Hogs look to lean on Cook, Ollison

FAYETTEVILLE - Reading between the lines spoken by new Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema, first-year offensive coordinator Jim Chaney and offensive line coach Sam Pittman it seems they crave a Razorbacks offensive line of brawny battlers inside at center and the guards and long-limbed athletes with quick feet as tackles.

At a listed 6-7 and 318 pounds, Brey Cook has the size to do both.

“Brey is playing faster,” Pittman said after last Tuesday’s practice. “He’s a big, strong kid. At first I wondered if he could play the tackle and play out in space but I believe he can and he will. He works too hard not to have success.”

Cook, the junior out of Springdale Har-Ber who had to play too soon as a true freshman tackle in 2011 when offensive line depth ran short, could play both tackle and guard in 2013 as depth remains an issue along the Arkansas front.

However, if allowed to choose by what they have vs. what injuries may compel them to do in the future, Saturday’s scrimmage lineup showed the Razorbacks’ staff leans on Cook at a guard and agile, long-limbed Grady Ollison at tackle.

Ollison, the third-year sophomore from Malvern, scrimmaged Saturday in first-team tackle tandem with senior returning starter David Hurd.

“After Tuesday’s practice we really thought trying to get our best five guys out there,” Bielema said of the reshuffled offensive line. “Brey, he’s a very good tackle but I think moving him inside is going to help his game even more and make us a better unit.”

In retrospect, Chaney’s quote about Cook on Tuesday described a guard more than a tackle.

“The Cook kid is an aggressive kid,” Chaney said. “You like guys who are tough that enjoy the reckless style of football that’s imperative to win in this conference up front and Cook does it that way.”

Of course tackles have to be big and tough, too. But protecting the passer, they may most of all need to be athletic against the speed-rushing sprinters playing defensive end these days.

Ollison, still a babe in the offensive line woods and having starred as a defensive lineman at Malvern, so fills the athletic bill that 2012 Arkansas Coach John L. Smith even used him at fullback following a redshirt season in 2011 after being converted by then-Coach Bobby Petrino from the defensive to the offensive line.

“He is very, very raw and very talented,” Bielema said after Saturday’s scrimmage. “He’s very athletic. Probably our best athlete on the front. He is a very gifted football player in that regard. You’d probably like a little more length at the tackle position, that’s another reason to feet Ollison on the field.”

Even more important to Ollison than Arkansas’ remaining nine spring practices could be adhering to strength coach Ben Herbert’s off season program.

“He made a big jump with Coach Herbert in the weight room this winter,” Bielema said. “And it’s going to be a big, big summer for him if we think he’s going to be a starting SEC tackle.”