stopping the run in today's SEC

[aubiefifty 18,236]

The 'different challenges' of stopping the run in today's SEC

ByNathan King

5-7 minutes

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Sam Pittman’s late father, Donald Pittman, was a longtime high school football coach in Oklahoma. Born and raised in the Sooner State, Sam, now in his second season leading the Arkansas football program, picked up more than a few coaching tidbits, of course, over the years.

One of Don Pittman’s biggest coaching pillars was success and multiplicity in the running game — something his son is upholding quite efficiently at the moment with the Razorbacks.

“My dad was an old coach, and his big deal was, ‘Where’s the football?’” Pittman said Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference. “If they don’t know where the football is, you have a lot better chance of having success running it.”

There are plenty of modernized approaches for a rushing attack, with tempo and creative schemes to get athletes in space, but they’re also stirred with simple misdirections, like Pittman described. Blend with a talent pool that seems to get better and better as the years go by, and the SEC is currently carving up opponents in the run game at a rate that could end up being historic.

The SEC currently has four teams averaging at least 240 rushing yards per game. If that figure holds — which is a big “if,” considering the majority of remaining games at this point are conference matchups, after some easier, non-Power Five opponents buoyed offensive outputs earlier in the season — it would be the first time in SEC history that at least four offenses have posted an average of at least 240 yards on the ground over a season.

The season to beat is likely 2017, which ended with three teams — Georgia, Mississippi State and Alabama — finishing with an average of at least 250 rushing yards per game.

2021 SEC RUSHING LEADERS (THROUGH WEEK 7)

• Ole Miss: 262.83 YPG

• Florida: 252.29 YPG

• Tennessee: 249.14 YPG

• Arkansas: 243.0 YPG

A common denominator for the league’s best running games is a quarterback that can be equally as dangerous and provide another running threat for defenses. Pittman, for example, mentioned his big, athletic QB as the first reason for the Razorbacks’ success in the run game, which went for 232 yards in a losing effort against Auburn last weekend.

“I think a lot of it, too, has to do with KJ Jefferson, with his ability to run the ball,” Pittman said.

All four of the SEC’s best aforementioned rushing attacks boast a quarterback who contributes with much more than his arm — with at least 50 yards per game on the ground. In some cases, the quarterback is a scrambler. In others, he’s a central part of an zone-read scheme, easily getting to double-digit carries a game.

If that figure holds, it will be the first season since 2016 with four SEC quarterbacks averaging 50-plus rushing yards.

2021 SEC QUARTERBACKS RUSHING YPG (THROUGH WEEK 7)

• Matt Corral (Ole Miss): 75.0 YPG

• Emory Jones (Florida): 70.57 YPG

• Hendon Hooker (Tennessee): 55.71 YPG

• KJ Jefferson (Arkansas): 55.14 YPG

“It’s becoming more of that, where, week to week, you’re getting different challenges,” Auburn linebackers coach and defensive run game coordinator Jeff Schmedding said this week of game-planning for SEC rushing attacks. “The league has spread out, too, so now you’re having to make space tackles, which is the biggest difference in that sense. It was somewhat typical on the west coast, but it’s gotten into the SEC. And you do that with even better players, those missed tackles on the perimeter and out in space become explosive plays."

Luckily for Auburn, which has the SEC’s fifth-best run defense through seven games, only one of the SEC’s top seven rushing offenses is left on the schedule. Unluckily, it’s the best one.

The Tigers’ coaching staff is glad to have extra prep time in the bye week for Ole Miss, which has not only the league’s best run game, but also presents the No. 2 overall offense in college football and the No. 3 rushing offense in the country. The Rebels hung 52 points on Auburn’s most recent opponent, Arkansas.

Lane Kiffin loves his tempo, and Auburn saw plenty of that in Fayetteville, too. Schmedding said not only do modern defenses need to slow traditional handoffs, they also have to account for short but efficient elements of the passing game. Those, too, usually fall on the front seven and defensive backs in shallow coverage to make quick stops. In the SEC, that means quick stops against top-shelf athletes.

“A lot of the screen game, the RPO, they’re just extensions of the run game,” Schmedding said. “So, really, they’re making you cover the whole entire field.”

A defensive performance like the one Auburn closed the game out with in the Arkansas win — the Tigers allowed one touchdown, forced two punts, forced a fumble for a touchdown and got two fourth-down stops on the Razorbacks’ final six drives —would go a long way in securing a victory over Ole Miss in what looks to be an important matchup in the SEC West race.

Kickoff on Oct. 30 inside Jordan-Hare Stadium is set for 6 p.m. CST on ESPN.