Contact: Lina Taylor Work: 855-JoeMoore (855-563-6667) [email protected] OFFENSIVE LINE PLAY FUELS PLAYOFF DREAMS IN THIS WEEK’S JOE MOORE AWARD “BIG UGLY SPOTLIGHT” Games feature Alabama vs. Arkansas, Tennessee vs. Texas A&M, LSU vs. Florida and Washington vs. Oregon NEW YORK, New York – October 5, 2016— In its continuing effort to help educate fans on how important the offensive line is to winning football, the Joe Moore Award will feature games on a weekly basis that feature O-Line units that have shown potential to win the award in its “Big Ugly Spotlight”. The list for Week Five features Alabama vs. Arkansas, Tennessee vs. TeXas A&M, LSU vs. Florida and Washington vs. Oregon. On a weekly basis, the Joe Moore Award will provide analysis for the upcoming weekend’s featured games. Stay tuned for Joe Moore Honor Roll, which will recognize outstanding offensive line play, culminating with the announcement of the 2016 winner of the Joe Moore Award after the conclusion of the regular season. This week’s “Power Breakdown” will feature the SEC matchup of Alabama/Arkansas, with in-depth analysis provided by the team at The Scouting Academy, an online-based instructional curriculum whose instructors bring over 350 years of NFL front office and coaching eXperience. WEEK 6 “BIG UGLY SPOTLIGHT” LIST FOR GAMES ON OCTOBER 8 “POWER BREAKDOWN” – ALABAMA (#1) @ ARKANSAS (#16) – 7:00pm ET on ESPN The Razorbacks come into this game hoping to prove they deserve a place among the elite programs in the SEC and their big, physical offensive line would play a major role in an upset of top-ranked Alabama. Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide just keep rolling behind an elite defense, a true freshman quarterback and an offensive line that is improving every week and beginning to make a case to repeat as Joe Moore Award winners. Alabama Crimson Tide Offensive Line Unit Breakdown, via The Scouting Academy ALABAMA O-LINE OVERVIEW: Alabama's talented offensive line has the ability to line up against virtually anyone and consistently provide opportunities for its skill players to make plays, so, if they eXecute and do not turn the ball over, the Crimson Tide are very hard to beat. As they prefer to play things straight in their base alignment, the primary challenge of Arkansas’ defense will be to stay disciplined, maintain gap integrity, and force the still somewhat ineXperienced freshman QB Hurts to make good decisions, consistently. ALABAMA O-LINE BREAKDOWN: Alabama utilizes the dual-threat capabilities of Freshman QB Jalen Hurts through the use of a Zone Read run scheme and play action passing. Primarily operating out of 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE), Offensive Coordinator Lane Kiffin is able to keep defenses off balance due to the versatility of TE O.J. Howard, who can align as an inline Y (e.g. neXt to an OT), or split wide (like a WR). Hurts has the luXury of operating behind an eXcellent offensive line, headlined by two tackles that have shown spurts of potential to be outstanding players over their careers. Junior LT Cam Robinson has won post-season honors in each of his two seasons since winning the starting job as a freshman, but may be over-shadowed by true freshman newcomer Jonah Williams on the right side, who started his first college game in the opener against USC and has won the Crimson Tide’s "Lineman of the Week" in all but one game this season. Alabama also has good quality in the interior of the line, with guards Ross Pierschbacher, Alphonse Taylor and Center Bradley Bozeman all showing good strength, toughness, and mental processing to work together. As a unit, they effectively control the middle of the line utilizing ZBS (Zone Based System) run concepts, as well as “anchor” (lower body strength) to provide good pocket depth in pass protection. ARKANSAS DEFENSIVE OVERVIEW: Arkansas aligns in a base 4-3. The ends play in a 5T (off the shoulder of the tackles), one DT will play a 3T (outside shoulder of the Guard) to the boundary side, and the other DT will align in a 1T (outside shoulder of OC) to the field side. The Razorbacks have very good depth across the front, with nine different players seeing at least some action so far in 2016. Arkansas relies primarily upon its front four to provide pressure, choosing to drop LBs and nickel DBs into coverage in passing situations. The best edge rusher of the group is Deatrich Wise, who was on multiple award watch lists heading into the season. Arkansas has been feeding reps to true freshman McTelvin Agim, who looks to have the highest ceiling of the group, showing good traits as an interior pass rusher. Contact: Lina Taylor Work: 855-JoeMoore (855-563-6667) [email protected] Alabama Crimson Tide Offensive Line Unit Game Notes • With a 5-0 start and early expectations for a championship run, Alabama is 13th in the nation with an average of 44.0 points per game and they are making a case to repeat as Joe Moore Award winners. • The O-line unit has protected true freshman QB Jalen Hurts, who has thrown only one interception all season. • Alabama ranks 4th in the SEC in rushing yards per game (231.6) and fourth in the conference in yards per rush attempt (5.39). • Alabama has averaged 252.8 passing yards per game, allowing ten sacks and 27 tackles for loss through five games. • Alabama’s offensive line has paved the way for 14 rushing plays of 20+ yards and has protected the quarterbacks long enough to allow 41 plays of 10+ yards through the air. • In Saturday’s 34-6 win over Kentucky, the Alabama O-Line: o Created enough lanes for the Tide to rush for 173 yards and one touchdown o Protected the QB’s long enough to throw for 315 yards and two touchdowns, with 173 yards coming in the pivotal 3rd quarter. Arkansas Razorbacks Offensive Line Unit Breakdown, via The Scouting Academy ARKANSAS O-LINE OVERVIEW: Arkansas can win this game if their offensive line can mentally process and defend Alabama’s twist and blitz scheme and compete the entire game with the Crimson Tide’s 8-man defensive line rotation. No easy task. The Razorbacks have to establish their power running game and keep Alabama off balance and contain their rush with WR screens, play action passes and rollouts. ARKANSAS O-LINE BREAKDOWN: The Arkansas Razorbacks run a pro-style offense, running the ball to open up the pass. Their running game is based mainly in a Power blocking scheme with Pin and Pull plays, Buck Sweeps, and Draw plays. This, combined with rollouts, WR screens, play action passes and drop back passes, help the Razorbacks keep the defense off balance. They use mainly a 6-man protection scheme on 3rd downs to give their QB and offensive line eXtra time to throw the ball down the field. LT #70 Dan Skipper is a towering force on the Razorback’s line, standing 6’10”, with a good ability to power block and push people off the ball in their running scheme. RT #60 Brian Wallace is one of their better pass blockers and displays a solid kick, slide-step and a good ability to anchor the pocket. ALABAMA DEFENSIVE OVERVIEW: The Alabama Crimson Tide run a 3-4 defense that rotates up to eight different players on the defensive line and OLB positions. Alabama’s defense relies on twists and blitzes from the LBs and DBs to stop the run and put pressure on the QB. The entire defensive line displays good extension in their arms to keep blockers off of them, with very good play strength to hold the point of attack. #54 LDE Dalvin Tomlinson shows good ability to “stun” blockers at the point of attack, reset the line of scrimmage, shed blockers and tackle ball carriers. #56 OLB Tim Williams shows a very good ability to get off the ball with a pass rush plan that keeps offensive tackles off balance the entire game. Arkansas Razorbacks Offensive Line Unit Game Notes • The “Trench Hogs” have helped Arkansas to a 4-1 start and have earned the attention of the Joe Moore Award voting committee. • They have protected the QB well, allowing only 7 sacks on the season yielding only two interceptions. • In the last four games, QB Austin Allen has thrown 10 touchdowns and zero interceptions. • They get yards when they need them, ranking 2nd in the SEC in third down conversions (49%). • With a successful balanced attack implemented, the Razorbacks average 443.4 total yards per game and 6.43 yards per play. • Arkansas is the only SEC team with two SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week designees this season. • Senior Dan Skipper will make his 40th consecutive start on Saturday. • Skipper has two blocked field goals this year and seven for his career, which is just two off the NCAA record. He was named SEC Special Teams Player of the Week this week and has already won SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week this year. • In Saturday’s 52-10 win over Alcorn State, the Arkansas O-Line: o Created enough lanes for the Tide to rush for 353 yards and three touchdowns § Arkansas averaged 9.3 yards per rush o Protected the QB’s long enough to throw for 206 yards and three touchdowns o Allowed zero sacks, one tackle for loss and one QB hit Contact: Lina Taylor Work: 855-JoeMoore (855-563-6667) [email protected] TENNESSEE (#9) @ TEXAS A&M (#8) – 3:30pm ET ON CBS With the eXception of an overtime win against UCLA in the season opener, TeXas A&M has won by big margins on their way to a perfect record.