FAYETTEVILLE -- Even with senior mainstay tackle and offensive co-captain Brey Cook and senior backup tackle Cameron Jefferson graduating, the Arkansas Razorbacks football team will begin the 2015 offseason and ensuing spring practices with an offensive line deeper than the line that concluded 2014.
Jefferson, a senior transfer from UNLV, was injured for much of the late season and didn't play in the 31-7 Texas Bowl victory over Texas that closed out Arkansas' 7-6 campaign.
"Offensively we lose only one significant starter for the entire time," Razorbacks Coach Bret Bielema said.
Tight end AJ Derby and receiver Demetrius Wilson were seniors who contributed and were invited to play before NFL scouts in postseason all-star games, but injuries had them "in and out of the lineup" for much of the season, Bielema said.
Cook was a significant part of the offensive line, starting every game at right offensive tackle, but already Bielema and offensive line coach Sam Pittman teem with competitive options to replace him.
Throughout the season, and especially for the bowl practice portions reserved for redshirts and young reserves, Bielema praised redshirting freshman tackle Brian Wallace, 6-6, 322 pounds, of Florissant, Mo., practically as Cook's heir apparent.
Now it seems there could be more prospective heirs than a dying rich uncle suddenly has long-lost nephews. Two-year starting right guard Denver Kirkland, a junior to be with the size (6-5, 337), quickness and attitude the NFL desires, was among the most highly recruited offensive tackles in the country. Kirkland switched to guard because the Hogs had a void there in 2013.
With Cook graduated, maybe Kirkland teams at tackle with fellow junior-to-be and NFL prospect Dan Skipper, a recruited tackle who also was moved as a true freshman to a starting guard spot in 2013, only to be moved to left tackle in 2014.
Maybe Frank Ragnow, who was recruited as a guard out of Minnesota but lettered this season as a true freshman backup center to Mitch Smothers, takes a turn at guard.
Smothers returns as a fifth-year senior center after exceeding expectations in 2014.
Bielema and Pittman also have new Hogs at the trough with the addition of true freshman offensive linemen Josh Allen and Zach Rogers, who enrolled at the semester to get a head start in spring drills.
Who knows? Maybe Wallace moves temporarily from tackle to guard like Skipper did in 2013. Bielema seems truly intrigued with Kirkland at tackle.
"I think the opportunity for Denver to play tackle would only benefit him," Bielema said. "He is probably one of the better pass-pro athletes I have ever been around. He has incredible feet.
"For him, and I know he is not thinking or wired like this, but tackles make more money than guards in the NFL. If we are better suited to move Frank Ragnow off to a guard spot where he doesn't have to worry about snapping that ball, those are really big changes that could be helpful to our program."
The quality versatility could provide the offensive line depth that the 2014 Hogs didn't have in some of those unproductive second halves when the starting behemoths wearied but were still deemed better alternatives than the available fresh reserves.
Sports on 01/07/2015