This past summer we were informed of how they were very much aware of last season’s criticism’s but yet here we are a year later and Arkansas fans witnessed a FCS defense give our O-Line fits…AGAIN
I realize his exit at the earliest would be at the end of the 2019-20’ which would allow him the opportunity to earn that $400,000.00 a year to field a Division 1 line.
But 48hrs ago the protection was reminiscent of August 2018 vs Eastern Illinois.
In the meantime I’m preparing myself to see John S. Jones burn his redshirt due to injuries…
I don’t know if Fry is the answer or not but I disagree about PS giving us fits I thought we played Much better than last yr and we should have given the opposition Cunningham missed a couple assignments that led to a sack and a hurry but overall I thought we blocked much better saw some real good pull blocks by Capps.Jackson still not that good but Wagner played well and would have graded out high I thought Clary did just fine postioned his man pretty good most of the day,Now this week will be a totally different test B/C OM is going to bring the pressure WAY more than PS did so we will see how Craddock does in making them pay for that which could really help us in the game.
My critiques are not based on a final score but the O-Line solely.
That Portland State QB was Joe Adams in H.S. and the Defensive secondary was FCS elite. This seasons Vikings team will win 8-9 games this season with Boise St. in 2 weeks.
Ole Miss has made major strides in their defense and held air-raid Memphis to 15pts in the Liberty Bowl. Our RB’s were having to make cuts in our own freaking backfield not 48hrs ago…their were absolutely NO HOLES to run through.
I suspect once Hicks and/or Starkel are carried off the field only then will accountability be guided towards Coach Fry.
I want to see if the same five guys can practice together for a week AND play beside each other for a game. See what kind of chemistry develops. Coach has little to due with the rash of injuries that robbed us of one of our best 5 (Gatlin) on day one of camp, and kept two other solid performers (Jackson, Capps) out for big chunks of camp.
Give the starting unit a week together and see if they aren’t better.
You and I saw a totally different game then. There weren’t always big holes to run through but there were several nice creases especially on the pin and pull traps by Capps. I think the jury is still out on how well fry will do and I’m willing to see how we do against better competition.
While I agree with this, sadly I only saw Boyd being productive. Surely, he’ll join more snaps against Ole Miss, but the Speed of Whaley and Hayden seems to have vanished.
I think the offensive line is going to be an issue at Arkansas for another year or two, and I’m not sure it matters who the coach is. The linemen that Fry inherited were recruited for an entirely different style of football and the ones that have committed in the past year or two probably won’t be playing at a quality level until their second or third year. Minus the special linemen like a Shawn Andrews who are great and can plug in right away, that’s just how it works at that position. The great lines always include a lot of third- and fourth- and sometimes fifth-year players. Arkansas on Saturday started a JUCO transfer, a converted defensive lineman and three players recruited for a different system. Some have adapted better than others.
I think players like Limmer and Stromberg are going to be good in this system, but it’s going to take time for them to be ready. And of course the injury to Gatlin has to be taken into account.
So, if that’s true (and I suspect you’re more on target than not), then the HC needs to have the gonads to adjust the offense, and the QB. I think we should try to win games. That means installing Starkel and playing more pass pro and getting away from the slow starting, non-fluid, RPO we seem to be running.
Not saying everything is great after Saturday’s performance, I can understand the concern, I’m just saying the rebuild will have more painful times. The OL is the slowest rebuild because of the physical development that’s needed with the kids that are part of the process.
In talking to two offensive linemen who played well for the Razorbacks a few years ago who were at the game, they both thought the O-line looked better on Saturday. The only real criticism was that they didn’t get to the second level of the defense to block either the backside linebacker or the safety. They handled the defensive front fine. They also thought the running back could have made the second line of defense miss a little better. I thought that, too. Boyd had several chances to make a cut at the second line to hit air. He’ll get that. I’m sure they didn’t scrimmage Boyd much this fall. I wouldn’t.
Message board folks tend to fire coaches pretty quickly. I get that. I tend to pass that off as just part of the deal. The rebuild of the O-line is not real simple. It’s painstakingly slow. Most understand that. Some do not.
I’ll focus on O-line play with some of the things I write this week.
Again, just for those keeping track, all five O-linemen were new starters at the positions they played for this first game based on last year’s first game. Clary and Jackson both played a lot last year. The others did not.
I agree with that we were hit and miss on 2nd level blocks but considering it was Cunningham 1st game at OG I thought he did well except for a couple pass blocking miscues but I saw some better pad level but still could get lower but we will know more after this week b/c OM I think is going to bring the house to see if we can handle it and hopefully we burn them good and get them out of that.It does take a while to get Meshed in up front and this week will be a good learning game going forward.
The problem is that they couldn’t push around a bottom D2 school and the play calling and situational calling was bad… I understand about the vanilla play calling for that game but after watching the OC, he might not be ready for a big time program…
They should of been able to get to the second level all game… But it was times at the snap of the ball they were just standing straight up and the D-Line was in there chest… They need to line up and go OLD SCHOOL and hit the sled until they learn how to stay low and fire off the ball…
