Missouri wide zone draws triple option talk from Hogs’ Roberts

Ron Roberts got one question about the wide zone this week. He answered it for a long time.

Then the Arkansas defensive coordinator stopped and checked himself.

“I went too long on that, didn’t I?” he asked with a laugh.

Maybe a little. Nobody in the room was in a hurry to stop him.

Missouri’s run game isn’t something the Razorbacks see every Saturday. That’s the whole problem with the Arkansas-Missouri wide zone matchup.

The Hogs host No. 23 Missouri on Halloween night in the Battle Line Rivalry. Kickoff is 6:45 p.m. CT at Razorback Stadium on SEC Network.

Arkansas has lost four straight to the Tigers. Slowing down the wide zone is the first step to changing that.

“We just don’t see it that much in [this league’s] football, people cutting the backside,” Roberts said.

Option a really old problem for Arkansas

Roberts didn’t compare it to anything new. He went old school.

He said the wide zone is “almost like the triple option concept, really, because you’re hitting it. They’re on tracks, you know.”

Think of it this way. The linemen move the same direction like they’re on a straight railroad track. The running back reads the blocks and picks his hole.

Roberts said the read often starts around the B-gap. If a lane pops open, the back takes it.

“There’s multiple plays within one play, so they get good at running it,” he said.

Missouri also changes the look. The Tigers run it with one back. They run it with a tight end, too, which gives them different ways to block it.

Roberts said with a tight end, Mizzou marks the front side and tries to double the nose back to the backside linebacker.

Texas and the Wishbone left a mark

Older Razorbacks fans know exactly what a triple option headache feels like.

Texas rolled out the Wishbone in 1968. The Longhorns finally got comfortable with it before an October night in Austin that same year and ran it well for several years.

They ran to a couple of national championships with it, and some of the best Razorback teams ever lost to them three straight years during a run of just five losses over that time.

Arkansas felt it more than most. The Hogs won just once on a rainy day in 1971 in Little Rock against a Longhorns team with backups having to play all over the field and a smallish quarterback, then didn’t beat Texas again until a 1979 win in Little Rock.

Eight years between wins over a team that just kept running the same stuff. Sound familiar?

For the last few years, it may be part of the reason Arkansas has won just twice since 2013 and only once against a Tigers team coached by Alma native Eli Drinkwitz.

Missouri isn’t running the Wishbone. But Roberts recognizes the same stubborn streak.

“Consistency on their part makes it, you know, a little different because you don’t see it all the time,” he said. “And then their commitment level to it.”

Silverfield says Missouri trusts it

Ryan Silverfield had the same scouting report a day earlier.

“That offensive scheme, that wide zone, they’ve done a fantastic job every year,” the Arkansas coach said Monday.

He pointed out that Missouri wins with players other teams overlooked.

“Man, they pulled a guy from Division II,” he said. “They pulled this guy that was a walk-on.”

Silverfield said the Tigers stay patient. “Sometimes it’s 3 yards, and the next thing you know, it’s 30 yards,” he said.

He said Missouri’s run game “actually gets stronger in the fourth quarter.” That’s not great news for a defense that has to stay disciplined all night.

Mizzou has 1,129 rushing yards in seven games. That’s 161.3 yards a game, which ranks 71st nationally.

Silverfield said it doesn’t matter who carries the ball. Right now, that’s mostly Jamal Roberts. And no, he’s not the guy calling the Arkansas defense.

Tigers running back leads SEC

Jamal Roberts leads the SEC in rushing at 123.9 yards a game. Only four backs in the country average more.

The 6-0, 216-pound back has 867 yards on 167 carries. He’s scored eight touchdowns.

It’s already his best season, with five regular-season games still on the schedule.

Ahmad Hardy was the main guy last year with 1,649 yards. Roberts still found 753 behind him.

Hardy’s been out all season after he was shot in May. Drinkwitz said Sunday that Hardy can practice again.

Austin Simmons adds another wrinkle at quarterback. Silverfield said the play action and boots off the run game “can certainly cause you some trouble.”

Ron Roberts said the scheme works best with a back who “sticks his foot, you know, in the ground and gets downhill.” He also praised Missouri for having a “tough, physical type running back.”

Staying home is the answer

Ron Roberts’ fix isn’t complicated.

He said the base of the job is staying in your gap and not getting cut on the backside. “And I think that’s huge,” he said.

He also warned against getting cute. Stunts and line movement can look good on a whiteboard.

“But when you move, it’s a lot easier to get overtaken,” Ron Roberts said. “Somebody gets out of a gap, and you got a downhill.”

He gave Missouri’s offensive line credit for working together. He singled out the center, too.

“I think their center, he does a great job of communicating,” he said.

Arkansas had a bye week to get ready. Now the Hogs have to prove they can stay in their gaps for four quarters.

Do that, and the Razorbacks have a real chance to end the losing streak. Get cute and Missouri will run that same play until somebody on the Arkansas defense blinks.