Don't Let These Facts Get in the Way of Your Irrational Hate of How Briles Runs Hogs' Offense

There is a way both sides of the Razorback fan base can be happy with the offensive coordinator next season

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Jan 7, 2023 5:19 PM EST
Original:
Jan 7, 2023

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – With the announcement that Kendal Briles is coming back to Fayetteville for at least one more year to mentor KJ Jefferson, Arkansas fans seemed evenly divided between whether they were excited or depressed.

It's an odd set of reactions since the facts bear out that the Razorback faithful should have been falling out of their chairs with relief that Briles was willing to call plays for another year at Arkansas.

While facts have rarely been a consideration for portions of the fan base, they're so overwhelmingly in Briles's favor that they're difficult to ignore. Obviously, Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek is considering them as he determiness how wealthy he will soon make Briles, and he'd like Razorback fans to stare them down before complaining about the contract he's about to hand out.

For those who don't recall, the Bobby Petrino days, which are considered the pinnacle of Razorback football in the modern era, were 2008-11. Briles has outpaced each of Petrino's years with the exception of the 2010 team.

For perspective, that team finished the regular season No. 8 after knocking off three Top 25 teams, putting No. 1 Alabama on the ropes before falling 24-20, and was running roughshod over a Cam Newton led Auburn national championship team with a back-up quarterback until the defense wore out in the final minutes.

There's a lot to really like about what Briles has done with the offense. His crowning achievements are what he's been able to get out of the running game and his development of KJ Jefferson despite not having a pair of NFL wide receivers and a pair of NFL tight ends on the field at the same time like future NFL quarterback Ryan Mallett did under Petrino.

Perhaps the crowing achievement for Briles is that he strung together over 6,000 yards worth of rushing offense with a stack of dominoes at running back. One would fall and the next one would show out.

Trelon Smith, Dominique Johnson, Raheim Sanders, AJ Green and Rashad Dubinion all found time to shine over the past two years while Jefferson threw in 600+ additional rushing yards here and there.

It's an accomplishment to get one guy to be highly productive in the running game over two seasons, yet Arkansas has had six over the past two.

That's old school Alabama running back success.

As for KJ Jefferson, he was a lost kid who was the last resort in a Chad Morris season where everyone, including walk-ons, got a shot at quarterback before he did. Once he finally got his chance, it wasn't pretty.

Jefferson wasn't a fan of throwing the ball, and when he did it appeared he was heaving it up to a general area hoping Treylon Burks or Mike Woods might happen to run under it and bail him out.

He completed 14-of-31 that season.

The next year was a little better as he completed 20-of-41, raising his completion percentage by nearly four percent to 48.8 and developing some much needed confidence.

Unlike the Chad Morris years, he at least looked like he sort of knew what he was doing in his first year under Briles. He was also backing up a future NFL quarterback in Filipe Franks as opposed to the back-up for Nick Starkel, Ben Hicks, John Stephen Jones and Jack Lindsay.

Everyone knows the rest of the story. Over the past two seasons, Jefferson has become a leader and a legitimate threat to run for 1,000 and throw for 3,000 his senior season if he can just get help on the recruiting side of things.

He's had almost identical seasons with 2,676 yards passing in 2021 and 2,648 in 2022. He also mirrored his rushing production with 664 yards in 2021 and 640 in 2022.

Keeping in mind that Jefferson was hurt for pretty much an entire month of the season, it's easy to project out over 3,000 yards passing, over 800 yards rushing and perhaps an extra win on the ledger this past season despite a very average group of receivers and minimal production out of the tight end spot.

There are strong reasons for people to not like Briles off the field for what went down at Baylor, but if fans are overlooking that and merely complaining about the offense, there's not someone else who is going to come in and do it better.

Does he get a big cute with things at inopportune times, leading to losses on critical downs? Sure.

But understand that there are things that are working in the offense because he calls those cute plays. Those motions are repeated on other successful plays and if there's not a legitimate threat he's going to run the plays that drive Arkansas fans nuts, defenders won't have a reason to hesitate for a moment on the plays that do work.

Consider those plays a pawn you're willing to sacrifice to capture the queen three moves later.

Now, there is one caveat to this. Yes, the stats the offense put up was on par with the Petrino years, but the wins weren't.

That's because a portion of these stats under Briles this past season are the product of a bad defense, whereas the stats in the Petrino years were a product of NFL talent.

You see, when the defense gives up a string of one-play drives, the offense gets extra possessions. That's three offensive drives in a time span that would have only allowed one possession with even an average defense.

If the offense drives 35 yards and punts each possession before the defense allows another 12-40 second drive with a 70+ yard pass or run, then there's an extra 70 yards of offense on the balance books that wouldn't have been there under normal circumstances.

The offense isn't any better at execution than it would have been with a single drive of 35 yards, it just looks better because it got more chances to go 35 yards and punt.

That's not to say Briles hasn't done an exceptional job of putting together a great offense. He was given a lot of flour and no eggs this past season and still managed to somehow put together a pretty good cake.

The majority of the losses this season had nothing to do with the offense.

However, if Briles wants to amass an offense so great that it drowns out his association with the atrocities at Baylor, allowing him to move on to become a head coach at the end of this season, then he's going to have to step up his recruiting game.

There's a mountain of elite talent still hanging out in the transfer portal and he's going to have to truly sacrifice for what's left of the recruiting window to scrap together elite SEC talent at the wide receiver and tight end positions while also helping find All-American level clay to mold along the offensive line.

That's the only way this ends with both sides of an incredibly loud Arkansas fan base happy at year's end.

Those who love him will be happy for Briles as he and Jefferson sail off into the sunset having set records while leading Arkansas to new heights offensively. Those who don't will be shutting the door really hard hoping it catches him on the backside as he leaves.

What happens after that is for future Arkansas fans to complain about.