Why moving Kirkland to LT might not yield favorable results for Hogs

I understand that questioning my man Bret Bielema, the head man at the University of Arkansas, about offensive line musings is somewhat sacrilegious as he’s probably forgotten more line play than I’ll ever know.

But that’s exactly what I’m about to do.

Now understand this: I’ve followed Bielema’s career extremely close since he took over at the University of Wisconsin for famed coach Barry Alvarez.

His physical style of play — on offense and defense — was right up my alley as a football player who lauded himself a physical athlete. I watched just about every Wisconsin game I could get my hands on for the duration of his career and was astounded by the versatility within his run concepts — many of which I diagrammed here.

Bielema, along with offensive coordinator Paul Chryst, had the distinction of being in possession of the most physical outfit in the most physical conference, the Big 10. (Well, at least at the time it was?!).

Offensively speaking, for Wisconsin it was simple: recruit and develop some of the best offensive linemen, tight ends and running backs the Midwest had to offer.

Wash, rinse and repeat.

Some of the best linemen in college football rolled through Madison: the 6’7″, 312-pound left tackle Joe Thomas (third-overall pick by Cleveland), 6’7″, 317-pound LT Gabe Carimi (first-round pick by Chicago), 6’5″, 317-pound center Peter Konz, 6’4″, 317-pound guard Kevin Zeitler (first round pick by Cincinnati) and the 6’3″, 315-pound C Travis Frederick (first-round pick of the Dallas Cowboys) immediately come to mind.

And even players like John Moffitt (G, third-round pick), Ricky Wagner (T, fifth-round pick), Kraig Urbik (G, third-round pick), Ryan Groy (G, undrafted) and Rob Havenstein (T, 2015 draftee) are all Bielema/Chryst players who have made some sort of an impact at the professional level.

With that being said, we know Bielema knows what a high draft pick looks like at every position along the offensive line.

That’s why his decision to move, perhaps, his best interior prospect, former right guard Denver Kirkland, out to left tackle befuddles me — not to mention his reasoning leaves a lot to be desired for even the sheistiest of con artists.

That’s right; my beloved orchestrator of the most complete run game on the planet is acting like the coaching version of the main character in Better Call Saul.

Just kidding, Coach B (sort of?!?).

Overview

If you’re like me, you expected there to be some type of shakeup along the Hogs’ line for the sheer fact that right tackle Brey Cook was lost due to graduation.

The 6’7″, 322-pound Cook wasn’t a Bielema recruit, as he predated the current staff, but he played just like some of the right tackles at Wisconsin: uber-physical in the run game with quality  pass-protection and the ability to kick inside.

Naturally, I felt as though one of the current linemen would slide over into his position and that’s exactly what happened.

When Bielema released the spring depth chart, one of the biggest moved was seeing the 6’10”, 310-pound Dan Skipper being moved from his left tackle post over to Cook’s old spot.

Some were shocked to see this move, but I championed it for two reasons: Skipper has more of a traditional RT skill set and the move would open up a chance for the Hogs to get more athletic at the “premium” tackle position.

By traditional RT skill set, I’m saying that Skipper is nasty with his run blocking and decent in pass pro. Most defenses try to deploy its premium pass-rusher on the blindside of the quarterback which makes LT the spot where the better athlete would reside.

That’s not to say Skipper isn’t a good athlete, it’s merely shedding light on where his skill set would be best utilized. I also can’t imagine Skipper sniffing the LT spot in the NFL so it makes sense to train his kick-step phase on the side of the formation where NFL brass would want to see him.

What I didn’t expect was the corresponding move.

Kirkland Breakdown/Ulterior Motive from Coach BB?

“[The offensive line] is going to be a huge, huge asset to our program,” Bielema recently said at a spring press conference (h/t to ESPN).

“We have our best pass-pro player over to our left tackle spot, Denver Kirkland. We moved Dan Skipper from left to right; he’s in a good battle with Brian Wallace for that right tackle spot. We have Sebastian Tretola at left guard, which puts two of the better players right next to each other to play a little left-handed football.”

Bielema would go on to say that Kirkland was by far one of the best pass-pro guys he’d ever been around and he wanted to get him out to the left tackle as that’s the premium position the NFL seeks.

Bingo!

Bielema knows for his program to grow he needs to start harvesting first-round draft picks like he did in Madison, which means this was a program-building move opposed to a legit on-field move.

But is he cutting off his nose to spite his face?

Here we see Kirkland operating from the LT position against the University of Georgia when Skipper went out with an injury. To say his performance was porous would be putting it mildly.

In this particular sequence he got to work against what most would consider a mid-level pass-rusher in UGA hybrid linebacker/defensive end Jordan Jenkins.

The 6’3″, 247-pound Jenkins took the 6’5″, 337-pound Kirkland to school. Usually when a defensive coordinator feels a tackle doesn’t operate well in space, they align their players at a 7- to 9-technique to virtually provide a two-way go.

Out the gate, Kirkland broke the No. 1 rule: Keep your feet shoulder-width apart to provide yourself with enough stability to anchor down or shuffle. He also exclusively bent at his waist opposed to bending down more at his knees (think about a defensive stance in basketball).

Georgia quickly keyed on the fact that Kirkland wasn’t quite up to the task of operating in space and decided to key in on him. Arkansas countered with providing Kirkland with inside/out help (as seen in the above sequence).

Make no mistake about it; Kirkland is a really good athlete…for a guard. He is the truth playing inside the phone booth and once he gets his hands on you it’s over.

Just ask University of Mississippi lineman Robert Nkemdiche — who can concur from the above sequence.

Additionally, he’s extremely physical in the run game and is money on plays that call for him to pull or lead.

Case in point, just look at the big man rumble down the field looking for someone to mash.

Let’s be clear: I’m not saying Kirkland won’t or can’t be an effective left tackle. He’s a great football player so I’m sure over time he may get better at the position.

However, he doesn’t quite possess the type of foot quickness or lateral agility that we’ve seen from recent star tackles in the Southeastern Conference like University of Alabama rising sophomore Cam Robinson or former Texas A&M star Jake Matthews.

But as presently constructed, Kirkland is surefire first-round prospect at a position that teams have recently put a premium on.

The 2013 draft saw two guards selected within the top 10, North Carolina’s Jonathan Cooper (Arizona, seventh selection) and Alabama’s Chance Warmack (Tennessee, 10th selection), not to mention interior linemen sign lucrative contracts each offseason.

Kirkland is every bit the prospect of both those players but may turn out to just be your average, run-of-the-mill LT.

I personally had dreams of seeing Kirkland and Skipper operate in tandem on the right side of the formation effectively turning the Hogs into a right-handed outfit with the two nastiest players in the conference playing in tandem.

Left tackle is a young man’s position so it’s not unusual to see freshmen or sophomores manning the position for championship contenders; the Hogs have a few prospects in Brian Wallace, Frank Ragnow and Jalen Merrick who appear to possess the prerequisite athleticism for the position.

Come on, Coach Bielema; don’t tinker with an almost perfect thing.