Arkansas offensive line commitment Shane Clenin visited the Hogs on Saturday and spent a good amount of time with Coach Bret Bielema and offensive line coach Kurt Anderson during the first scrimmage of fall practice.
“They would tell me what’s going on with the plays and telling me where it was kind of going,” Clenin said. “They would run this way if this happened. They were kind of letting me in the loop of what was going on.”
Clenin, 6-6, 287 pounds, of Festus, (Mo.,) Jefferson picked the Hogs over scholarship offers from Northwestern, Iowa State, New Mexico, Colorado State, Illinois State and others in April.
The scrimmage gave him more insight about the Hogs' offensive line play.
“It gave me a way to kind of see some of the plays they’re running and also see the flash of intensity they have which I get every time I watch them especially in a scrimmage setting,” he said. “They go full out and that’s pretty good to see.”
The offensive line has been a work in progress since the start of fall practice, but the line had it's best day during the 112-play scrimmage.
“They were good I thought they played extremely well,” Clenin said. “They made some little first time scrimmage mistakes from what I could tell from what Coach Anderson was telling me.”
Clenin, who was accompanied by his parents, Chris and Darla, said it was different experience being with Anderson during the scrimmage.
“I’ve talked to him a little bit and we’ve gone over some plays, but it was different because he was in this full coach mode type deal,” he said. “It was almost like I was talking to him as a coach and as a player instead of being a guy that’s going to come in.”
He was also to see how Anderson coaches in game like conditions.
“He’s very intense and he’ll get onto you when he needs to which I like if you make a mistake,” said Clenin, who has a 3.93 grade point average and plans to major in civil engineering. “I mean he’s a great coach and a great coach will tell you about it even if it’s small mistake. He would get fired up sometimes if they did something good or if they did something bad. It was what I was expecting him to do.”