The Arkansas offensive line has taken most of the heat for the Razorbacks’ struggles on that side of the ball. Most damning have been their inability to keep quarterback KJ Jefferson from being sacked.
Coach Sam Pittman, a former offensive line coach himself, knows this. And after five weeks of making small changes, he’s making a bigger one – at least one bigger one – heading into Saturday’s game at Ole Miss.
“I think we’re going to look at some different scenarios up front,” Pittman said. “There’s a difference in panic and a difference in really, really reviewing what we’re trying to do and who’s trying to do it. We may shake up the offensive line a little bit.”
Specifically, tackle Patrick Kutas is moving to center, center Beaux Limmer moving to guard, guard Brady Latham moving to tackle and running back Dominique Johnson moving to tight end. None of those are guaranteed moves, Pittman said, but when referenced, the coach acknowledged.
“I don’t know that we can continue to do the same things and say ‘well, we’re just going to get better at them,'” Pittman said. “I think we’ve got to shuffle some things up to maybe ignite a spark into us.”
Arkansas’ 18 sacks allowed rank the Razorbacks in a tie for 121st worst in the 133-team FBS. The number would be shocking, except Arkansas has two All-SEC returners in Limmer and Latham, so shuffling is what Pittman believes is one of the best courses of action.
“I think we do have good players. We just have to play better and coach better,” he said.