The 'Old Gray-Headed Man' Was Right by Making House his STAR

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The Godfather of the "Creeper" defense, Arkansas defensive coordinator Ron Roberts has coached enough football throughout his life to know when someone has the talent and ability to play a completely different position.

For rising junior Khmori House, he arrived to Arkansas as a linebacker.

Not only that, but a captain for North Carolina as a sophomore and has been quite productive during his time at the college level with 116 career tackles, 65 solo stops, five pass breakups, 3.5 tackles for loss, two forced fumbles, two interceptions and one sack.

After a stop at Washington for his freshman year and the Tar Heels last season, Roberts was finally able to link up with House, who he had completely different plans to utilize him defensively at Arkansas.

House moved to nickelback, also known as the STAR position, in the Razorbacks' overhauled secondary that has nearly 20 new faces. Roberts' vision to make him the next Jalen Petri brings upon high expectations, but after practice No. 4 of Arkansas fall camp it appears the move was the right one all along.

"When we are evaluating players, we look at guys who've had success in the system before and there was a guy named Jalen Petri that [defensive coordinator] Ron Roberts coached at Baylor who was similar [to Khmori House], played linebacker in high school but had defensive back movements," Deron Wilson said Sunday night. "When Roberts was recruiting him out of high school he always talked about him."

Roberts never moved on from his recruiting loss of House, it didn't sit well with him because he saw what the former 3-star recruit was capable of during his high school days. Like any coach, the Razorbacks' first-year defensive coordinator used a relationship developed nearly four years earlier to convince him that his defense and position switch was the right fit.

"Then when he hit the transfer portal, initially we talked linebackers," Wilson said. "But [Roberts] was pushing for him to play DB and I think the old gray-headed man ... he was correct. He's a pretty good player in the secondary. He has all of the traits, the attributes along with the linebacker mentality to strike and hit."

Arkansas Razorbacks defensive back Khmori House makes one handed interception during spring practice. | Khmori House, Twitte

Wilson, who spent last season with Roberts at Florida, found out fairly quickly his boss knows what he is talking about when it comes to defense. With the 'Creeper' scheme being implemented in Fayetteville, pressure can come from anywhere including the secondary.

With House's quickness as a defensive back and ability to strike fear into an opponent due to his physicality off the edge. Roberts' has routinely deployed nickels, STAR's, and safeties to attack inside gaps by utilizing their speed and angles to disrupt timing, protections or even stop the run.

What he does best is bringing energy to the secondary that his teammates feed off of. Celebrating after big plays, such as his two interceptions during Sunday's practice, can build confidence for a unit looking to establish an identity in Year One.

"[House] is the energy, the heartbeat as the guy as he go — we have a couple guys in this matter — but he's one of the guys as he goes, the secondary goes right because he brings the physicality and the mindset to the secondary for the secondary."

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