Travis Williams feels defense is improving which is key to spring

FAYETTEVILLE — Travis Williams and the defense have been dealing with fewer numbers this spring which is something they plan to address in recruiting later this month when the transfer portal opens, but for now the coordinator is just wanting to see improvement.

The defensive line and secondary is where the shortage on numbers have appeared to be the biggest issues.

“Yeah, that’s a great question,” Williams said. “So you start out and you go, we don’t have the depth that we would have in spring. And then, for us defensively, like I talked to the staff. ‘Man, we’re football coaches.’ So you can complain about the depth or you can coach football and get guys better. So we’ve just been focusing on ‘Ok, who’s out there and let’s get them better.’ And you can see the defense is getting better as a whole. You know we’ve got guys who are out with injuries and different things like that.

“So man, if you’re a football coach coach football. Don’t complain. It is what it is. At the end of the day, nobody cares anyway. So defensively, like I talked to the staff, let’s go out there and coach and get better. They actually have gotten better. Now we have to go get some more pieces and different things like that but I’m very pleased with just the growth of the defense overall.”

Williams explained that Stephen Dix Jr. is the middle linebacker in his defense. He also talked about Xavian Sorey’s role in the defense. In 2024, Sorey had 99 tackles, 41 solo, two sacks, one pass breakup and an interception. Dix added 70 tackles, including 24 solo, two sacks, one pass breakup and a fumble recovery.

“Well, Stephen is our interior, inside linebacker,” Williams said. “It’s times where he’s going to be flexed out and different things like that from what offensive teams give us. We usually go field-boundary but now we’re doing some stuff where we’re matching the Money backer over where the tight end is at, different things like that. So it depends on the scheme.

“But you definitely want Stephen in the middle quarterbacking the defense. And you want Sorey outside where he can do some different things. But if you draw it up perfectly you could get guys that ‘both of y’all play the same position no matter where the ball is at.’ Both of the guys could kind of rotate to the side.”

Sorey came to Arkansas from Georgia. Williams talked about where he has seen the standout improve the most in the past year.

“Man, he’s just understanding the scheme,” Williams said. “It’s just his knowledge of knowing what we’re doing and what we’re trying to do. He’s asking questions, and not only is he asking questions, he’s actually helping the younger players on the scheme that we have, which is always good. So you’re seeing that growth, and we have that conversation a lot, like, I just tell them, this time next year, you’re going to be in these rooms and these GMs and these coaches are going to be asking you these questions. So let’s draw it up. Let’s talk through it. And he’s become just a student of the game. He’s in my office all the time, ‘Okay, Coach, let’s draw this up. Coach, when you call this, what are you thinking?’ So he’s kind of getting in my mind a little bit on why we call things in different situations, which is, which is awesome.”

Selman Bridges is a young cornerback who was one of the key signees in his recruiting class. Bridges is in line for possibly a bigger role this season.

“You know what, I’m seeing growth because he’s still a freshman, you know,” Williams said. “He was a freshman this last year, last season, right. And he’s still in his freshman year of college. So just seeing him going through his second spring ball and seeing growth, seeing him being developed, seeing him taking coaching and taking his game to another level. And that’s a good thing. All of our guys that are freshman cannot be the same as when they first got here. So Just to see him grow is a good thing, to see him growing.”

Defensive tackle Danny Saili is being counted on to play much more in his second season.

“The game is slowing down for him, and just listening to coach (Deke) Adams and the coaching that coach Adams is giving him,” Williams said. “You can see he’s getting better. You can see Ian Geffard getting better and Quincy (Rhodes) and Charlie (Collins), the whole defensive line. We’re very pleased where Danny is at.”

Sam Pittman recently praised Saili as well.

“I think he’ll be in the rotation whether he runs out there with the ones or not,” Pittman said. “You know how we rotate our line. I think he’s really good. His quickness has changed, his motor. He runs side to side to the football, which losing the weight has allowed him to that as well. I’m just really really high on him right now. I don’t think it’s just because I didn’t know what I thought. You know what I mean? I didn’t know, “Man, can he help us?” I don’t think it’s that because there were times I thought that as well. Now, it’s gone from can he help us? I think he can help us to we can win games with this guy out there because he’s getting a lot of penetration and he runs, he loves to play. It’s changed a little bit. Yes, I definitely see him in the rotation if not running out there with the ones.”

Arkansas has changed its scrimmage from Thursday to Saturday. Thursday will just be a regular practice.