Attempting to hold ground

SCOTT CAIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

AUBURN, Ala. -- Two SEC teams have demonstrated two distinct ways to beat Auburn.
Mississippi State won 17-10 with its defense by negating tailback Rudi Johnson, the SEC's leading rusher. Florida won 38-7 with its offense by knocking the wind out of the Tigers with scores on its first five possessions.
If its offense continues to struggle, Arkansas will have to lean on a simple defensive strategy when it plays the 25th-ranked Tigers today at Jordan-Hare Stadium.
Stop Rudi, stop Auburn. Right?
"You can't say you'd beat Auburn by stopping him because they've got a great passing game, too," Arkansas linebacker Quinton Caver said. "But if we stop Rudi, we've got a good chance of beating Auburn."
Better than Caver might let on.
Auburn's leading receiver, Ronney Daniels, missed practice this week with a sprained ankle and is expected to be limited if he does play. That means the Tigers are likely to heap even more responsibility on Johnson's 5-10, 230-pound frame.
Odds are Johnson can handle the load. He has run 207 times for 1,124 yards and 12 touchdowns, including games with 36 and 33 carries.
Whether Johnson and the rest of the Tigers (6-2, 3-2 SEC) can handle the challenge of playing their ninth consecutive game without an open date concerns Coach Tommy Tuberville as much as anything.
"I think we're pretty tired physically and mentally," Tuberville said. "But hopefully we've got one left in us to where we can go out and give it all we have."
Giving maximum effort and not locking up when something bad happens are the primary pleas that Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt has made to his team. The Razorbacks have lost seven consecutive road games, and a disturbing trend has developed where they collapse under adversity.
Finding a solution has proved to be as elusive as some of the running backs who have rolled up generous yards in three SEC games.
"You just keep talking and talking and hopefully some of it is going to stick," Nutt said. "If something bad happens, let's overcome and play the next play. The thing we've told them is we're tied for first. We're right in the middle of the race."
Actually, Arkansas (4-2, 1-2) is last in the SEC West. But with each team having two losses, the Razorbacks would win the division by winning the rest of their games. They would hold the tiebreaker over any team because their two losses came against East opponents.
To stay in the race, Arkansas will have to stop Johnson.
Johnson and an improved offensive line have resuscitated a rushing game that ranked 112th nationally last year and now ranks 30th. Individually, Johnson ranks sixth in the country, averaging 140.5 yards per game and 5.4 yards per rush.
Johnson's presence has rippled through the offense. Scoring is up from an average of 21 points last year to 28 this year and that has made the defense more effective.
"Defensively we love him because he helps keep us off the field," linebacker Alex Lincoln said. "Last year, we played so many snaps ... so defensively we were tired as a unit. This year, it's just a breath of fresh air to see him do well."
Johnson has rushed for more than 100 yards in seven games. Only Mississippi State has stopped him, holding Johnson to 26 yards on 18 carries.
The Bulldogs did it by crowding the line and giving Johnson no room to run. They can afford to commit players to the run because their cornerbacks can take away receivers in man-to-man coverage.
"You have to make him go east and west," Mississippi State Coach Jackie Sherrill said. "And you have to play physical."
That's Arkansas' plan.
"Hopefully we can give him a few good shots and he won't run as hard as he has been," defensive tackle Sacha Lancaster said.
Often it's Johnson who gives out the shots, running through the first defender who comes his way. He racked up 249 yards doing that against Louisiana Tech last week.
"We're too hungry to let him do that to us," free safety Ken Hamlin said.
Besides desire, the Razorbacks will need to shed blocks and gang tackle, something that they have not done consistently. In three SEC games, opponents have rushed for an average of 191.6 yards.
It might help that tight ends coach James Shibest, who came to Arkansas in February, coached Johnson for two years at Butler County (Kan.) Community College and has passed along a detailed scouting report. Shibest pointed out a couple of vulnerable spots that coaches did not want to divulge publicly, Nutt said.
But it still takes execution on the field to do the job.
"We've got a chore," defensive line coach Bill Johnson said. "Here's what I'm relying on: I really feel that we're improving. That's hard to say with the way things are and the air of everything right now. People may not believe that."
Two weeks ago, Arkansas forced South Carolina out of its running game from the Spread formation. So the Gamecocks shifted gears by throwing for two touchdowns and then going to an I-formation power running game to score two more times in a 27-7 victory. The Razorbacks couldn't keep up with the adjustments.
Those are correctable mistakes, Johnson said. He's eager to see how the defense plays now that it has worked extensively against the sweep and inside runs that Auburn will try to ram at the Hogs.
"Are we good enough to stop Rudi Johnson?" Johnson said. "I've got a good positive feeling about it."

WHERE Jordan-Hare Stadium (80,214)
WHEN 1 p.m. today
RECORDS Arkansas 4-2, 1-2 SEC; Auburn 6-2, 3-2
SERIES Auburn leads it 5-3-1. Arkansas won in its last trip to Auburn 24-21 in 1998. The teams met just once before the Hogs joined the SEC when the Bo Jackson-led Tigers won 21-15 in the 1984 Liberty Bowl.
LINE Auburn by 91/2
TV Pay-per-view
RADIO Arkansas Razorback Sports Network on 73 stations, including KARN-AM, 920, and -FM, 101.7, KKRN-FM, 102.5, and KSYG-FM, 103.7, in Little Rock; KXOW-AM, 1420, and KLAZ-FM, 105.9, in Hot Springs; and KEZA-FM, 107.9, and KREB-AM, 1390, -FM, 96.7, and -FM, 99.5, in Fayetteville-Springdale.

This article was published on Saturday, October 28, 2000

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