Razorbacks facing nation's top defense, coupled with new offense

Perhaps no team in the SEC has more firsthand knowledge of their game one opponent than the Razorbacks do of the Georgia Bulldogs.

First year head coach Sam Pittman, as everybody knows by now, was the offensive line coach in Athens for four years before returning to Fayetteville but there are also half a dozen or so former Bulldog employees on the Razorbacks staff as well. Pittman also hired defensive line coach Derrick LeBlanc from Kentucky, so he's also very well-versed on the challenges the Dawgs pose.

The biggest advantage Arkansas has is knowing the Bulldogs personnel very well. When Pittman talks about the opponent, he's not calling the players out by number or position, he knows many of them like the back of his hand because he helped recruit them.

However, that's about where the advantage stops. Georgia is returning eight starters from the 2019 team that finished first in the nation in run defense and scoring defense, holding opponents to just 12.6 points per game. The only team to score more than 20 points on the Georgia defense last season was the eventual title-winner LSU.

"Their D-line starts with Jordan Davis. Just a big, athletic guy who’s hard to move," Pittman said. "Their D-line with Devonte Wyatt and Malik Herring and Travon Walker and Azeez Ojulari, they’re really good. They’re really big. So we’re going to have our hands full. We’re going to try to find ways to double-team them. We’re going to have to. Then we’re going to have to at least get a stalemate on some one-on-one blocking situations and hopefully we can move them a little bit and hopefully we can tire them out.

"Richard LeCounte runs that defense along with Monty Rice. I know (Eric) Stokes and Lewis Cine are really good corners and are great cover corners. We're going to be going against some of the best, so we'll see how it works out."

Considering their 2019 success, Smart and his second-year defensive coordinator Dan Lanning will continue to do more of the same.

The offensive side for Georgia is where the majority of the question marks lie.

Smart hired Todd Monken to take over the offense from assistant James Coley and the former Browns offensive coordinator brings his own scheme with him to the Bulldogs. Monken is known for airing out the football but at Southern Miss he also had multiple 1,000 yard rushers, so we know Georgia is still liable to run the ball.

Smart also replaced Pittman with former Ole Miss head coach Matt Luke, so the Head Hog is preparing with some old Rebels tape as well.

"What they’re going to do on offense, we’re really not sure," Pittman said. "They may piece a little bit in from Ole Miss, a little bit from Southern Miss, a little bit from the Browns. We’re doing a little bit of all that. We’re trying to be prepared for a little of a lot of different places that Monken has been to. Obviously their O-line coach (Matt Luke) has had experience in read and gap-scheme reads. So we’re just trying to prepare for everything from the Browns all the way to Southern Miss and Ole Miss."

The uncertainty goes all the way up to the top with a quarterback battle still underway in Athens. Wake Forest transfer Jamie Newman opted out of the season two weeks ago and Georgia is keeping their starter under wraps until, perhaps, gametime.

Smart could start dual-threat D'Wan Mathis, a dual-threat out of Michigan who underwent brain surgery to remove a cyst in 2019, or JT Daniels, a former 5-star signee for USC. Daniels is expected to be cleared to play by Saturday.

Georgia sophomore receiver Kearis Jackson said on Monday: "This will be a Georgia offense that nobody has ever seen before."

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