Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

About this point in the season last year, Arkansas was way behind its opponents in takeaways. Then head coach Bobby Petrino seemed to credit it mostly to luck — he insisted the turnovers would start balancing out the Razorbacks’ way.

If we apply that logic to this Hog team under Petrino’s successor, John L. Smith, then turnovers should start coming Arkansas’ way by the bushel.

In just three games, Arkansas is minus-8 in the turnover margin: six lost fumbles and four interceptions while claiming one fumble and one interception.

Throw out the Alabama game — oh, how Arkansas wishes it were that easy — and the Razorbacks are still minus-3 in two games that one UA assistant coach unwisely termed “preseason” games.

With a wet ball on a gloomy, drizzly day in Fayetteville last Saturday, Arkansas went minus-5 in the turnover department. The Hogs, without starting quarterback Tyler Wilson, were unlikely to be close to Alabama even had they played a perfect game, but surrendering the ball five times to none helped make it the most embarrassing home loss since the 1940s, or before Arkansas even cared about big-time football.

Let’s concede that Arkansas’ undermanned defense will surrender yards every time out. There’s no way to bring and train the talent needed to change that now — it may take two years of intensive recruiting to find defensive players to bring Arkansas up at least to the South Carolina level, if we all agree that the LSU/Alabama tier is beyond anyone else’s reach. Taking the bend-but-don’t-break approach is sound defensive football that Arkansas has employed most of the past half-century since the days of Frank Broyles — force an opponent’s offense to snap it multiple times in a drive, and eventually they’ll make the first mistake.

It's better than seeing the Hogs overplay and make an error that leads to a drive of three plays or less over 75 yards, right?

But part of that sound philosophy for Arkansas over the years has always included forcing turnovers — punishing the ball carrier, stripping the loosely held football, fooling the quarterback into throwing into a coverage he didn’t expect, etc.

Arkansas’ defense these days seems content to simply make a tackle, and that’s not been a certainty. When defensive coordinator Paul Haynes said he was determined to make things simple for his players, we know he didn't forget forcing turnovers, but so far that's not gone Arkansas' way either.

It took a strip from safety Rohan Gaines and a recovery by linebacker Alonzo Highsmith to quell some of the Jacksonville State momentum in the third quarter of the shaky Hogs’ opener. The Hogs could have escaped Louisiana-Monroe if Highsmith let freshman Will Hines intercept a pass instead of knocking the ball free and incomplete in the process. Two plays later, ULM tied the game at 28 to force overtime.

To twist a famous Clint Eastwood movie line, a defense needs to know its limitations. Arkansas’ players need some self-awareness that they’re never going to be in Alabama’s dominant league but that they can play some old-fashioned, opportunistic Razorback-style defense and be effective enough to help salvage the season.

Even with its rough start in takeaways last year (minus-5 after four games), Arkansas finished plus-1 in turnover margin (13 lost fumbles, seven interceptions vs. nine recovered fumbles, 12 interceptions).