Hogs could use refreshing pop

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema watches practice Saturday, April 12, 2014 at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Brey Cook's bloody nose and a few loud collisions and minor skirmishes marked the first couple of days in light pads for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Now the hitting has begun for real.

Although the Razorbacks didn't tackle to the ground Friday, there were still noteworthy collisions. Middle linebacker Brooks Ellis got good leverage on tailback Korliss Marshall on a toss play and closed with a bang.

"I just came up and hit him a little bit," Ellis said. "Love that."

"That was a great hit," said safety De'Andre Coley, known as one of the team's best hitters. "It was loud."

Arkansas' first day in full pads featured a pop-up thunderstorm that chased the team from the outside practice fields into Walker Pavilion in advance of today's closed scrimmage.

"That's going to happen in a football game, where you've got to change gears, and I thought our guys were able to adjust," defensive coordinator Robb Smith said. "We came in and didn't miss a beat. The weather didn't even affect us, so we got a lot of good work in today."

The Razorbacks have gone through single practices the first five days of camp, and workout No. 6 will be an important one with the full-scale scrimmage at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, weather permitting.

"It's time to play grown-man football," safety Rohan Gaines said. "It's time to hit."

Cook's nose took a crack from Deatrich Wise's face mask Wednesday, leaving him bloodied, but it only seemed to brighten Cook's day.

Now Cook and Wise can tangle for real with the rest of their teammates.

"We're very hungry," Wise said. "We can't wait to get full plays going on, tackling and taking to the ground. Only thing we can't do is sack the quarterback, so that's my downfall."

Coley predicted he'd make noise today.

"Tomorrow y'all are going to hear my name a lot," Coley said. "Just be looking for it. Last couple of days we've been taking it kind of light, but tomorrow is going to be full throttle."

Coach Bret Bielema said earlier in the week that preparing a backup quarterback to junior Brandon Allen is one of the essential aims of camp, and today's action should be meaningful on that front. Redshirt freshman Austin Allen and true freshman Rafe Peavey, who went through spring drills, are splitting the reps behind Brandon Allen.

"My goal is on Saturday that those two combined get as many plays together as B.A. has and let our players know there's some comfort there," Bielema said.

Brandon Allen's last showing at Razorback Stadium wasn't a headline grabber, since he had a rugged first half in the Red-White spring finale.

Today, he'd like to see smooth execution and limited mistakes.

"I'm hoping the scrimmage is really clean on our part," he said. "Penalty-wise, presnap deal, I hope it's all clean on the offensive side. I hope we're able to go out and execute and perform well and are very clean."

Offensive line coach Sam Pittman, whose has a large bunch of well-regarded players to sort out, took a light-hearted approach when asked what he's hoping to see in the scrimmage.

"I'm looking for us to mow them all down, you know?" Pittman said, grinning. "Really what we're trying to do is find out who the five guys are that we're going to run out there at first. Who can help us after that? Who can we win the SEC with? All those type things."

Defensive backs coach Clay Jennings said he'd like to see the secondary communicate, line up correctly and make tackles.

"If they can get those three things accomplished tomorrow then it's been a solid first week," Jennings said. "We haven't installed a whole heck of a lot, but the one thing we want to do with those guys is line up and play fast, and that's what we're really looking for."

The Razorbacks have said during the first week of camp that they've made tremendous strides since the end of their 3-9 season in 2013. Now, with the season opener at Auburn three weeks away, they can begin to show it.

"We've got a big football game at the end of the month, so we've got to have our guys ready to play," Smith said. "The only way to do that is to tackle, and that's the opportunity to do it."

Sports on 08/09/2014