Utah’s offense has already shown it can pile up points, but the part Arkansas coach Ryan Silverfield is most interested in is the part that can crack open a game Saturday: how often the Razorbacks can get after Devon Dampier.
The Utes put 66 points and 633 total yards on Idaho in Week One, yet the first half offered a few cracks Arkansas can study. Idaho hung around on the road and got within 17-7 midway through the second quarter before Utah finally pulled away. And while the final numbers looked dominant, Utah coach Morgan Scalley made it clear there was one thing he wanted cleaned up.
“Sometimes, with those options when you're doing the read fakes and stuff like that, you're going to end up getting your quarterback hit at times.
“But we'd like to take- definitely take those hits off of him. We don't want him getting hit as much as he was getting hit early in that game.
But, you know, didn't give up a sack. Proud of the way our offensive line- we had a good rotation there at the guard spot.
I thought the guys got quality reps. So, you know, we'll settle on a starting 5 this week that hopefully can last us throughout the game.”
That’s the opening Arkansas has to chase. Dampier still produced: he completed 13-of-18 passes for 176 yards and three touchdowns, and he added 31 yards on the ground. But Utah’s offense changes when its quarterback can run freely, and Scalley’s comments made it plain the line is still sorting itself out with five new starters.
There’s also a specific edge Arkansas wants to test. Scalley pointed to the physical battle up front and singled out the Razorbacks’ pass-rushing threat Steven Soles, calling him “a very twitchy athletic edge rusher in [Steven Soles] who's a transfer from Kentucky.” He also noted that Arkansas is “more of an odd front with Coach Roberts coming from Florida.”
Soles flashed that athleticism against North Alabama, even if the stat line was light. He played only 29 snaps, finished with one tackle and a pass breakup, and remains a player Arkansas targeted in the transfer portal after one of the top pressure rates in college football last season.
Silverfield compared the challenge of facing Utah to the kind of puzzle he dealt with against Navy while coaching at Memphis. He said the old-school option look used to be one thing, but the gun option makes everything more complicated.
“We've faced Navy back in the day when it was old school under-center option, and you said, ‘okay, hey, just be in your gaps, trust your keys,'" Silverfield said on Monday. "And there are some times where, you know, we played some pretty good defenses versus Navy, and then all of a sudden, they went to the gun option.
“And man, it's hard because you’ve got to defend every aspect of it, and you've got to be great with your eyes, got to be great with your fundamentals. To Utah's credit, they've got a guy doing it that's really experienced, really good at it, and he can run, he can throw, and so that makes it challenging.”
For Arkansas, the formula is straightforward even if the assignment isn’t: stay disciplined, keep Dampier from dictating the game, and force Utah into long-yardage situations. Silverfield said the key is resisting the eye candy and sticking to the plan.
“Reality, this is a discipline type game,” Silverfield said. “Just trusting your eyes, trusting your keys, because you're going to be deceived.
You're going to see pullers go one way. You're going to see down blocks, and then all of a sudden, you know, reverse pivoting out of the gun.
“The different things they can do. Next thing you know, like you said, you're trying to flow and make okay, who's the quarterback player?
Who's the dive player? Who's the pitch player?
Oh shoot! Now all of a sudden there's a slant on the backside.
So you got to be as disciplined as you can, and you got to trust it over and over and over. And the focus has to be elite for all three phases.”
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Gus Malzahn recently looked back on his season as Arkansas offensive coordinator in 2006, a year that still stands out for the way Darren McFadden could change the shape of a game. McFadden was more than the Razorbacks featured back, giving that team a versatile edge during a 10-game winning streak that carried it all the way to the SEC Championship Game.
Malzahn also credited McFadden with helping popularize the Wildcat offense, a wrinkle that fit the running backs rare skill set and made Arkansas even harder to defend. More than a decade later, Malzahn still put McFadden near the top of the list of players he has coached, which says plenty about how special that season felt in Fayetteville. [Read more 🡒]
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Cramsey also noted that Utahs defense will bring a straightforward four-man front, which puts the focus back on Arkansas own consistency rather than some exotic wrinkle. The opener showed the offense can string together productive series, but it also showed how quickly penalties, sacks and turnovers can undercut that progress. For a unit trying to build confidence early, the question now is whether the big-picture effort can be matched by sharper details when the competition gets better. [Read more 🡒]