FAYETTEVILLE — It was exciting to see two freshman quarterbacks perform so well in the Arkansas Razorbacks’ spring game Saturday.
However, for the immediate Hogs’ future, it probably is not advisable to get too hyped by Brandon Mitchell and Jacoby Walker flashing Red-White game brilliance.
Fans’ reactions to quarterbacks and spring intrasquad games tend to become the latest much ado about nothing.
Nothing so consumes some fans as quarterbacks not starting nor tires them like quarterbacks who have been around awhile. Like those absolutely consumed with college recruiting or the NFL Draft, it seems what’s next always interests more than what’s there.
So with starting quarterback Ryan Mallett sitting out the spring mending a broken foot and the bloom off Tyler Wilson’s rose, Arkansas fans buzz about what redshirt freshman Mitchell and truecollege freshman/December high school graduate Walker could do based on their spring game on a rainy night at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
In 2008 and 2009, now third-year sophomore Wilson stepped into the future phenom shoes Mitchell and Walker wear now.
No doubt in part because the Bobby Petrino regime avidly recruited Wilson out of Greenwood after the departed Houston Nutt regime had not, to many Wilson became an instant fan favorite.
It helped, too, that Wilson passed pretty well. Coming out of spring practice 2009, Petrino andquarterbacks coach Garrick McGee listed Wilson a 1A eyelash behind Mallett’s No. 1.
Several spring observers experienced in the college game believed Wilson would emerge as the starting quarterback by October 2009.
They were wrong. Mallett started them all and shattered about every Arkansas passing record. He seems a lock to be a high NFL Draft choice next April.
After this spring quarterbacking the first team minus the excitement running quarterbacks Mitchell and Walker flashed in the spring game, Wilson seems to have staled a bit with fans for now.
That’s OK. It’s the coaches that count. They know what they have and the conditions they had them in this spring.
Both Petrino and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Mc-Gee certainly expressed approval of the two freshmen. However, the coaches also said that, given receivers twice turned it over upon catching his passes, Wilson posteda spring game better than his 8 of 15 for 144 yards and 1 touchdown would indicate.
They said the entire spring’s offensive emphasis was not geared to Wilson’s strengths.
“We feel our passing game maybe took a step backwards as far as our rhythm and timing,” Petrino said. “Maybe some of that is because we were emphasizing so much of the run and Ryan is not out there. So we definitely have to work on our timing and being precise on our cuts and our routes and being there on time.”
A lot of summer work awaits them all provided Walker’s spring game knee injury doesn’t prove seriously lingering.
Ideally for Arkansas, with four older quarterbacks present including quality walk-on transfer Nick Petrino, Walker redshirts regardless and Mallett stays healthy and directs Arkansas to a bowl.
Then with the 2010 bowl practices would begin the real auditions to succeed Mallett in 2011.
Sports, Pages 16 on 04/28/2010