The one week of good feelings after beating Tulsa is over, and Razorback Nation is back to being angry after a 34-7 thrashing at the hands of a very mediocre Texas A&M team.
This game played out exactly the way the Utah and Georgia games did. Arkansas’ defense isn’t great but that’s entirely due to talent issues and having zero help from the offense. They got several stops after being put in a bad spot to start the game, and they only fell apart after it became clear the Razorback offense was, once again, a no-show.
The avalanche of bad started quickly this time, as KJ Jackson was picked off on the third play of the game. That set up an Aggie touchdown, as did a three-and-out that followed, and it was 14-0 Texas A&M in the first quarter. The Hogs got a touchdown pass to Chris Marshall to cut the deficit to 14-7, but a failure of the offense to capitalize plus a special teams blunder (12 men on the field for a field goal) allowed the Aggies to get 10 quick points to close the half, which put this game out of reach.
Arkansas did run the ball better, but the Aggies, like Utah, played a lot of man defense and didn’t bother stacking the box. Arkansas’ passing game struggles with man defense, which is probably a talent and experience issue. Besides, Arkansas shows no commitment to even trying to establish the run. Because they cannot run outside zone, the staple run of this offensive system, the run game is not a threat to SEC defenses outside of an occasional explosive.
The most entertaining part of the game was Trey Biddy’s postgame rant, which you can watch here:
I endorse all of this. No other program in college football has a stadium and facilities as nice as Arkansas does and still produces that level of garbage football consistently.
Now what?
Here’s another long rant. I already recorded a bunch of thoughts a couple weeks ago, but now with five games down, here are more thoughts.
First, obviously, Hunter Yurachek’s days are numbered. At this point it’s less about what he failed to do a couple years ago and more about a general lack of confidence in his leadership of the football program. You just have to completely clean house on the administrative side.
Silverfield is safe, for now. In fact, it’s possible Arkansas doesn’t go 2-10. South Carolina has to come to Fayetteville, and the Gamecocks are also 2-3. Shane Beamer almost certainly won’t be the coach next year, and it’s entirely possible that Kendal Briles will be the interim head coach by November 14. Auburn also isn’t looking too hot right now.
Unfortunately, though, this is where the modern world of the transfer portal doesn’t help here. If this is 2008, and Bobby Petrino’s first team is off to a 2-3 start with ugly wins over two really bad teams and three blowout losses to good teams, then we’d see the young core of Arkansas kids dig deep and try to improve as they build for the future.
But that’s not what we see here. What we have is a team largely consisting of mercenaries. Per the latest depth chart, 11 of 22 offensive players and 19 of 22 defensive players on the two-deep transferred in this year. Of the 14 that didn’t transfer in this year, six of them transferred in a previous year. Quincy Rhodes is the only player on the defensive two-deep that started his college career at Arkansas.
Many of these guys don’t have any incentive to build anything for the future. You’re more likely to see a bunch of guys who are getting paid no matter what and who have no NFL dreams simply giving up. That’s not a guarantee, but it wouldn’t be surprising to start seeing guys stop giving maximum effort.
I’m not sure how you keep Tim Cramsey
How much benefit is there to giving younger guys more reps on offense? That might help if you know the offensive staff will remain in place, but I don’t know how you can justify bringing back Tim Cramsey.
This offense is simply horrible to watch. It would be one thing if the issue was simply a lack of talent, or if it was the standard execution errors you typically see with a first-year coach. And to be clear, there’s a lot of both of those.
But from an X’s and O’s standpoint, this offense does not work at a place like Arkansas. The pass game has some issues – I think the Hogs burn too many routes and motions trying to mess with the defense’s eyes, which leave them without enough men in the pattern – but the pass game woes are probably attributable to a first-year quarterback and some other talent issues moreso than anything scheme-wise.
The bigger issue? Elite offensive line play is an absolute requirement of this scheme, and Arkansas isn’t going to have that anytime soon. Without it, there will be no run game, or at least not one that’s going to be able to contribute much toward winning.
Arkansas went from leading the FBS in rushing explosiveness (percent of runs to gain 10+ yards) last year under Petrino, to ranking dead-last in the SEC this year. Being unable (or unwilling, or some combination thereof) to run the football is not acceptable at Arkansas, a program with a long history of producing excellent run games. Even bad teams like 2005 and 2013 and 2018 could at least run the football.
And Cramsey as a playcaller also stinks. He benefitted from elite offensive line play at Memphis but there’s no rhythm or setup to this offense. The fact that Arkansas is decent in must-pass situations and awful on early downs and in the redzone is a major red flag for a playcaller. The best playcallers shine on first down and near the goal line, while the worst ones are exposed.
Arkansas simply can’t move forward without a good offensive coordinator. As we’ve discussed many times on this site, offense is 1) easier to fix than defense with the right coaches, and 2) necessary to win at Arkansas.
If Silverfield decides to make a change, is that a bad sign? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. There are not a lot of successful head coaches who survived having to replace a bad coordinator, especially offensive. Offensive success requires more than just a coordinator, it requires a full vision and understanding from the head coach. That shows up in who the head coach hires but also how the head coach directs the entire program.
Look at Brent Venables, for example. He’s an excellent defensive-minded head coach whose time at Oklahoma is flailing because he cannot get the offense right. His hire of Seth Littrell in 2024 was so bad he had to fire him after just seven games. New offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle came with lots of accolades but has struggled for both of his seasons.
Creativity is key
It’s also probably not a great sign for Cramsey that he runs the Chip Kelly offense, but Chip Kelly doesn’t even run the Chip Kelly offense anymore. The maestro himself is running a funky mashup of spread concepts with the Wing-T and flexbone at Northwestern, and it produced 400 rushing yards in an upset win over Penn State on Saturday. I don’t know that trying something like that is sustainable at Arkansas, but I do think that offensive creativity is not optional.
Right now, the most cutting-edge offensive schemes are being run at blue bloods. Florida and Georgia have both moved toward more 12 personnel (two tight ends), heavy use of play-action and screens, and fewer intermediate passes (10-20 yards downfield). Not coincidentally, both have recently had Buster Faulkner on staff. He’s currently Florida’s OC, and was an analyst at Georgia in 2022, when Arkansas had a chance to hire him to replace Briles. Instead, they hired Enos. You whiff on this stuff, and it costs you.
Speaking of whiffs…
Alabama crushed Mississippi State 56-23. Alabama forced four turnovers, including a pick-six, their fourth of the season in just five games. Their defense is coordinated by a former Fayetteville High alum who also played for the Razorbacks and wanted the head coaching job last year.
I declared Kane Wommack as my preferred hire last November in an article laying out my argument for Wommack over other candidates. I still think everything I said then is true now.
Yes, he’s at Alabama and has a ton of talent. But he also did well with the defense at Indiana, and pre-Cignetti Indiana was arguably the least-resourced Big Ten team outside of Northwestern and Rutgers. And South Alabama is also one of least-resourced programs in the Sun Belt, and he consistently produced good defenses there (and his record as head coach there was really impressive too, all things considered). I think he’s just good generally.
Silverfield very plainly looks in over his head, but there are 19 million reasons to not fire him after this season. So I think we’re stuck with him, and honestly he still might get this thing turned around. But his next offensive coordinator hire has to be brilliant. It might be a young innovator, or it might be a Chip Kelly rejuvenation play. Does Gus Malzahn have one more funky run in him?