Mississippi State bracing for Thompson's schemes

SCOTT CAIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

FAYETTEVILLE -- John Thompson came to Arkansas with a reputation for coordinating successful defenses whose methods bordered on the unorthodox.
Almost 11 months later, Thompson apparently has been handed the keys to the defense for Arkansas' game Saturday against 13th-ranked Mississippi State.
Thompson has been directing the defense at practice this week, a telling sign that he will call the plays instead of co-coordinator Bobby Allen. Allen called the plays in the first eight games.
Coach Houston Nutt would not confirm that Thompson has been given play-calling responsibility or that Thompson's schemes, most of which have been shelved this season, will be used more widely.
Any element of surprise that Arkansas coaches hoped to spring was lost Monday when Mississippi State coaches became aware that more control had been given to Thompson.
The Bulldogs have been preparing to face a defense that could be called by either Thompson or Allen. MSU coaches watched tape of the Bulldogs' 1999 game against Memphis in which Thompson was the Tigers' coordinator. MSU won that game 13-10.
Under Allen, Arkansas has lined up to limit big plays, which crippled the defense in each of its four losses last season.
Free safety Ken Hamlin has played back as a center fielder whereas his predecessor Kenoy Kennedy often cheated up to the line. The defense also has blitzed less and has used mostly linebackers to do it, de-emphasizing the role that the rover, bandit, cornerbacks and free safety had in blitzing the last two years.
Zone pass coverage has been expanded with Thompson overseeing the secondary, but there's much more to his schemes that have not been used.
Memphis Coach Rip Scherer once said that going against Thompson's defense was like lining up on an interstate highway during rush hour.
In Thompson's defenses at Memphis and Southern Mississippi, players jumped around before the snap and blitzed from different angles, making it difficult for offenses to recognize who to block.
More of Thompson's schemes haven't been used because Nutt said he didn't want to tamper with the recipe that helped win the Cotton Bowl.
"We just tried to do what's best for our team," Nutt said. "What was best was when we had [linebacker] Quinton Caver and guys coming from the Cotton Bowl who had a lot of confidence in what they were doing and it just didn't make sense at the time to change wholesale.
"What people don't know is John's had a tremendous influence in some of the things that we've worked in, with the secondary, coverages, blitzes. He's had a lot of input with Bobby."
The shakeup comes on the heels of a 63-20 loss at Tennessee, the most points allowed by an Arkansas team in 81 years. Offense and special teams also contributed to last week's blowout.
But the defense's problems didn't originate against Tennessee. They've been building and have put the Razorbacks on track to have the least productive season for defensive big plays in modern school history.
At their current pace, the Razorbacks would finish the season with 14 turnovers and 13 sacks. That would be the lowest output for both as far back as the school has records, 1952 for turnovers and 1983 for sacks.
"I just want to be better on defense," Nutt said. "I know we're better than that on defense. I want to be better. We've always been very, very physical. I know we've had injuries and all of that but you always want to be good tacklers."
In Thompson's previous 17 years in college coaching, he served as a coordinator 16 of those years and called the plays until coming to Arkansas as co-coordinator. His most recent jobs were at Southern Miss (1992-98) and Memphis (1999), and he spent last December at LSU before taking a slight pay cut to work in his home state. He grew up in Forrest City.
Allen served as defensive coordinator for Nutt at Murray State and Boise State, leading a defense that ranked No. 3 in Division I-AA in 1996.
Allen took a co-coordinator title when the staff came to Arkansas in 1998. But Nutt gave Keith Burns the final say in decisions and then quietly dropped the shared title in 1999 so Burns could position himself for a head coaching job.
Burns took the Tulsa job last Dec. 7 and Nutt made Allen the interim coordinator for the Cotton Bowl. Allen drew up a sound plan and, with key pass coverage input from interim secondary coach Louis Campbell, Arkansas beat Texas 27-6.
Nutt hired Thompson on Jan. 4. He named Thompson and Allen co-coordinators and said this would be a true coexisting balance of power. But somebody has to make the calls during games so Nutt appointed Allen.
While Allen, Thompson, defensive line coach Bill Johnson and rover-bandit coach Chris Vaughn all pitch in ideas for the game plan, what has emerged is a defense that bears little resemblance to the ones that Thompson ran at Memphis and Southern Miss, according to SEC coaches.
Tennessee offensive coordinator Randy Sanders said he recognized "a little bit" of the schemes Thompson prefers.
"But I don't see a whole lot of Johnson Thompson's schemes really until third down," Sanders said.
Mississippi State offensive coordinator Sparky Woods said, "It doesn't look exactly like the Memphis defense, but I see some things in there where he's added to [Arkansas' scheme]. To what degree it resembles what he did in Memphis -- it's certainly not the same -- but I wouldn't know how to measure that."
By Saturday, everybody will be able to measure it.

This article was published on Friday, November 17, 2000

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