Razorbacks report

by Tom Murphy

Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008

URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/225688/

Hogs have little time to unwind

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas Razorbacks football players are relaxing this week before resuming workouts Monday.

It’ll be the last period of free time they’ll enjoy for a while. Though summer workouts are considered “voluntary” by the NCAA, anybody involved with top-level college football knows how outdated that notion is.

“We won’t start our hard summer weightlifting and conditioning until the first of June,” Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino said. “Before then, there will be some discretionary time, but we’ll kick if off hard in June.”

Petrino said there will be time for the coaching staff to pause, ever so briefly, at the end of June, but for now the spring evaluation period is front and center.

“We’re still going hard now,” Petrino said last Wednesday. “We’re working really hard on recruiting. You’ve got the phone calls that you get to make. It’s still full speed ahead.”

Asked if he had a vacation planned for this summer, Petrino responded: “I’m going to sneak away a little bit, but I’m not telling you where.”

The tentative report date for the Hogs’ fall camp is Aug. 3. A gambling man ?

One of the most interesting plays in all of the Red-White game came on the first offensive possession for the first-team offense, and it gave a glimpse of Coach Bobby Petrino’s confidence and attitude.

Here’s the situation: Casey Dick had completed passes on the first two snaps of the game, for 10 yards to London Crawford and 12 yards to D. J. Williams, to move the Red team past midfield. After an illegal motion penalty cost the Red 5 yards, Michael Smith ran for 8 yards on first down, then Crawford dropped a pass and Dick threw incomplete for Carlton Salters to set up fourthand-7 from the White 45-yard line.

Perhaps frustrated that the drive should have already been kept alive, and maybe eager to keep the big crowd into the game, Petrino went for it on fourth-andlong.

Using play-action, Dick found Williams crossing and hit him for a 14-yard gain to move the chains and set up Smith’s 21-yard score four plays later.

“It’s a lot easier [to gamble on fourth down ] in the spring game, you know,” Petrino said, laughing, when asked about that call last week. “No doubt about that. The consequences aren’t quite as high.” Razorback camps

Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino and his staff will conduct a series of camps beginning in June.

The Senior Camp for grades 9-12 will take place June 8-11; the Junior Camp for grades 5-8 will be June 12-14; and a Seniors Only Camp will be on July 19. For more information, go to www. razorbackfootballcamps. com, contact Joda Parent at jparent@uark. edu or call (479 ) 575-5552.

Special teams If you didn’t recall seeing the Razorbacks work on either kickoffs or kickoff returns all spring, well, you are correct. That decision was by choice. “We’ll spend a lot of time in pre-fall and two-a-days on our kickoff coverage team, which I don’t like to do in spring ball because we’ll have different guys in there in the fall and I don’t think it will carry over as much as some other special teams,” Petrino said.

Matt Harris worked as the first-team holder in the spring, a position Petrino hopes will mature along with kicker Alex Tejada.

“I don’t think Matt is necessarily our best holder at this point, but I think he will be by next fall,” Petrino said. “He has to get a lot of work in the summer. I like that they can work together a number of years.

“ I think Tejada can be a very good weapon for us. I feel comfortable any time he’s inside 50 yards we can get three points on the board.”