Casey Dick has never been considered a good interview.

He has been very cautious about his answers and rarely volunteered anything, especially last year, when the Arkansas Razorbacks program seemed like its main major should have been drama.

Yet, Dick never ducked questions about what happened on the field. He shouldered blame.

This is the young man who was going to be the starter against Southern Cal two years ago, but the back injury he secretly brought out of spring practice didn’t get better.

Finally, in August, his dad, Steve Dick, made some calls and found out that right down the road in Little Rock was a therapist who specializes in back injuries.

Corliss Williamson, Troy Aikman and golf pro Dan Snider are among Rob Tillman’s clients, along with dozens and dozens of other high-profile athletes and many other satisfied nonathletes.

Casey Dick drove down with an assistant trainer, and Tillman immediately realized the problem. He started a therapy program that had Dick throwing pain-free in three weeks.

“He’s a very tough, determined young man,” Tillman said.

By the time Dick was well enough to return to practice, Robert Johnson was the starter and Dick was third team behind Mitch Mustain.

After a 50-14 loss, Johnson was thrown under the bus and Mustain was thrown in front of it.

Long story short, with the majority of practice time spent on the running game or the Wild Hog formation, Mustain’s abilities slipped and Dick became the starter by the Tennessee game despite the Razorbacks’ 8-1 record. They finished 10-4.

With all that happened in the weeks and months to come, Dick took the high road, as he should have.

Just as he did every time he was pulled from a drive in favor of the Wild Hog.

Now, going into his senior season, he ranks third on Arkansas’ all-time passing touchdown list with 34 (admittedly, the Hogs have never been confused with a team that likes to open it up ), eighth in career completions with 268, eighth in career passing yards with 3, 270 and seventh in completion percentage at. 544.

Under new Coach Bobby Petrino, he seems to have embraced the new Spread offense. In the spring Red-White game, he completed 33 of 49 for 404 yards.

Saying he is more confident — and a better quote — would be like saying it has been a bit warm for the first practices.

Petrino has said on more than one occasion that Dick is a leader and more confident.

A few weeks ago his high school coach, Tom Westerberg, said: “Casey finally gets a chance to play quarterback and nothing else.” Dick is 10-8 as a starter, but after the first two days of practice his younger brother, Nathan, had performed a little better than Casey and even drew praise from Petrino.

When asked if he was worried about losing the starting job to his little brother, a more relaxed Casey Dick laughed. Out loud.

“It is about competition every day,” he said, smiling. “You go about your business and it will all work out.” He smiled again when asked if he thought people were surprised to see in the spring that he could pick up a secondary receiver, that the knock on him was he always stared down the primary receiver.

“We ran the Spread — not this exact one, but a Spread — in high school and I had to pick up second and third receivers, so I know I can,” he said.

Then he sounded like a senior captain, not a kid trying to stay away from controversy.

“There are tons of options in the offense, and I’m more comfortable with it each day, but a lot of that is because I know the guys around me can get the job done,” he said.

More than likely the media isn’t going to line up to start interviewing Casey Dick, but with the drama gone and his teammates choosing him as their captain, he has lots to say on and off the field.