Three Takeaways from Arkansas 56-3 Loss to Auburn

Written by Ryan Wright

Twitter: @HogManInLA

Razorback Nation went from the thrill of a 34-30 home win over then- No. 12 Ole Miss to the painful sting of a 56-3 road loss to No. 21 Auburn on Saturday. The shockingly poor play on the field for the Hogs brings more questions than answers seeing the team drop to 5-3, 1-3, with four games left to play in the 2016 season.

The good news is the Razorbacks finally get a bye. The bad news is Auburn roughed up the Hogs on Saturday night which could keep a few key players on the sidelines during a span of time needed to work on tightening up a lot of issues on both sides of the ball.

The Razorbacks have four conference games left to finish out the regular season coming against Florida (5-1), LSU (5-2), Mississippi State (2-5), and Missouri (2-5). The Hogs get the next two at home and the last two on the road needing at least one win to become bowl eligible for a third consecutive year. At worst Arkansas should finish 2-2 down the backstretch, but then again one never knows.

In head coach Bret Bielema’s own words, the Hogs “did not play well” on Saturday night from the onset. In a matchup that is easy to pick apart in every phase of the game, the following are three takeaways from Arkansas’ loss to Auburn with a look forward over the final four contests.

The Offensive Line

Entering the Auburn game, Arkansas was averaging 179.7 yards rushing per game, ranked No. 59 in the nation. A drop off in rushing totals in 2016 was expected with three new starters up front while replacing 1,000-yard rusher Alex Collins, but the difference has been far worse than expected. The Hogs averaged 197.3 yards per rushing a year ago, No. 34 in the nation, but managed just 25 yards on the ground off 31 attempts against Auburn. Eating into the rushing yard total was four sacks for a loss of 25 yards, but not nearly enough to be a reason Arkansas’ rush totals were diminished.

The helter-skelter play up front has been ongoing in SEC play adding 120 against Texas A&M, 73 against Alabama, and an “expected” 200 yards against Ole Miss. The 2016 season rushing statistics have been bolstered by posting 226 yards against Texas State and 353 against Alcorn State. The Hogs are now averaging 160.3 yards rushing per game. The new season totals have not been posted yet but 160 yards per game would more than likely put Arkansas somewhere around No. 84 in the nation.

Arkansas has now given up 21 sacks on the season making starting quarterback Austin Allen an unprotected target in the pocket. When given time to throw, Allen is as good as any other quarterback in the conference.

Where does the scrutiny lay?

Kurt Anderson is in his first year with the Hogs taking over for Sam Pittman who took off for the same job with Georgia at the end of the 2015 season. While Arkansas may not have the best talent in the SEC up front, it is still Anderson’s job to have his unit ready for each game. After the Hogs season opener against Louisiana Tech, Anderson was quoted saying the line’s problems are “correctable things.” Yet the problems persist game after game.

Play calling by offensive coordinator Dan Enos has contributed to some of the sacks Allen has endured and the line has given up trusting the line to block long enough to run a 15-yard out to the outside hash against future NFL defensive ends and tackles.

The coaching staff is very high on sophomore left guard Hjalte Froholdt. Trouble is, Froholdt moved over from defensive tackle earlier this year and is now a starting left guard in the SEC. Chances are Froholdt would not be counted on to play guard if the Hogs had recruited better up front. The 2016 class had three offensive line recruits in Jake Heinrich, Terrance Malone, and Paul Ramirez. Heinrich is redshirting during his true freshman season as expected. Malone and Ramirez are junior college transfers expected to contribute right away. Ramirez has played in three games while Malone has not made the field yet. Zach Rogers (two games played) and Colton Jackson (three starts) out of the 2015 class along with four-star JUCO transfer Jalen Merrick (four games played), have not provided the overall boost needed.

Right guard Jake Raulerson is a transfer from Texas and Froholdt is a transplant. That makes two of the Hogs new starters guys Arkansas did not even recruit to play on the offensive line. Brian Wallace, a four-star recruit out of high school, has not hit the ground running as expected seeing action in just three games in 2015 as a redshirt freshman. Wallace left the Auburn contest with an undisclosed foot injury.

Penalties and Turnovers

The Hogs only had four penalties against Auburn but each one was costly with one negating a great kickoff return by Deon Stewart that could have swung momentum back in favor of Arkansas. Two other penalties took Arkansas from third-and-short to third-and-long.

In four conference games, the Hogs have been flagged 23 times covering 222 yards, not counting the loss yards on Stewart’s return. Taking away 62 yards against the Aggies and 60 against the Tide are game killers.

For the season, Arkansas is plus-one in the turnover department 15/14. The difference in the Hogs’ three losses are 3/2, 5/2, and 2/0 or 10/4, plus-six, or on the wrong side of winning the turnover battle.

Rush Defense

Defensive coordinator Robb Smith has his unit trending in the wrong direction. A year ago, the Hogs were one of the best units in the nation allowing just 116.5 yards per game, ranked No. 12 in the nation. Entering the Auburn game, that unit with nine returning starters had fallen to No. 80 in the nation allowing 175.9 per game.

Auburn laid 543 net rushing yards on the Hogs picking up seven scores on the ground. Arkansas is now giving up 221.8 rushing yards per game.

With Dre Greenlaw out, the Hogs linebacker unit looked slow not able to match the athleticism of Auburn’s tailbacks.

Another area Arkansas has not recruited well at is linebacker. Class of 2014 recruit Dwayne Eugene was in a three-way tie for a game-high eight tackles (Josh Liddell and Deatrich Wise) but had played sparingly until Saturday with just 17 tackles on the season, including the eight from the Auburn game. Out of the 2015 class, the Hogs had two linebacker recruits, Derrick Graham and Kendrick Jackson. Graham is not on Arkansas’ roster and Jackson has been moved to fullback. Greenlaw was initially a safety recruit who shinned as a true freshman for the Hogs as an outside linebacker or inside in the nickel. From the 2016 class, Dejon Harris has played in six games tallying 15 tackles.

Going Forward

If the pushback against some of the aforementioned woes to the Razorbacks’ loss against Auburn is not the talent on the roster, then it is the coaching. Auburn can be better than Arkansas picking up a win but a 56-3 defeat is the worst for the Hogs and Bielema since his first season in Fayetteville losing 52-0 to then- No. 1 Alabama in Tuscaloosa. No one likes to be embarrassed like that, not the players, coaches, and especially the fan base, boosters, and alumni.

During Bielema’s post-game press conference he noted a change is needed in personnel, scheme, or a combination thereof going forward. There are problems but are they “correctable things” that can be remedied over the final four games? Florida has the nation’s No. 3 total defense. The new is not much better with LSU sporting the nation’s No. 13 total defense.

Two wins should be, need to be, had against Mississippi State and Missouri giving the Hogs at least a 7-5 season. If Arkansas wins their bowl game, another 8-5 season could go into the books tying last year’s mark with two All-Americans (TE Hunter Henry and OG Sebastian Tretola), a three-time 1,000-yard rusher (Alex Collins), an under rated quarterback (Brandon Allen, sixth round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars), and the nation’s No. 12 ranked rush defense on their side.

Given the loss of talent from last year’s squad, perhaps Bielema potentially going 8-5 deserves high marks? Then again, Bielema is in his fourth year at Arkansas giving him plenty of time to restock the talent on the roster in his image. The Hogs will lose at least six starters on defense and six key contributors on offense due to graduation at the end of the season. The lack of depth shows at key positions making one wonder what to expect of the Hogs in 2017.

Should more be expected of Arkansas’ football team or is this about as good as it will get with Bielema running the show? No doubt it is tough to win in the SEC West but the same can be said for the other six teams in the division.

Photo credit: thebiglead.com; Bret Bielema looking for a call on the Arkansas sidelines.