In a matter of weeks, the Arkansas offensive line has gone from being the biggest in all of football to suddenly very thin.
Or so it would seem on the surface as the Razorbacks said goodbye to three starters along its line this winter, as well as their coordinator. It’s safe to say the Hogs’ offensive line will have a revamped look in 2016, but it’s also reasonably harmless to assume that if anyone can quickly turn around the unit, it’s Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema.
That’s because he’s consistently done it before.
Bielema is renowned for his strong offensive lines. At Wisconsin, his home for seven seasons prior to Arkansas, Bielema saw eight of his offensive linemen drafted into the NFL. All that while firing his offensive line coach Mike Markuson just two games into the 2012 season and replacing him with graduate assistant Brad Miller.
Bielema is looking at building a rapport with new line coach Kurt Anderson, who takes over the reins of the Hogs offensive line after the departure of Sam Pittman to Kirby Smart’s new staff at Georgia. Bielema has demonstrated in the past that he needs to feel comfortable with his coaches, explaining Markuson’s early departure from Madison. In Anderson, he not only has an experienced veteran coach — he spent the last three seasons as an assistant with the Buffalo Bills — but a sort of a mini-me, doppelganger who aligns both in physical stature and philosophical approaches with Bielema.
Anderson is a brash, tell-it-like-it-is-type of character, making him ideal fits for Bielema and his previous boss, Rex Ryan. He inherits a line at Arkansas that loses 60 percent of its starters — specifically on the left side — that ranked No. 6 nationally this season in adjusted line average, according to the number crunchers over at footballoutsiders.com. Left guard Sebastian Tretola and center Mitch Smothers exhausted their eligibility, while left tackle Denver Kirkland decided to test his luck in the NFL Draft.
It appears junior right tackle Dan Skipper will return his 6-foot, 10-inch, 331-pound frame to Fayetteville for his senior campaign. Otherwise, right guard Frank Ragnow, the only new face on the line in 2015, could have been the only returning starter.
But the cupboard shouldn’t be bare for Anderson, who made an infamous splash on his first-ever recruiting trip, apparently splitting his pants while exiting the team’s airplane. He’s a Bielema-guy, for sure.
Jake Heinrich didn’t seem to mind the busted seam. The four-star offensive guard is one of two offensive linemen currently committed to Arkansas’ 2016 recruiting class. The other is Northwest Mississippi Community College-transfer Terrance Malone, a three-star recruit and the only member of the class to already sign a letter-of-intent. Ideally, Bielema has said he’d like to get the number of linemen in the class up to about four or five before Feb. 3’s national signing day.
That’s when the Bielema magic takes over. Perhaps it’s a result of playing nose tackle for Iowa under Hayden Fry. Or cutting his teeth as a co-defensive coordinator under the tutelage of Bill Snyder at Kansas State. Whatever it is, Bielema understands how to construct an offensive line.
The coach is very much engrained in the retro style of physicality and brute force in trenches. It worked in Wisconsin as the Badgers pounded their way to three consecutive Rose Bowl appearances. It certainly clicked in Fayetteville during Bielema’s third season with the team as the line held more-than-steady for quarterback Brandon Allen and running back Alex Collins to post two of the best individual years in Razorback history.
The line might not outweigh every other team in the nation – both NCAA and NFL – again next season, but Bielema’s success with offensive lines is quickly making Arkansas a premier destination for the position. The result should be a trickle-down effect where skill players routinely want to play behind a brick wall that they know is going to protect them.
The rest we’ll just chalk up to Bielema magic.
Chris Wuensch is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers South Carolina and Tennessee.
