FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said one of the more enjoyable aspects of Monday’s opening practice was how the newcomers looked in working together the final 10 minutes, which consisted of a14-play script.
“All of the guys were behind them,” Bielema said.
“I had to keep yelling at everybody to keep them back, because they were into it and charged up. It was fun to watch.”
Freshman Austin Allen took all the quarterback snaps in the period, Bielema said, because freshman Damon “Duwop” Mitchell had shoe problems.
“Austin Allen had the entire 10 minutes and completed quite a few nice balls,” Bielema said.
Freshman offensive tackle Dan Skipper, the Razorbacks’ tallest player at 6-10, got his teammates’ attention.
“Dan Skipper made a nice little aggressive play at the end of practice that was kind of fun to watch,” Bielema said. “The whole team responded to it.”
Other freshmen drawing praise from Bielema were tailback Alex Collins, tight end Hunter Henry, linebacker Brooks Ellis and cornerback D.J. Dean.
First units
Arkansas’ published depth chart from the end of spring reflected most of the lineups that took first-team reps in Monday’s first practice, Coach Bret Bielema said.
“I would say the depth chart we released to you guys, maybe a tweak here and there, but I can’t think of anything drastic,” Bielema said. “The three senior receivers [Javontee Herndon, Julian Horton, Demetrius Wilson] all kind of rotate through there if we’re doing two-receivers sets or three-receiver sets.”
Walk-on program
Bret Bielema, who earned a scholarship as a sophomore defensive lineman at Iowa after beginning his career as a walk-on, wants to build a strong walk-on program at Arkansas.
Sophomore tight end Mitchell Loewen and junior deep snapper Alan D’Appollonio were awarded scholarships in the spring, and Bielema said after Monday’s opening practice he has started the paperwork to have another walk-on put on scholarship, though he declined to name that player.
Bielema said he wants to announce all the walk-ons at the same time.
“One of the major things that’s been going on here that really no one has taken the bit on or maybe not a lot of people have been writing about or talking about, is I’m going to build a walk-on program here,” Bielema said. “I think just in the state of Arkansas there’s probably a lot of players that I think are three good things - they’re usually undersized, under-recruited and underdeveloped. To me, that’s a great formula for our walk-ons.”
Bielema said he wants to increase the recruiting of walk-ons in Arkansas and in bordering states. He might consider extending the search for walk-ons further away, too, considering Loewen is from Hawaii and D’Appollonio is from Arizona.
Rules meeting
Arkansas’ players went through an hour-long compliance meeting Sunday to make sure they’re fully aware of NCAA rules.
“Obviously in today’s world, you see a lot of things on ESPN of people having to be aware of NCAA rules,” Bielema said, “and how quickly they can come up and affect not just an individual, but an entire team.”
Scrimmage match
Bret Bielema said the Razorbacks’ preseason scrimmages will be held at different times to correspond to the kickoff times of the first three games: 3 p.m.
against Louisiana-Lafayette, 6 p.m. against Samford and 11:20 a.m. against Southern Mississippi.
“A lot of times on my hands as the head coach, I get to create stuff like that,” Bielema said. “A lot of people think you just line up and play. There is so much mental side to getting kids ready to play in the world of college football on any given Saturday.
“You guys have all seen games at 11 o’clock and it seems like half the guys are asleep, you know. … There’s a lot of things that you can gain an advantage mentally by addressing little things in the program.”
Smith on list
Senior Chris Smith made the Ted Hendricks Defensive End of the Year Award watch list released Monday.
Smith, a preseason All-SEC first-team selection, is also on the watch lists for the Bednarik Award, Bronko Nagurski Trophy and Rotary Lombardi Awards.
The 6-3, 268-pound senior from Mount Ulla, N.C., is 12th on Arkansas’ career sacks list with 13.
Smith had52 tackles, 13 for loss, 91/2 sacks, 12 hurries, 4 pass breakups and 1 fumble recovery last season. He and South Carolina’s Jadeveon Clowney, the reigning Hendricks Award winner, are the only returning players in the SEC to notch nine sacks last season.
The Hendricks Award winner will be announced on Dec. 11.
Sports, Pages 19 on 08/06/2013