FAYETTEVILLE - Ron Roberts spent Tuesday talking about Vanderbilt freshman quarterback Jared Curtis with the kind of respect usually reserved for a problem you know you’re going to have to solve the hard way.
Arkansas’ defensive coordinator called Curtis “a big-league arm” and rattled off the reasons why. Roberts said Curtis can make “all the NFL throws,” drive the ball to the far hash, hit the field-side out, and launch the go ball to the field side. He also pointed to the freshman’s movement skills, noting that Curtis can slip away and extend plays when a rush breaks down.
“I’m not saying he’s a running quarterback, but he can. He has a knack for getting out of trouble and finding ways to extend the play.”
That won’t be much comfort to Arkansas, which heads into Saturday looking to make the freshman’s day uncomfortable from the start. Vanderbilt has already allowed 12 sacks in six games, including three in last week’s 52-17 loss to Ole Miss, and Roberts made it clear that pressure is part of the plan.
Against Tennessee, Arkansas only recorded one sack on George MacIntyre, but the defense created steady heat all afternoon and finished with pressure that helped lead to Shelton Lewis’ interception in the fourth quarter. Roberts said the idea was simple when the quarterback is young: keep coming.
“It was a direct hit, it was Christian Harrison, brought pressure. That was part of the plan.
The part of the plan was a young quarterback, first start, eat him up. You know what I mean?
Come after them on passing downs and see if we can force him into some bad situations.”
The other key for Arkansas, Roberts said, is the same one that keeps showing up in these kinds of games: stop the run and force the offense into obvious passing downs. Vanderbilt is averaging 119.7 rushing yards per game, which ranks 119th nationally, and Arkansas wants to make the Commodores live in second-and-long and third-and-long.
“They got them behind the sticks,” Roberts said. “Getting them into second-and-long, extra long, third-and-longs.
They could put their ears back, have rush plans and exotic coverages, so they couldn’t figure it out. Actually, it’s mostly every week though.
You stop the run, you get them behind the sticks, you can dial up something that you’ve got a shot to go hit the guy.”
Curtis has started five of Vanderbilt’s first six games, missing the Georgia game because of injury. In those five appearances, he has thrown for 968 yards with five touchdowns and five interceptions. Roberts said the results haven’t always been polished, but he also stressed that asking a freshman to run an SEC offense is a heavy lift.
“He needs to know when he’s hot and he’s got to get the ball out of his hands or he’s going to take unnecessary sacks.,” Roberts said of Curtis' necessary mentality. “He’s got to be able to decipher a coverage pre- and post-snap, because it isn’t always the same picture of where to go with the football. So there’s a lot on a quarterback, that’s why it’s usually not freshmen.
“In the NFL, veterans stay around for so long, it’s because there’s a lot to process and putting the ball where it’s supposed to go, not just have a rocket arm. But I think he’s got a pretty good grasp.
He’s a little farther along mentally than a lot of quarterbacks - a regular freshman quarterback. He’s farther along mentally, you can see him, he’s pretty speedy on his release, ball comes out quick, he’s making quick decisions.”
Arkansas and Vanderbilt kick off Saturday at 6 p.m. in Nashville. The game will be shown on ESPN2 and carried on the Razorback Sports Network.
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