Where There’s A T Will, There’s A Way

“I liked his style. He’s very, very aggressive.” Coach Sam Pittman said at SEC Media Days about new Defensive Coordinator, Travis Williams. One thing that has been made clear by Coach Pittman since the hire is that Arkansas’ defense will look different than in years past. Travis Williams is going to come after you and he’s going to do so unapologetically. Coach Williams joins Arkansas with loads of SEC experience both as a player and a coach, but most recently coached under Gus Malzahn at UCF.

UCF and Arkansas both played Cincinnati last season and comparing the two games, a few things are glaring: Coach TWill is going to put one safety deep, he’s going to man-up, and he’s going to blitz like hell. Looking at the UCF/Cincinnati game you can assume that Arkansas could benefit greatly from the changes.

A lot of Cover 1, one deep safety, two to three CB’s manned up, and the rest of the guys within 3-5 yards of line of scrimmage are ready to blitz. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t, and that’s where the “fun” comes in. The back-end is pretty tame but upfront is different: varying blitz packages, lots of movement on the D-line, and offenses wondering “where did that blitz come from?”. This is a big departure from Razorbacks’ defense in the past few years.

UCF held Cincinnati to 35 rushing yards on 18 attempts, while Cinci ran and threw all over the Hogs. Both UCF and Arkansas came out with W’s but the defenses were vastly different. Barry Odom’s defense typically consisted of two or three safety’s deep and that will be basically nonexistent under Coach TWill.

The other reason to be excited about Coach Williams is his recruiting impact. “We need a recruiter at that position, as well. I think a good man, one that understands that recruiting is work, and I just heard so many great things about him from guys I knew that had called me.”, Coach Pittman said of Williams last December.

His recruiting impact has already been felt with the commitment of Tay Lockett out of California. Lockett chose Arkansas over teams like USC, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida State, and others. By all measures, Lockett is one of the biggest defensive commitments to Arkansas is recent memory. One that many believe could bring a wave of other recruits to pay more attention to what the Razorbacks are building.

“I know Coach Sam Pittman and Coach Williams and Coach Woodson can take very good care of me… I really trust those men. I just feel like it’s the right decision to make.” Lockett said of the current staff.

It remains to be seen what kind of on-field impact the new defensive leadership will have this season. One thing is for sure, the product we see on Saturday’s this fall will look very different. A different game plan, a different tenacity, and hopefully an improved result in the Win/Loss column.

Thank you for reading Hawg Country. For more Arkansas Athletics coverage from Hawg Country follow us on Twitter @HawgCountry_FR. You can also subscribe to our YouTube Channel @HawgCountry.

For feedback, questions, concerns, or to apply for a writing position, please emailour Managing Editor, jacobscottdavis2020 @gmail.com. Also, because of your support we have become one of the fastest-growing and most influential Razorback media outlets there is!