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FOOTBALL TIGER TALK REVIEW: Arkansas Week '24 (9-16-24)

Jay G. Tate

IT'S A TRAP!
Staff
Jan 17, 2003
83,486
406,740
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Montgomery, Ala.
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It's once again time for TIGER TALK on the radio waves throughout the Southeastern United States!

LIST OF AFFILIATES AND LINKS

PREDICTION: Big week this week. Gotta clean up some mistakes from last week and GET BETTA.

**********

"War Eagle, buddy," Freeze says to open.

ANDY asks about how Hank Brown played. "Really pleased, really thought he was efficient. His decision-making was really good for his first start. I thought he was accurate with the ball. His run checks, he was 100 percent on that. This evaluation will be ongoing ... but I do think he has this poise about him."

NOT ANDY thinks Hank has a lot of poise, too. No question asked. "Offensively, we were able to run the football. He made all the throws we asked him to make. He made a really good deep throw on a double move to KeAndre. The touchdown to Micah Riley-Ducker, he had somebody right in his fact and he stood in there and threw a dime."

ANDY wants to know how weather affected things. (Freeze talks about that.) "It really was coming down there for about five minutes."

NOT ANDY says the OL looked good. No question asked.

(Feed went dead. Missed a question there.)

***COMMERCIAL BREAK***

HERB is in the house. He wants to know about Hank facing an Arkansas team that's had a chance to scout him now. "I think we'd be doing Hank a disservice if we change too much of what we do. The system will be the same. For sure, there will be ... your protections will be different because the blitzes will be different. We won't change up too much of what we do."

WYATT is in the house. He wants to know about which SEC game will be the toughest game this year. "Arkansas," Hugh says. GUFFAWS ALL AROUND.

NOT ANDY notes that tight ends are an important part of the offense. "If your tight ends are catching balls, that means good things are happening. That room is one of our strengths."

ANDY wants to talk about adding another body in there for big sets. "I think we're pretty decided who that will be. We're going to put one of our backup offensive linemen in that room to start learning everything with Coach Ben (Aigamaua). We're going to put Musky (Jaden Muskrat) in there and let him cross-train ... in the heavy sets we go to."

BUSTER is in the house. This is a LONG statement. He thinks winning will help recruiting and wants to know what Freeze thinks about that. "I think the proof is showing that Auburn is a place you can recruit to."

***COMMERCIAL BREAK***

ANDY wants to talk about Arkansas' offense. "They're much-improved offensively. Those guys are very impressive on tape. I really like their tackles. Their running back is special. We've got to work really hard at getting a good plan to contain (the quarterback) contained and keep him in the pocket — make him throw from there instead of our in the grass."

NOT ANDY asks about similarities between New Mexico and Arkansas. Hugh says Bobby Petrino is a master at changing formations. "They do a really nice of scheming offensive."

CAMERON, who is very young, wants to know what their goals are for Saturday. "Win. 1-0."

NOT ANDY asks about Arkansas' defense. "Same defense as last year. Same defensive front four. Two new linebackers, solid players. Secondary is fairly new with some transfers. I think they're really solid. We haven't faced a team yet that will challenge us like their secondary will."

ANDY wants to talk about Kayin Lee. "I think we'll have him back. He probably could have played last week. If he's back, he'll be in the rotation."

NOT ANDY asks about Spoodie Kite. "He made some good plays. He was in some good spots to make some others, but we're not playing with great poise back there right now. We need him more confident and poised and under control."

ANDY asks about the offense playing better after halftime. "We changed our run game a little after halftime. They'd been 85 percent four-down, then in our game they were in 'mint' near about every snap to start the game. We changed two run deals. Then we started hitting some big runs."

ANDY asks about the 'mint' front UNM used the other night. Freeze says it's a nose plus two 4i tackles and an end. "We play a lot of 'mint.' I call it 'jack.'"

***COMMERCIAL BREAK***

NOT ANDY asks about Camden Brown. "I was really happy for him. No one had practiced better than he had all week. He earned the right to start. Truthfully, We were headed into having Robert (Lewis) outside and Dre and then Sam in the slot, but Camden kept showing up every day."

NOT ANDY asks again about Camden Brown. "So glad he stayed."

ANDY asks about the scout quarterback helping get the team ready for UNM last week. "They definitely do not get enough credit."

Freeze: "It just didn't look like we were moving as well as ... I've seen us. We've got to be careful this week to manage the load to where we're as fresh as we can be on Saturday."

NOT ANDY wants to talk more about the telemetry. Freeze says the workload on the DBs was higher than usual. "It was quite a bit more than it should have been."

NOT ANDY wants to champion the turf people at Jordan-Hare. "For the rain that we received ... our turf people are really, really good."

ANDY asks about how they plan to defend Arkansas' offense. "They believe in (the run game). I haven't studied their offense a ton. I won't study it a ton. I know what Petrino does. He's going to create a lot of extra gaps. He also have the ability to throw all those crossing routes with those tight ends and receivers. We have to stop the run. Can we stop the run with even boxes with them? If they have six and we have six, can we stop it with that. Or will we need an extra body in there. They're going to run the football."

ANDY asks about getting some kickoff returns last week. "At halftime, we drew up putting Malcolm back over there and enticing them to sky kick it and him run up and catch it instead of Micah catching it. He almost broke that. Special teams won the field-position battle by 133 yards."

NOT ANDY notes that Freeze smiles a lot when talking about Simmons. "He's so fun to coach. Every day is a smile on his face and bouncing around with great energy. He's a joy to be around."

Freeze says Cam Coleman rolled up to him before the game and offered him a fruit cup. "You want a fruit cup. I said 'Nah, I don't want one.' He said he had two extras. They're just a fun group." GUFFAWS ALL AROUND.

NOT ANDY asks about Freeze's favorite snack. "I don't leave for lunch. I eat kinda whatever is there. My go-to is Frosted Flakes if I'm going to eat something. I like the carrots and celery and stuff they have. At hafltime on gameday, it's a Snickers with almonds. I don't eat a Snickers any other time. And I don't like regular Snickers. I've done that every halftime since I was coaching at Arkansas State. It needs to be cold. It needs to break off when I bite into it."

NOT ANDY asks about practice today. "I didn't get to see the last team period, but I was pleased up until then. We were maybe trying to do a few too many things. We'll try to get that cleaned up and make sure we love what we're doing."

Freeze thought the Oklahoma game would be a night game. He seems disappointed to learn that it's going to be in the afternoon.

Freeze ends with TWO (separate) steely "War Eagles."

BE GOOD. BE YOU.

--30--
 
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