Inside the Gameplan: How to beat the Hogs

It’s a good thing Texas won the Malikstakes since the SEC/Aggies chickened out of giving Texas a chance to beat them in a real head-to-head battle in an attempt to delay Charlie Strong from awakening Bevo to protect his ancient recruiting turf.

Now Texas is on its way to becoming the “it” school in the region again but with little to gain from playing their classic foe, the Arkansas Razorbacks.

I’ve already written on Bielema’s Hogs this year and how they’re approaching the difficult task of building SEC-competitive football teams in the demographically challenged state of Arkansas.

Additionally, our own Gabriel Alcocer has written on their defensive styling and potent running game.

The name of the game for Bielema and his staff in Fayetteville is to do careful evaluations, recruit the right 3-stars nationally, and hire excellent staff to deploy them. Since Texas isn’t exactly overflowing with premier talent currently, they are operating at a developmental disadvantage here since Bielema’s crew started to turn the corner this season, making the needed flip from playing everyone close to achieving breakthrough with late season wins over LSU and Ole Miss.

Honestly it’s hard to say that a 3rd tier bowl in a college football landscape that includes a playoff means jack squat for either team. Obviously the fans never want to see their team lose, particularly in a pride match against a rival power, but there’s very little in terms of consequence if either team loses. Will both teams come out with an edge in this game?

You can generally count on a team like Arkansas being egged on by its whole state to seize an opportunity to take down a hated foe like Texas but it will be on Charlie and his staff to ensure that his Longhorns are properly motivated and prepared for this one.

Matching up with the Piggie offense

Bielema’s offensive coordinator Jim Chaney cut his teeth with the spread offense at Purdue before leaving for the NFL and gaining an appreciation for the TE position.

Now he’s an effective instructor of Bielema’s desired smashmouth approach while bringing a good degree of finesse passing game that’s made TE’s AJ Derby and Hunter Henry a destructive tandem.

They’ve combined on the year for 58 receptions, 798 yards, and 5 TDs while providing the Hogs with very efficient 3rd down options.

The next point worth mentioning is the size of the big Hogs that pave the way for Arkansas’ run game. From left to right they go:

LT: Dan Skipper: 6’10”, 326
LG: Sebastian Tretola: 6’5”, 350
OC: Mitch Smothers: 6’3”, 315
RG: Denver Kirkland: 6’5”, 337
RT: Brey Cook: 6’7”, 314

Much like with Wickline’s group, there’s a major emphasis on length and overall size with this group. They run a diverse set of running schemes, including man schemes like man or pin and pull, but they really thrive when releasing downfield and screening off defenders with their sheer size on schemes like “wham” and “draw.”

Their combination of double TE sets and quick release schemes are really brought to bear in their bunch sets, which are similar to schemes Texas has run this season. From these sets they can use both their quick passing game as well as those running schemes.

First the quick game from the bunch set:

Depending on how Texas chooses to match this route combination, Arkansas’ QB Brandon Allen has a simple read and a potential match-up win for one of his four receivers. Texas has to at least make a priority of taking away the quick route underneath to the Z receiver and not allow him to find easy space underneath against the middle linebacker.

Additionally, they need to make sure that tight end “Y” doesn’t get over the top or do damage in the seam. That leaves the quick dump off outside to “H,” another tight end. If the Hogs like their match-up on the other side, they can run any number of routes to the X receiver (Keon Hatcher, 517 yards on the year) vs that corner. This is a ball control passing game at its finest and what Watson is hoping to eventually build in Austin.

Texas could remove the sam linebacker in exchange for playing Mykkele Thompson at the nickel and be in better shape, but it’s hard to get good match-ups against big targets like Henry and Derby underneath. Additionally, playing smaller personnel carries a degree of risk against the Hogs’ run game:

The idea with this scheme is that you allow Malcom Brown upfield rather than trying to block him with your bigger, but considerably less athletic OL and instead trap him with the H-back while the OL release downfield and take out linebackers. Try and blitz numbers inside to stop this scheme and they’ll use those TEs to pin your edge players down and pull their OL around them to run pin and pull.

With an offense like this that has true TEs that can stretch the seam and block it becomes exceptionally difficult to stop ball control tactics. It’s also hard to get a great pass rush since their OL are so difficult to get around and they can easily get help with edge pressure by chipping with their TEs on the edge.

Hog QB Brandon Allen isn’t a fantastic player but he’s capable of executing the throws that this offense gives him while RBs Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins are both very capable cut and go backs, each with 5.5 ypc or better, 1k yards, and at least 10 TD runs.

The fortunate side for Texas is that stopping the Hogs can be as simple as knowing their concepts, playing with discipline against each and not leaving TEs uncovered or trying to fly upfield only to be “whammed” out of the picture, and making tackles.

Texas will likely mix in some 4-2-5 nickel looks with Thompson at the nickel and play Jason Hall over the top to ensure that yards after catch or runs at the 2nd level are limited and come at a cost. If they can bottle up the quick game and play the run well enough to create 3rd and long, then this Arkansas OL will definitely struggle to keep the Texas pass-rushers off Allen.

It’s also possible that Texas will get aggressive with the 3-3-5 and try to confuse the Arkansas OL in order to avoid effective trap blocks and create negative plays. It depends on whether they think they can stunt and disguise the front well enough to prevent the Hogs from zeroing in on weaknesses with their diverse run game.

The taste of roasted pig

Arkansas’ defense is designed to stop ball control offenses, which they face on the reg in the SEC. That’s a major concern for the Longhorns, since Charlie’s ball control offense is often hopelessly inefficient due to a young and error prone QB and OL.

Arkansas plays a 4-3 Over defensive front and in addition to Bielema’s savvy defensive oversight, his new DC Robb Smith is a excellent coach who oversaw the 2012 Rutgers defense that put three kids on the Patriots roster in the following draft.

They function similarly to Texas in its coverages, rotating between cover 2 and cover 3 but always showing a two-deep shell before the snap and disguising their safety rotations until after the ball is snapped. They lost free safety, Rohan Gaines, who along with a back-up corner were suspended for the bowl game.

Their front is very athletic with a 255-pound nose tackle named Taiwan Johnson who is a microcosm of their overall approach in their front 7, which is to create disruption with speed. Their linebackers are very quick and sudden and will backer Martrell Spaight is the star of the show with over 100 tackles on the year.

As always, the easiest way to mitigate concerns about sustaining drives against a defense built on soundness would be to utilize Daje Johnson but at this point I think we can safely assume that this won’t happen.

That means that Texas is going to have to run the ball to beat this team and set up Swoopes to execute simple but damaging throws on the outside against single coverage. The question is…how?

Texas’ double TE sets that had a degree of success in the Big 12 are a bad fit for this Hog D which shut down much more effective run games from teams with much more dangerous receiving TEs than Texas.

Trotting out those sets against the Hogs would invite defensive choices by Bielema that would force Swoopes to beat them. The key is for Texas to run the set that includes Swoopes’ best plays and puts the best combination of Texas’ offensive players on the field.

At the Y receiver spot you have Jaxon Shipley, flanked by Marcus Johnson on the edge. On the opposite side you have John Harris isolated with Geoff Swaim in the H-back/fullback position in the backfield.

The pistol alignment serves to allow Texas to use misdirection from the backs to set up linebackers to hesitate and get picked off by OL. Texas can combine a few base concepts from this formation to put the Arkansas defense in a bind that sets up Texas’ best players, and more importantly Swoopes, to land some punches.

First, Texas needs to establish inside zone against the quick but small Arkansas DTs and move Swaim all over the formation to keep their dangerous DEs and LBs guessing. A combination of zone slice, where Swaim traps the unblocked DE:

Along with zone read where Swaim arcs around the unblocked DE to attack a 2nd level target should go a long ways towards creating inside running room for Gray and Malcolm Brown.

Texas can also run zone to Swaim’s side and have him block the DE across from him. Arkansas’ DEs are active and athletic, so keeping them uncomfortable and constantly worrying about Swaim is the best path to victory in the trenches.

By spreading out the Hogs with the 3-receiver set and keeping the DE guessing, Texas should manage to force the Hogs into a cover 3 set rather than their 2-read defense which would destroy the Texas passing game. Once they are in cover 3, Texas can attack the curl/wheel combo Swoopes has shown some proficiency in or simpler ball control tactics while having Harris and an RB on the weak side as an option for when the Hogs rotate to the strong side:

Summarizing the match-up

If Texas wins these key battles against the Razorbacks then there’s a good chance the Longhorns maintain the program’s growing momentum and check some of the pro-SEC banter that the Aggies have used as a recruiting weapon.

First, Texas has to prevent penetration when they have a guard isolated against the Hog three-tech defensive tackle Darius Philon. They can double team the active UA nose and keep him under wraps but they can’t then allow Philon to penetrate into the backfield against a guard.

Secondly, Texas’ ball carriers need to win some open field battles against the Hog strong safety, Josh Liddell, a true freshman stepping in for the suspended Rohan Gaines. If the Hogs can only get minimal advantages from dropping him into the box, Texas can do some real damage in this game with the run game. He needs to be an early target in Texas’ play script to see if he can hold up later in the game.

Third, the Texas defensive tackles need to play with awareness against Arkansas’ trapping wham blocks. If their H-back can neutralize Texas’ advantages up front, this game will go very poorly for the Horns.

Fourth, John Harris has to play well and dominate 1-on-1 match-ups. Texas needs one more 100-yard day from the big senior if they expect to put points on the board in this game.

Finally, Mykkele Thompson and the Texas safeties have to play much better against the Arkansas TEs than they performed against EJ Bibbs in the Iowa State game. Take away Brandon Allen’s easier throws and the Hog QB’s lack of accuracy and consistency could spell turnovers or three ‘n’ outs.

Texas is probably going to have to get the better QB performance to win this game and this can be made possible with a gameplan that gives Swoopes opportunities in the zone read game combined with a defensive effort that forces Allen to beat Texas throwing outside the hash marks, where he can be shaky. He’s done well at avoiding turnovers this year but with only 6.73 yards per pass attempt on the year, he’s far from being a bell cow for this offense.

Expect a low scoring affair in this one that will likely become a major Longhorn victory only if Texas gets Oklahoma State-Swoopes back rather than the one who came out on Thanksgiving against the Frogs. The way to do this is to give him easy reads against single deep coverage with a competent run game. If Watson can’t gameplan opportunities for Swoopes to do this, his seat will start to get warm heading into the 2015 campaign.