WholeHogSports
THE RECRUITING GUY : Arkansas camp puts recruits through tough tests
Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008
URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/adg/228285/
Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino and staff welcomed 400 athletes to Fayetteville for the Razorback football camp that started Sunday and ends Wednesday morning. The camp allows the Razorbacks coaching staff a chance to take a firsthand look at prospects they haven’t been able to fully evaluate through film.
Offensive line coach Mike Summers is taking a close look at three instate offensive lineman, who all hope to earn a scholarship with their performance.
Tyler Stauch 6-4, 260, of Vilonia ran a 5. 24-second 40-yard dash on what some have considered a slow surface inside the Walker Pavilion, but that didn’t impress Stauch, who voiced his displeasure with his time.
“I’m disappointed in myself,” Stauch said. In other drills, Stauch said he went 8 feet, 2 inches in the broad jump and threw the 20-pound
1 medicine ball 6 / 2 yards. With so many on hand running drills, Stauch was impressed how organized and smooth the camp was flowing. “It was well organized. It was a lot better than some of the combines I’ve been to,” said Stauch, who benches presses 340 pounds.
One of the new features of this year’s camp is the grueling Tough Man competition that strength and conditioning coach Jason Veltkamp revealed Sunday.
The competition features five drills, including three sleds with 90 pounds each that works about every muscle. It starts out with the camper in a harness pulling a sled for 20 yards and then flipping a tractor tire 3 times, after that he has to push a sled for 20 yards, then he has to get in a sitting position and pull a rope attached to another sled 20 yards to himself and then finishes up running around two hoops and sprinting the final 5 yards. Stauch ran all the drills in 1 minute, 6 seconds. “That was really neat,” Stauch said. “Oh my gosh, I’ve never felt so much pain in all my life. I was good until I had to push the third station.” DeWitt’s Justin Carney 6-4, 294, ran a 5. 36 40, went 7-3 in the broad jump and threw the
medi-1 cine ball 5 / 2 yards. Carney had a mixed attitude about his performance.
“My broad jump was better at the FCA combine with 7 feet, 7 inches,” Carney said. “I was happy with my 40 because I’ve put on 20 pounds the last couple of months.”
Carney ran the Tough Man competition in 1: 11.
“It was a little tougher than I thought it was going to be,” Carney said. “Just looking at it, it didn’t look that tough, but once you got out there and pushing, the sled was probably the roughest part. It wore your legs out by the time you got to the running around the circles.”
Carney plans to attend camps at Ole Miss next week and Vanderbilt on June 21 and will return for Arkansas’ senior camp July 19.
Corning’s Jake McDonald, 6-3, 285, ran the 40 in 5. 25 seconds. He threw the medicine ball 7 yards and broad jumped 6-5.
McDonald had a time 1: 05 for the Tough Man.
“That was pretty rough,” Mc-Donald said. “The worst part was when you had to tug on that rope. That was my first rodeo on that Tough Man.”
McDonald said his father has trained him by pulling a tractor on the gravel roads of Corning.
“He makes me pull one of those GO tractors up and down the gravel road with pot holes everywhere, with a deer stand harness hooked up the bumper,” McDonald said. “It [Tough Man ] was a little harder because of the different things you had to switch off to but it’s pretty tough pulling that tractor up and down the road with pot holes everywhere and you have to dodge them.”
Fayetteville offensive lineman Colby Berna, who orally committed to the Hogs in February, ran a 5. 25 40, broad jumped 7-5 and threw the medicine ball 6 yards. But he separated his shoulder in Monday morning’s drills. Berna said his shoulder has popped back into place but that he hopes to see a specialist today.
Though already assured of a scholarship from Arkansas, Berna wanted to participate in the camp.
Some of the 2010 instate prospects are on hand and performing well.
Little Rock Christian running back Michael Dyer, 5-10, 190, turned in a 4. 39 40 along with a 9-4 broad jump and a 4. 58 pro-shuttle. Little Rock Central middle linebacker Blake James 6-1, 221 ran a 4. 87 40 despite a nagging groin injury.
Another good-looking prospect is McGehee safety Grant Gill, who ran a 4. 50 40 at 5-11, 201 pounds.
One of Dyer’s teammates, tight end Dakota Mosley, 6-3, 235, ran a 4. 9 40 at the camp.
The surprise of the camp thus far has been Muskogee, Okla., defensive lineman Robert Thomas, who had an outstanding showing in the Monday afternoon session. Thomas 6-2, 300, 4. 8, missed Sunday and the Monday morning sessions but arrived in time to dominate in one-on-one drills on Monday afternoon. He was pretty much unblockable and spilt double teams with ease. Muskogee assistant coach Jason Medrano said Thomas was hampered by a deep thigh bruise last year and was never close to 100 percent. According to Medrano, Thomas has scholarship offers from Kansas State, Oklahoma State and Wyoming. He said Oklahoma and Texas Tech have also shown interest. Medrano said Thomas can bench press 375 pounds 11 or 12 times. Thomas indicated he would attend Arkansas’ senior camp July 19.
LYNN VISITS UA Cornerback Gabe Lynn of Tulsa Jenks was on an unofficial visit to Arkansas on Monday. Jenks, 6-0, 180, 4. 5, has multiple scholarship offers, including one from Arkansas. As a junior, Lynn had 52 tackles, 5 interceptions and 4 kick returns for touchdowns. E-mail Richard Davenport at rdavenport@arkansasonline. com