Arkansas ready to blitz away with more size in secondary

Among the many things that Arkansas is looking to improve on is the lack of sacks for the Razorbacks in 2024.

Arkansas finished 15th out of 16 teams in the SEC in sack percentage (5.27%) and 11th in total sacks (26). Only the 2-10 Mississippi State Bulldogs finished below Arkansas in sack percentage.

One of the ways coach Sam Pittman wants to help the Hogs get more pressure on opposing quarterbacks is to run more blitz packages, something the Razorbacks shied away from because of the deficiencies in the secondary.

Despite not being a blitz heavy team, the Razorbacks finished last in the conference with 246.9 passing yards allowed per game.

With new personnel and new secondary coach Nick Perry, Pittman hopes the Hogs will be in a position to attack the quarterback, something that Perry relishes.

“There's no bigger respect than when the play caller can call a blitz,” Perry said. “He [the playcaller] has confidence in our secondary. We want to be aggressive.

“We want to bring the fight to them. We want to get in their faces, and we want to challenge and contest everything.”

Arkansas has new transfers including Kani Walker and Julian Neal. Walker brings SEC experience from his time at Oklahoma and Neal transfers in from Fresno State.

Arkansas Razorbacks cornerback Jaheim Singletary during preseason camp drills at the indoor practice field in Fayetteville, Ark. | Nilsen Roman-Hogs On SI Images

The room also returns Jaheim Singletary at corner, who started six games for the Hogs in 2024. Singletary is hoping that the new scheme that incorporates more blitzes can allow the defense to work more cohesively.

“[We’re going to run] different schemes from previous years,” Singletary said. “Running a lot more man [coverage] and it goes together as a whole. Like [let the] D-line eat, backend cover, we all work as one.”

Arkansas’ sack production is also in flux. The top three leaders in sacks are all gone. Landon Jackson (6.5) got drafted to the NFL, Brad Spence (4.5) transferred to Texas and Eric Gregory (three) exhausted his eligibility.

Linebacker Xavian Sorey is the leading returner with just two sacks. It could be incumbent on the secondary to make the defensive line’s job as simple as possible as new faces get acclimated into the SEC.

Perry’s significant experience is already helping the position group grow. Perry had spent the previous four seasons, three on the defensive side of the ball.

His most recent stop was with the Seattle Seahawks in 2024. Perry played defensive back from Alabama from 2010-2014.

“It’s always good to be under a coach that played DB himself,” Neal said. He knows what it’s like out there, so he’s not going to get onto us about certain stuff.

“He wants us to be our best at all times, but he knows how it is out there. Being able to learn under coach Perry has been great for the past few months. I’ve learned a lot, and he’s pushing me to be my best.”

The Razorbacks have a scheduled off day Wednesday. Fall practice will resume 9:15 a.m. Thursday ahead of the season opener against Alabama A&M Aug. 30.

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