LITTLE ROCK – In Oxford, Miss., and Columbia, S.C., it’s more sic ‘em than sit still. In Baton Rouge, La., there will be less hollering and more helping. In Auburn, Ala., it will be more about situations than anything else. In Athens, Ga., it’s status quo except for the man in the front of the room.

Five of Arkansas’ eight Southeastern Conference opponents have new defensive coordinators this fall and the question is whether the advantage belongs to Houston Nutt or the coordinators he will face. The schedule works in favor of the coordinators. If any of the five teams were early on the Arkansas schedule, Nutt might have the edge because any book on his tendencies during the past couple of years would be skewed by the presence of the unorthodox Matt Jones.

But, by the time Arkansas plays Auburn, it will be mid-October and the Tigers will have a pretty good read on Nutt. Georgia, South Carolina, Ole Miss and LSU are even later in the season.

Of course, all of the Razorbacks’ opponents will have to deal with new coordinator Reggie Herring.

At Auburn, the new man is David Gibbs, a former NFL assistant who replaces Texas-bound Gene Chizik. Even though Auburn led the nation in defense against scoring, head coach Tommy Tuberville was not happy.

“I thought if there was anything we lacked last season defensively, it was being able to have a matchup defense in certain situations,” Tuberville said early this year. “David has a lot of experience in that.”

He said he expects more and more colleges to take the same approach.

After Auburn, the Razorbacks will play at Georgia, where Willie Martinez will call the defenses instead of Brian VanGorder, the new linebackers coach with Jacksonville of the NFL.

Martinez said the scheme would not change. He said he even told the players, “It’s just going to be a different guy standing up front in the room.”

When South Carolina comes to Fayetteville on Nov. 5, the defensive coordinator will be home. John Thompson, former coordinator at Arkansas, is working for Steve Spurrier.

Thompson has always been big on taking the game out of the hands of the offensive coaches and putting the quarterback on the spot.

“Make it unique,” he said in a 2001 interview. “Make it unorthodox. Make the game be won on the field.”

His idea is to make the quarterback uncomfortable. “Try to frustrate him with hits, blitzes, illusions,” he said. “You want to torment the offensive linemen.”

Just as Nutt has final say with the offense, Mississippi’s new head coach, Ed Orgeron, will do the defense. He’s wound a bit tighter than David Cutcliffe.

During spring practice, when the Rebels were in helmets and shorts, Orgeron smacked quarterback Robert Lane in the back.

The coach picked up the fumbled ball, sprinted to the end zone, spiked the ball and returned to his wide-eyed team with a reminder to be alert at all times.

When he was hired, Orgeron said the Rebels would build a championship with great defense and that variety would be in vogue. His game plan is easier said than done – stop the run, prevent the deep pass and attack.

Stern and demanding at LSU, Nick Saban has moved on to the Miami Dolphins. Hired from Oklahoma State to replace Saban, Les Miles raided the Oklahoma staff for his defensive coordinator, Bo Pelini. Miles said he had trouble moving the ball against Nebraska when Pelini was with the Cornhuskers and that he encountered the same problem when Pelini was in Norman.

LSU players say the atmosphere is much more positive and that they don’t worry about being on the receiving end of a tirade.

Asked about his style of defense while at Nebraska, Pelini said he believed in a mix and that opponents would not have a book on his team. “No matter what style you have … you have to have your bases covered.”

Talent also helps. In that department, Auburn, Georgia and LSU are ahead of Arkansas and that might have more to do with the results this fall than tendencies or schemes.



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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media Group’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.