WholeHogSports
Spring football report: Scrimmage to go long for Hogs
Posted on Friday, April 11, 2008
URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/222459/
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ 80-play scrimmage during the second half of Sunday’s practice apparently was just a warm-up for what Coach Bobby Petrino has planned today.
“Aw, that was a short, easy one,” Petrino said with a smile after Thursday’s practice when asked to compare Sunday’s scrimmage with today’s. “This will be a good, long one.
“ We need to first see if we can execute. We’ll cut back on what we’re doing and really get back to the basics that we did the first week and try to execute that.”
The quarterbacks might not be taking hits this spring, but Petrino wants them to feel some heat today.
“We want to put a lot of pressure on the quarterbacks, so we’ll let the defense liven it up a little on their calls,” Petrino said. “We do need to run the ball, and hopefully we will continue to tackle well.
“ I think that’s one of the things we’ve done well on defense.”
Petrino said the No. 1 thing he’s looking for today from quarterbacks Casey Dick, Ryan Mallett, Alex Mortensen and Nathan Dick is execution.
“It’s making good decisions, making the decisions right, which could be staying with the play called,” Petrino said, “changing the play call, getting the protections right, drop back, throwing to the right guy.”
Petrino said today’s scrimmage won’t have a lot of impact on the depth chart, noting “it’s way too early” to make such decisions for next season.
“We’ve got to have our depth chart ready for our opener, which isn’t until the end of August.”
The Razorbacks open against Western Illinois on Aug. 30.
No Forte Arkansas’ already thin linebackers corps got a little thinner Thursday when senior Elston Forte didn’t practice. “We’re not going to talk any more about injured players,” Coach Bobby Petrino said when asked why Forte didn’t practice. “We’re going to talk about the guys that practiced.” Among other players who continued to miss practice with injuries were cornerback Jerell Norton, wide receiver Crosby Tuck and running back Chip Gregory. Forte had been the only returning starter at linebacker practicing this spring with junior Freddie Fairchild is suspended indefinitely after being arrested. Junior linebacker Wendel Davis, a possible starter next season, is out all spring after undergoing knee surgery. Sophomore Jermain Love got first-team snaps in Forte’s absence Thursday with sophomore Ryan Powers and redshirt freshman Jerry Franklin continuing to hold the other starting linebacker spots. Defensive tackles Senior Cord Gray has been working at first-team defensive tackle with senior Ernest Mitchell and junior Marcus Shavers out this spring recovering from surgery. “Cord Gray has really been a nice surprise,” said Arkansas assistant Bobby Allen, who coaches the defensive tackles. “He was a nice surprise in the off-season. “ I think he sees the light that he’s got an opportunity as a senior to step up and play.” Gray moved ahead of sophomore Patrick Jones onto the first team after the first two days of spring practice.
“With what we were doing and looking at film and fundamentally, Cord was doing things better,” Allen said. “He’s putting himself in position to go and make plays.”
Allen said a strength for Gray this spring has been reading blocks well and holding his gap on running plays.
“He’s been a good anchor point for us,” Allen said. Junior Malcolm Sheppard, who moved from starting defensive tackle to starting end after four games last season, is back at tackle this spring. “Malcolm is giving us great effort,” Allen said. “That’s one thing you always know about Malcolm Sheppard — he’s going to play hard. “ The thing you want to be able to start to see him do is to play under control and play with a little bit more technique so he can understand and play the game better. You love the effort, but by the same token, you want him to be a more fundamentally sound player.” Reunion time Arkansas is holding its annual lettermen’s reunion in two weeks in conjunction with the Red-White game. The reunion will include a golf tournament at Paradise Valley Athletic Club and catfish dinner April 25. Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long and Coach Bobby Petrino will speak to the lettermen at a breakfast April 26 before the game. Any letterman interested in attending the reunion who hasn’t yet made plans can contact Razorback Foundation vice president Harold Horton at (479 ) 443-9000. Holding back a little The Razorbacks didn’t install as much on defense Thursday as originally planned, and Coach Bobby Petrino said the execution picked up as a result. “We were making too many assignment errors on defense,” he said. “We felt like, ‘Hey, let’s just slow down a little bit, try to execute what we’ve been doing.’ “ So we’ll catch up on the installation later.”
Lot of drops Arkansas’ receivers dropped several passes Thursday. “We’ve got to catch the ball. We’ll do better than that,” Coach Bobby Petrino said. “We come out here and it’s windy and we haven’t been outside enough.” High school clinic Arkansas is hosting about 150 high school coaches for a clinic Thursday and today.