weeks of walk-through practices, head coach Sam Pittman said he and defensive coordinator Barry Odom have yet to settle on a base defense.
In fact, he told local reporters on a Zoom videoconference Thursday that the Razorbacks will likely use both three- and four-man fronts throughout the 2020 season.
“Right now we are practicing multiple defenses because, in all honesty, I think that’s what we’re going to run,” Pittman said. “If you look back in Barry Odom’s history, it’s been that way ever since he was a defensive coordinator. If I knew exactly what we’re doing — and I’ve got an idea — but percentage-wise, it would probably end up being pretty heavy in at least two different fronts, possibly three.”
Which front Arkansas uses the most will likely depend on what the coaches see out of their personnel when fall camp starts up Aug. 17. The coronavirus pandemic completely wiped out spring ball for the Razorbacks, so Pittman and Odom have yet to see their players live and in pads.
When asked about it back in April, Odom was pretty vague about what base defense they’d run, but that could also be because he still knew so little about his personnel.
“There’s times that we’ve got to find the right personnel and what that’s going to look like schematically as we take some time through getting on the field,” Odom said. “I think creatively you’ve got to be a great teacher, and you’ve got to put your kids in position to go play fast and play with confidence. And the overall structure on what that’s going to look like, we’ll be multiple.”
He added that he has typically played a four-man front throughout his career, but he also frequently went to a three-man front as the defensive coordinator at Memphis.
At Arkansas, one of the staff’s earliest moves was bringing in Xavier Kelly as a graduate transfer defensive tackle from Clemson. Throw in the fact that a couple of players told reporters back in early April that they were implementing a 3-2-6 base defense and it sure seemed like they weren’t super confident in their depth in the trenches.
Now that he’s had a chance to see them in workouts and several walk-through practices, though, Pittman said he’s probably most happy about the defensive line compared to where he thought it’d entering fall camp.
“I’m just saying what my mind might have thought where they would be at this point, I don’t think that about them,” Pittman said. “I think they’re big, they’re guys that understand, they can move for their size and I just feel like they can be a good group.”
As a unit, Arkansas’ returning defensive linemen have added an average of nearly 10 pounds since last season.
Specifically, Pittman singled out Jonathan Marshall and Isaiah Nichols, last year’s backup defensive tackles behind departed seniors McTelvin Agim and T.J. Smith, as well as defensive ends Dorian Gerald and Julius Coates.