FAYETTEVILLE — Senior receiver Andrew Armstrong made a noticeable stride in his return from a tweaked hamstring in Saturday’s morning University of Arkansas practice at the fields outside the Walker Pavilion.
Armstrong did some moderate-speed running and was working on his releases on the sidelines as his teammates went through the paces during the 10th workout of training camp, which started with the temperature at a pleasant 67 degrees under mostly cloudy skies. The Hogs had their third full-pads workout of training camp.
Armstrong had not been seen during the media viewing portions of practice since he suffered the hamstring tweak Tuesday.
The quartet of players in concussion protocols took another step in their returns as well, with tight end Luke Hasz, cornerback Marquise Robinson and defensive ends Anton Juncaj and Jon Hill going through light drill work on the side.
Tyrone Broden, who is dealing with a turf toe injury, again did individual drills with the receivers but remained out of team periods.
Offensive guard Patrick Kutas was out for the eighth consecutive day with a back issue, and cornerback Jaheim Singletary (hamstring) missed a third day during media viewing.
Line games
Addison Nichols, a redshirt sophomore transfer, and redshirt junior Amaury Wiggins have both gotten work at first-team center and guard in camp.
During fastball starts Saturday, Nichols was at center and Wiggins was at left guard.
Offensive line coach Eric Mateos said Wiggins got most of the snaps at center in Thursday’s scrimmage and if the Razorbacks had a game right now, the likely lineup would be Nichols at center and Wiggins at guard.
Redshirt junior Josh Street and redshirt sophomore Tim Dawn, a Baylor transfer from Camden Fairview, also have gotten work at center.
“You want to give different centers reps working with the [first-team] quarterback,” Mateos said. “Because the worst situation is when the starting center might go down in a game, and you’re looking and what does the TV camera always pan to, right? The back-up center getting snaps with the first-team quarterback.
“We’re trying to make that a non-issue if it ever did happen.”
Happy 29th
Coach Sam Pittman acknowledged freshman receiver’s Monte Harrison’s 29th birthday Saturday.
“Coach Pittman called Monte up in front of everyone and said, ‘The only two people in this room older than him are Coach [Bobby] Petrino and me,’ ” senior guard Josh Braun said.
Harrison, who spent 10 years in professional baseball after being the No. 50 overall draft pick by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2014, has joined the Razorbacks as a walk-on.
A football standout at Shawnee Mission (Kan.) High School who signed with Nebraska before going pro in baseball, Harrison is vying for a spot in the rotation.
Coming up
After Sunday’s break, the Razorbacks will start rotating their coordinators through the media room during the third week of camp.
Co-defensive coordinator Marcus Woodson will open the week Monday with a few selected players, who will most likely be safeties after cornerbacks accompanied Deron Wilson last week.
On Tuesday, offensive coordinator Petrino will make the first of his two scheduled appearances. Second-year defensive coordinator Travis Williams will make his first of two scheduled appearances Wednesday. Pittman will rotate back through for commentary following Thursday’s scrimmage, the second major scrimmage of camp.
Fastballs
Cornerback Jaylon Braxton had diving pass breakups to highlight the fastball starts Saturday.
Braxton dove in to tip away a Taylen Green pass intended for Dazmin James on a hook route with the first unit. Kee’yon Stewart then made a head-first dive to prevent a Malachi Singleton pass from reaching Davion Dozier over the left side.
Green went 2 of 3 during fastballs, with completions to Isaiah Sategna and James, who took reps with the starters as Armstrong and Broden were held out of the period.
Green had a nice gain on a play-action bootleg run over the left side with the other rep during the sequence.
Braylen Russell had two impressive runs with the second unit, bouncing off a couple of defenders. Singleton went 1 of 2, completing a play-action throw to tight end Shamar Easter and having the breakup by Stewart.
The second unit had a wild snap from center Josh Street that was whistled dead to open its four-play set.
The third group only took three snaps and KJ Jackson went 1 for 2. Walker Catsavis had a strong hands catch over the left side against tight coverage and Jackson threw a little wide for Krosse Johnson over the right side. Johnson also ran a jet sweep during the set.
Hill-y route
Transfer tailback Rodney Hill, who began his career at Florida State, took an admittedly strange route to “the Hill,” a nickname for the UA campus.
Hill ran for 334 yards on 77 carries in two seasons at Florida State before enrolling at Florida A&M just for classes in the spring.
“That situation, not many people know, but my parents were running my money and stuff like that,” Hill said. “My parents got a bad agent and he was texting other schools like he was me, so when that got back to the head coach [Mike Norvell], I had to leave Florida State.
“During that time when I had to leave, I wasn’t trying to leave, I didn’t want to leave, so I just had to and the portal was closing up. Florida A&M was next door, so I just had to go there for a month, find a new place.”
Hill, a native of Statesboro, Ga., said when the portal re-opened, the Razorbacks were a natural fit.
“It was a family environment and it gave me the same feeling like FSU did,” he said. “The people that were here that I already knew like R-Dub [Rashod Dubinion] and J.J. [Ja’Quinden Jackson] and stuff like that. And I’ve just been enjoying it.”
Rose blooming
Eric Gregory said he’s been impressed with how Keivie Rose, his fellow sixth-year defensive tackle, is playing more physically than he did last season.
Rose played in the SEC for the first time last season after transferring from Louisiana Tech, which is in Conference USA.
“I’ve seen him grow in [stopping] the run,” Gregory said. “Just coming from the conference he was in, it was kind of tough for him a little bit, just holding the gaps and double teams, stuff like that.”
Rose, 6-3, is listed at 314 pounds after playing at 303 last season.
“I feel like he took a mindset of he needs to get better, because he knows where he wants to go and he knows where the defense needs him to be,” Gregory said. “I feel like he took a tremendous jump in the run. I feel like his pass [rush] has already been good, I just feel like he took his game to another level just by his run fits.”
Injury report?
Pittman said he’d be in favor of the SEC having a policy of teams releasing injury reports leading into games.
CBS, citing unnamed sources, reported this week the SEC is moving toward finalizing injury reports being mandatory as soon as this season.
“To me, I’m for it because [being] out is just out and then you go from there,” Pittman said. “I think the NFL does it that way, so I’m for it.
“I think it will help, especially with the quarterback situations. You can’t say, ‘Well, I don’t know, I don’t know.’ If he’s out, he’s out and you’ve got to say it. I’m all for it and I’m all for it because sometimes there’s even legality why we can’t talk about why we’re not playing a kid and it just makes it a lot more cut-and-dry. A lot easier on me to not worry about getting sued or something.”
Pass pro
Green said he felt the offensive line did a good job in pass protection during Thursday’s scrimmage, though quarterbacks aren’t allowed to be hit in practice.
“Of course, there’s a couple times it broke down, but we’re going to go back to the film room and correct some stuff,” Green said. “There’s stuff I need to do, check.
“It’s an 11-man job, so I feel like for the first scrimmage, it was good. Of course, it can be better, and it will be better. But I’m extremely proud of the guys because we’re switching center, guard, tackle. It’s a lot on them, but they’re doing a really good job, so I’m extremely proud of them for that.”
Hasz listed
Hasz is on the preseason watch list for the Mackey Award, which has been presented annually to the nation’s top tight end since 2000.
Hasz, coming off a broken collarbone injury in Week 5 last season, had 16 catches for 253 yards and 3 touchdowns as a freshman.
The Razorbacks have a pair of Mackey Award winners in DJ Williams (2010) and Hunter Henry (2015).
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Publish date : 2024-08-10 20:00:00
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