Hogs eye polished workout

Arkansas quarterback Brandon Allen warms up prior to practice Saturday, Aug. 15, 2015, at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The Arkansas Razorbacks will conduct their second and final major scrimmage of camp today, a closed workout at Reynolds Razorback Stadium at 2:30 p.m.

"It's our last big practice until our first game," said junior linebacker Brooks Ellis, who was voted a defensive captain along with end JaMichael Winston on Wednesday. "Stopping the run is a big emphasis."

The Razorbacks did most of their damage last week with the ground game, including touchdown runs of 43 yards by Alex Collins and 63 yards by Rawleigh Williams III, working behind their veteran line. The passing game could stand improvement after pressure from the defense shook up the starters. Quarterback Brandon Allen completed 10 of 23 passes for 110 yards.

"We want to be a lot cleaner than last Saturday," Allen said. "We need to be on point in the passing game especially. We ran the ball really well last Saturday.

"I need to be more accurate. I wasn't accurate last weekend. I had a lot of throws I could have made and didn't make them."

Freshman safety Santos Ramirez said being physical and securing tackles are being stressed for the defense.

"We missed a lot of tackles last scrimmage, and this scrimmage we want to make sure we've got tackling down," Ramirez said.

"Making sure we're on point with our assignments and that we don't have mental errors," defensive tackle Taiwan Johnson said of today's goals. "Going out and having fun and polishing our defense to get ready for the season."

The Razorbacks will be without tailback Jonathan Williams, a 1,190-yard rusher a year ago who suffered a foot injury in last Saturday's scrimmage that required surgery and has knocked him out for the regular season. Coach Bret Bielema said the load would probably be lightened on junior Alex Collins, who rushed for 1,100 yards last year, so players like Kody Walker, Rawleigh Williams and Denzel Evans can get more work.

"We've got some really good backs," offensive coordinator Dan Enos said. "J-Will will certainly be greatly missed, but these other guys will have to pick up the slack."

Collins said the freshman Williams, who rushed for a team-high 106 yards last week, has progressed nicely in camp.

"He's been able to accomplish a lot," Collins said. "Having him take a lot of snaps, move up real fast and learn a lot, he's been handling it real well. I'm pretty impressed with him."

Senior receiver Keon Hatcher, who sat out with a minor shoulder injury last week, said he's ready to get back in the scrimmage work.

"Most definitely," Hatcher said. "It's always fun going out there and competing with my teammates when it's live action so you can go out there and do what you do and go make plays."

Defensive line coach Rory Segrest said his unit showed flashes last week.

"From an athleticism standpoint, we've kind of shown that we've got some ability there," Segrest said. "It's just a matter of honing in on that technique and really sharpening it."

The Razorbacks added goal-line work to practice this week, so that will be a part of the scrimmage, Winston said.

"I just want to see guys getting after it," he said. "In practice you can see the depth is helping a lot, just fresh bodies getting after the quarterback, rushing the passer. No guy has to slow down and drop off."

Ellis said Coach Bret Bielema took a load off the team Friday, assigning only an evening walk-through in addition to afternoon meetings.

"We got to sleep in a little bit," he said, adding that he stayed in bed until about 10 a.m. with the first team meetings at 1 p.m. "I loved it. I could sleep for days. ... It was nice."

The Razorbacks had been getting up about 7 a.m. each day with breakfast around 8 a.m. followed shortly by meetings.

Sports on 08/22/2015