FAYETTEVILLE -- Brandon Allen and Austin Allen threw for two touchdowns each to highlight Arkansas' 82-play scrimmage, its first of spring drills, on a cool, breezy late morning and early afternoon at Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday.
Alex Collins, taking the bulk of the first-team snaps at tailback with Jonathan Williams held out, rushed for 70 yards on 10 carries and had a tackle-breaking 13-yard touchdown run in red zone work that wrapped up his productive day.
"I tell you what, I couldn't be happier," Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said. "Really, through six practices, I have been very impressed."
Eric Hawkins caught three passes for 108 yards, including a 63-yard touchdown, and Drew Morgan had two touchdown catches among his three receptions for 49 yards.
Linebackers Josh Harris (11) and Brooks Ellis (10) combined for 21 tackles to lead the defense, which also was credited with seven "sacks," which were one-hand touches of the quarterbacks, who are off limits for live tackling.
Bielema said progress is being made with each practice.
"What I would consider a negative practice, we haven't had one yet, where you felt you haven't gotten done what you needed to get done," Bielema said. "The kids have had a great attitude, a lot of great energy. There's some great competition going on out there."
Arkansas had no turnovers in the scrimmage, but the offense was called for five 5-yard penalties; there was a defensive pass interference in the end zone by De'Andre Coley against tight end Jack Kraus.
The Razorbacks devoted more than half the workout to situational snaps reflecting predetermined down and distances. The only score in that group of 56 plays came on an Austin Allen pass to Hawkins on a crossing route. Hawkins made the catch while headed to the sideline, evaded a couple of tacklers and broke free for a 63-yard score down the left sideline.
"Hawk has had kind of a steady growth since last spring," Bielema said. "He is serious. He is engaged."
On the first snap of the second segment of plays, all starting inside the 25, Brandon Allen delivered a 22-yard post route touchdown pass to Morgan, who made the catch while being sandwiched by two defenders.
Bielema said he thought Morgan had a chance to produce a big scrimmage with top receiver Keon Hatcher held out because of a knee bruise that might sideline him for another week or two.
"It was the first time those wide receivers had been out there without their main guy," Bielema said. "I really thought either him [Morgan] or J.C. [Jared Cornelius] might pop out. It was Drew today. A little bit luck of the draw about rotation and where we're going."
Morgan also caught a 9-yard touchdown pass in traffic from Brandon Allen.
Walk-on Luke Rossi finished off the day's scoring plays with a 7-yard touchdown grab from Austin Allen on a crossing route in tight coverage.
Collins had a tackle-breaking 16-yard run on the scrimmage's second snap and averaged 7.0 yards per carry. His 13-yard scoring run on a stretch play over the right side featured deft cuts and broken tackles.
Bielema said the plan going into the scrimmage was to hold out Williams and get a good look at Collins.
"I grabbed Alex this morning and said, 'Hey, you're going to scrimmage today and you're going to scrimmage next Saturday and we're going to make a determination of where you're at.
"He got a little heavy on spring break. He went down and enjoyed Fort Lauderdale home cooking I think a little too much, but he's going to go next Saturday."
Bielema said he was going to leave Collins in during the red-zone portion of the scrimmage, but pulled him after the 13-yard touchdown, saying "I didn't need to see much more."
Bielema said the coaches have told defenders not to make tackles below the belt line to help lower the chance for major injuries.
"I think a lot of those missed tackles would have been eradicated if we were allowing to cut tackle and go low on those guys," Bielema said.
Adam McFain, who kicked with the first unit, made field goals from 32 and 26 yards during the red zone work. Lane Sailing converted a 31-yard field goal and Cole Hedlund was good on the day's only extra-point try.
The Razorback will conduct their seventh of 15 spring practices on Tuesday. Bielema announced that next Saturday's scrimmage at Razorback Stadium, with a start time to be announced later, will be the first workout open to the public this spring.
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Sports on 04/05/2015