FAYETTEVILLE — By Coach Bret Bielema’s reckoning, the writing was on the wall early in the 2016 season.

The Razorbacks, in their third season under coordinator Robb Smith, struggled to contain running quarterbacks Kenny Hill, Trevor Knight, Jalen Hurts and even Alcorn State’s Noah Johnson in the first half of the season. The Hogs had trouble coping with strong edge-rushing teams virtually all year.

There was going to be a switch to a 3-4 front, Bielema concluded. Veteran coach Paul Rhoads was going to have a strong hand in designing the new look, almost as soon as the calendar turned to 2017.

Sure enough, Smith was out — taking over as defensive coordinator at Minnesota — and Rhoads was in as the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville’s defensive coordinator by the third week of January.

Rhoads spoke bluntly about a defense that got punched in the gut repeatedly last season until it ranked No. 94 against the run (205.5 yards per game) and No. 85 in scoring (31.1 points per game).

“Our kids, I don’t know if embarrassed is the wrong word or the right word,” Rhoads said. “But nonetheless, we gave up too many yards last year and we gave up too many points.

“We gave up too many rushing yards to quarterback-running teams. We gave up too many big plays. There were a lot of things that they know they did wrong that created us not playing great defense, and they’ve had the mindset to improve upon that. I’ve seen that mindset on a daily basis. They are not pleased when they don’t perform well individually and collectively right now.”

No other off-season development, with the possible exception of the team’s massive turnover at wide receiver, will impact the course of the 2017 season for the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, like the move from an four-man front, to the base 3-4.

Bielema said the decision was made out of necessity as well as the need for creating versatility.

There are simply not enough top-level defensive linemen coming through the ranks to stock four-man fronts at all the major colleges.

“Here at Arkansas the 3-4 allows us to get more of those underrecruited, undersized speed guys on the field, guys who play well in space,” Bielema said.

A three-man front also helps with depth-chart numbers.

“You don’t have to have eight to have a two-deep, you have to have six to have a two-deep,” Rhoads said, referencing the defensive line. “I think we can get to a quality depth position.”

The ability to blitz a fourth, fifth or even a sixth defender, all of whom are standing at the snap, gives the defense more unpredictability.

“One of the things that was pretty consistent in our play was we didn’t vary a lot from where we set the formation,” Bielema said. “I think that came back to bite us, and we’ll do a lot of variation moving forward.”

The Razorbacks’ defense will show more presnap movement, hoping to confuse blocking schemes or slow the recognition and reaction by offenses, something Arkansas quarterback Austin Allen learned last year going against three-man fronts.

“They might bring a safety down from somewhere on the field or something like that,” Allen said. “There’s a lot of moving parts with it. They can drop guys [into coverage]. That’s kind of what the teams we play against do. Alabama and LSU run that defense.”

Rhoads said he didn’t employ a 3-4 scheme until late in his tenure as head coach at Iowa State (2009-2015), but told Bielema he wished he had made the move earlier to combat the Spread offenses so prevalent in the Big 12 at the time and increasingly popular in the SEC.

Rhoads explained the basics of the 3-4 scheme, using his booming voice to emphasize key points.

“The nose guard has to have his hands on the center and take care of his A-gap,” Rhoads said, early in camp. “The ends have to have their hands on the tackle and take care of the B-gap.

“Our outside linebackers have to set the edge on anything that comes at them and be involved in the quick passing game. Our linebackers have to go where the backs go.

“And our secondary can’t let people go behind them. If 11 guys are doing those things on a play-by-play basis, regardless of the call, we have chance to play good, competitive defense.”

Bielema said more and more college teams are going to three-man fronts.

South Carolina Coach Will Muschamp, a noted defensive specialist, agreed.

“It’s a lack of being able to find quality defensive linemen,” Muschamp said. “It’s easier to find a flexible 240-pound hybrid defensive end-linebacker who can play in space. And it creates some problems for offenses. Some run plays work well against a four-man front, but they’re not so good against a three-man front.”

Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn, whose defense enjoyed a revival under coordinator Kevin Steele while employing 3-4 and 4-3 looks last year, talked up the 3-4 at SEC media days.

“The thing about a three-down front, obviously they can do some different things with athletes on the edge,” Malzahn said, pointing out that it puts more pressure on a team’s offensive tackles. “The thing about an odd-front team, you better have some pretty strong offensive tackles, especially in the run game if they have some good anchors. And it puts the center on the island a little more than it would a four-down front.”

Malzahn said the SEC used to be pretty evenly split between three-man and four-man fronts, but now he expects the balance to be tipped more toward the base 3-4.

LINING UP

Bielema said the move to the 3-4 has other advantages, such as being able to have eight defenders on their feet.

“You naturally become more athletic with the 3-4 scheme with athletes on the field,” he said.

“There will be a lot of the same schemes, a lot of the same coverages, but coming at it with the ability to bring different pressure. More importantly, I think in today’s world, too, the 3-4 aligns quicker and a little bit more simplistic to multiple offenses in a shorter amount of time, and that should help us.”

Another element that plays in favor of switching to the 3-4 is that Arkansas’ top defenders are totally on board.

“The 3-4, when you’re playing it, the offense really doesn’t really know where the next rusher is coming from,” said sophomore end McTelvin “Sosa” Agim, the team’s most experienced pass rusher.

Junior Randy Ramsey, who primarily plays the “Razor” outside linebacker spot, is viewed as the prototypical athlete to unleash in a 3-4 scheme. Ramsey, 6-4, 228 pounds, combines a pass-rushing skill set with good hip turn and agility that will allow him to track running backs in space in the passing game.

“I’m able to play faster than I was last year,” Ramsey said. “It’s a great fit. I think the whole defense is able to play way faster.”

Arkansas defensive back Kevin Richardson, a team captain, said success in a 3-4 begins in the trenches.

“It involves guys up front being physical and being able to dictate things, control gaps and be able to make plays in in those holes that are going to be there,” Richardson said.

Quality play from the nose guard in the 3-4 scheme, manned by 6-1, 339-pound senior Bijhon Jackson, 6-4, 300-pound Austin Capps and 6-3, 298-pound redshirt freshman Dylan Hays, will be crucial.

“The main thing for us is just keeping the center from climbing up on the linebackers and stretching the zone plays,” Jackson said. “Other than that, we just try and dominate the center. Try to dominate him every play.”

Arkansas offensive coordinator Dan Enos has had to do plenty of scheming against 3-4 defenses, run by some of the top units in the country like Alabama and LSU.

“The thing about the three down is where are they aligned?” Enos said, referencing the various spots the defensive lineman can take or shift into. “I think that creates the most communication and the most issues for offenses. … Whether it’s protections and/or the running game, it makes you have to talk more. You can’t just assume.

“The other thing it does is it creates four potential rushers very close to the ball any time, and that becomes a situation where you have to identify who their rushers are. You’ve got to try to get keys, and our defense has been doing a good job. They’re bringing [blitzes] from a lot of different places.”

Arkansas center Frank Ragnow said the best way to attack a 3-4 is for the offensive linemen to get into the second level of the opposition’s defense.

“Because they’ve got four guys now that can run around as linebackers and are off the ball and get in space,” he said. “To be able to get our double teams to the second level is probably the most important part.”

Arkansas outside linebackers coach Chad Walker said the specifics of playing the Razor and Hog spots starts with establishing the edge against the run and forcing ball carriers to go east and west, rather than straight downfield.

“So we’re the edge setters,” Walker said. “We’ve got to be stout on the outside, play with great leverage and be able to turn the ball back inside. And then when it’s our turn to spill, sometimes we’ve got to be able to spill the football.

“The next thing we’ve got to be able to do is affect the quarterback. Whether that’s getting the quarterback off the spot, getting batted balls, that type of stuff. When our number’s called in the pass game, we’ve got to go after it, we’ve got to get him off the spot.”

The play of the inside linebackers, led by Dre Greenlaw and De’Jon Harris, also looms large. Ideally, the inside backers stay clear of firing guards, but encroaching linemen are an obstacle.

“With this defense obviously you’ve got to be able to run on the edge and defeat blocks,” inside linebackers coach Vernon Hargreaves said. “Because there are going to be times those guys have a chance to come off blocks and get on you and we’ve got to able to beat them and then get back downhill and make those tackles in the backfield.

“But the lateral movement is the key, man, because of what people are going to try to do us. They’re not going to try to pound us down inside. They’re going to try to get on the edges, so we’ve got to get on the edges.”

Bielema said recruiting a higher caliber of athlete over the past few years will help in the transition and implementation of the 3-4, along with the meshing of complementary ideas.

“We’ve had the idea of what we want, what he’s used in the past, what I’ve used in the past,” Bielema said. “That will be a very seamless transition from what we’ve already been doing.”