Something Basic from Past Gives Hogs Hope as Petrino Makes it New

Generic old school formation threatening as today's SEC athletes unprepared both mentally, in body type

Former Arkansas fullback Peyton Hillis braces himself while being tackled in an upset of LSU. The Razorbacks expect to bring the position back for the 2024 season. / USA TODAY Sports

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – When Bobby Petrino came screaming into Fayetteville on what Razorbacks fans mentally envision as the world's loudest Harley, the brash image they generated in their heads was that of a general showing up for battle prepared to launch the world's greatest air assault.

There may eventually be unstoppable air raids in Arkansas games, but from the sounds of it, it will be set up by a strategic ground attack. It's been a decade since the SEC tried to evolve from stopping round after round of physical running games at Alabama and Georgia to the lightning fast spread offenses popularized in the league by the success of guys like Petrino.

However, Petrino saw disadvantages in defenses anchored by 250 pound linebackers like the Crimson Tide's Dont'a Hightower and chose to use speed, spacing and chaos to combat it. In response to offenses forcing linebackers to chase people around in the passing game and less need to fend off lead blockers, the league drifted toward much smaller, faster players at the position.

Last year, Alabama was led by Jihaad Campbell and Deontae Lawson at linebacker. Both weighed in at a svelte 230. Meanwhile, Khari Coleman, the top returning linebacker for Ole Miss, will take the field against Arkansas in November weighing a few pounds above or below 220.

Once again, Petrino has explored ways to create defensive disadvantages while also assessing potential weaknesses and strengths within the Hogs' roster and arrived at another potential game-changing decision. He and Pittman are going to dust off the old Power I formation and make it new again.

This has huge upside for a lot of reasons. The first is it compensates for any possible issues within the offensive line.

Yes, the Hogs are expected to be much improved over last season in this department. However, improved is relative since it's borderline impossible to be worse than last year's line and no one has seen this group together, especially against elite Division I talent.

Running a fullback through as an extra blocker not only relieves a bit of pressure on blockers at the point of attack, it potentially slows down anything coming from behind the defensive line, allowing the likelihood of a true one-on-one battle to increase. It also helps a great deal if someone goes down because depth is the biggest weakness Arkansas faces when it comes to the offensive line.

The next thing it does is turn the Razorbacks into a unique opponent. For anyone who played high school football in the last two decades of the 20th century, the idea of a Power I formation is about as vanilla as it gets.

However, for these 20-year-olds playing linebacker, it's wildly exotic. Most have never looked into the backfield and seen someone line up at fullback play after play while guards and tackles pull in a million different directions.

It's the formation equivalent of asking these same young men to go to a rotary phone and call their best friend. They have no idea how it works, it's making a weird buzzing sound, and there is zero chance they've bothered to memorize anyone's phone number, much less that of a friend, so it's overly complicated and basically impossible.

Not only are the linebackers going to be lost, they're going to be outmatched in a way they've never seen. This formation decision was probably locked into stone as something to be seriously added to the playbook the second 252-pound freshman running back Braylen Russell agreed to join the team.

Suddenly, linebackers are asked to prepare to face a lead blocker who outweighs them by 20-30 pounds coming at them with a full head of steam while a 235-pound running back hits the hole at full speed right behind him with little to no previous experience for such a thing and essentially less than a week to prepare for it. The 40+ crowd thinks nothing of it because over a decade of facing a Power I formations from pee-wee football through high school made it easier and instinctive.

Watching mesh points on a fullback and running back to know whether to tackle, prepare to shed a blocker, scrape or drop back into pass coverage doesn't process quickly and naturally. It takes years of practice to not lose time thinking and guessing.

The second a linebacker has to think, it's over. He's blocked or out of position because he didn't slide over the right gap.

He's not out on the edge providing support for the sweep so a long run bursts open. He's not back in pass coverage, and if he is, he's probably on the wrong guy because the fullback went one way, the running back went another and the tight end dropped back behind him and he didn't go with the right person.

It's a decision overload nightmare for a linebacker who is also physically outmatched in a much different way that he's used to seeing. Add in the genius level offensive mind Petrino possesses that allows him to take FCS talent like he had Missouri State and blow up an SEC defense the way he did against Arkansas a few years ago, and things can get messy.

The idea that something as basic as a Power I formation can cycle around and become new and innovative again is mesmerizing. What was once old and truly can be new again in the SEC.

If he ever lines one of his tight ends up next to the fullback and starts dropping counters, heads are going to explode. Perhaps the most important thing is if quarterback Taylen Green can master going under center and dropping back on play action, the world is going to be literally wide open for him.

Someone is going to be running free in one of his progressions and he is going to have far less pressure created by the need for the linebackers to make reads. If the offensive line can hold its own, things should get really interesting for Arkansas.

To be clear, it's unlikely Petrino is going to simply put the Hogs in a Power I every play, nor is it certain Russell is who he will choose to line up at fullback. Arkansas will definitely be multiformational and there are plenty of other candidates to fill in at fullback.

However, when they do, it will be interesting to see how much magic happens as the youth of today find something else so basic from the past to be terribly confusing. Just another way the '90s are making a comeback to make the world a little better.

HOGS FEED:

• Pittman's redemption act helped by lighter schedule

• Hogs' quarterback ready for renewed rivalry against Longhorns

• Best, worst case scenarios for Razorbacks with difficult schedule

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