FAYETTEVILLE — Follow along for updates throughout Arkansas' first scrimmage of spring football and Bret Bielema's post-scrimmage press conference.
Scrimmage updates
— The kickers had a perfect day kicking field goals prior to the scrimmage. Cole Hedlund's longest was a 46-yarder.
— The QBs are all in non-contact green jerseys. So is TE Grayson Gunter (shoulder). All the other key players on both sides of the ball are not.
— Odds are Frank Ragnow will not scrimmage. Plan is to limit his live work this spring.
— Jared Cornelius working as the punt returner. No surprise there. T.J. Hammonds fielded a few.
— Freshman walk-on Jon Fagg is working as a kicker and punter.
— The defense stuffed Rawleigh Williams on the first two plays, but he broke a 37-yarder on the third. Bounced outside and Josh Liddell didn't have the right angle.
— Ty Storey took the the first snap with the 2s. Cole Kelley came in after a few plays and hit Jordan Jones for a 63-yard TD on a crossing route. Pass traveled about 18 yards in the air and Jones outran the defense.
— Maleek Williams has been the third back,. He's working with the twos. Bottled up a few times, but showed some nice physicality finishing one run.
— Juan Day's first carry went for 27. Made a nice cut and Juan Day whiffed on a tackle.
— Connor Proctor and Jack Lindsey each took snaps before Daulton Hyatt.
— Rawleigh Williams has had plenty of running room since the defense stuffed him the first 2 carries.
— Nice tackle by Dwayne Eugene on Austin Cantrell in the flat about a yard short of the marker on third and short.
— McTelvin Agim has been disruptive. Just had a sack. Giving Jake Raulerson trouble.
— Nice PBU by Henre Toliver on the sideline to prevent a La'Michael Pettway catch. Broke on the ball and arrived at the right time.
— Big drop by T.J. Hammonds on a pass over the middle from Kelley. Would've been a big gainer. Looked like it got into his body.
— Big collision between Pulley and Pettway on a quick slant. Pulley broke on it and arrived at the same time as the ball to break up the play.
— Scoota Harris came down with an interception after Santos Ramirez tipped an Austin Allen pass over the middle into the air.
— The second defense's pass rush has gotten to Ty Storey a few times, resulting in the play being blown dead.
— Moving to red zone-ish work now. Ball started at the 25.
— Devwah Whaley ran through Josh Liddell on a third down, driving him forward to pick up the first.
— Kevin Richardson broke on a hanging Storey pass and knocked it away in the end zone.
— The running backs are generally gaining a decent amount of yardage after contact.
— Kelley has been considerably better than Storey so far. Storey just missed a receiver in the flat and followed it up by sailing it over an open Jordan Jones in the end zone. He's 2-8.
— Maleek Williams just broke a few tackles and spun his way into a 23-yard gain. He's been solid so far against the 2s.
— First move the ball drive of the day, the first team offense marched down to the 10. Ran it right at the starting defense. Only threw 1 pass.
— Storey had his best drive of the day on the second team's first actual drive of the game. Had a pair of nice passes down the field to Jones.
— They're cutting short all these drives before they're finished. First-team offense had first-and-goal at the 4 and they ended the possession.
— Another drop by Hammonds, this time in the flat.
— First-team offense's worst drive of the day came when they were trying to hurry up. Picked up a first down and then fizzled out.
— Rawleigh Williams 68-yard touchdown run right up the middle. No one got close to him. Run game has been pretty dominant.
— Tipped pass led to a Bijhon Jackson INT against Kelley. May have been caught from behind but the whistles blew and he high-stepped the final 10 yards into the end zone.
Bielema press conference
— Britto Tutt didn't play. Going to give him another week. Alexy Jean-Baptiste had a foot injury early, but "I don't think it's too serious." Giovanni LaFrance had his ankle rolled up on.
— Physical week.
— The defense was in its base package the entire time.
— Liked how the first, second and third team ran the ball. Knew Williams and Whaley would be good, but liked how Maleek Williams and Juan Day looked.
— Cole Kelley and Ty Storey have both had a pretty good spring so far. Have to keep improving.
— Walk-on receiver Cameron Colbert is moving on to maybe an FCS level. Walk-on receiver Luke Rossi had another hamstring injury, his third or fourth. Is going to hang it up, but will stay in school and may be a student coach.
— On Williams getting nearly 20 carries: "I wanted him and Devwah to take the load with the ones. ... Him and Devwah have a nice competition going." Wanted to run some specific plays to let him improve on cuts.
— Started Austin Capps. Looked some at Bijhon Jackson at DE in addition to NG.
— On Paul Ramirez being the backup left tackle: He'd been playing well and they wanted to get their best 5 and next best 5. With Ragnow not playing and Zach Rogers moving up, there were some moving parts.
— Sebastian Tretola and Travis Swanson were there and feel that the starting 5 is playing at a nice level, especially when Ragnow is in there. Have to keep pressing Brian Wallace.
— On if there's separation in the backup QB: "No. I wish they would." They both do some good things. Ty's playing as well as he has since he's been here. Today wasn't his best day, but he's been good. He and Cole are different players. Cole tries to be Troy Aikman, Brett Favre and make stuff happen. Ty tries to be Ty.
— Korey Hernandez tweaked his hamstring last Saturday. Will hopefully be back next week.
— Jordan Jones is extremely talented. They have to convince him he's good. He can be a good player if he wants to be. He's long, athletic, has speed and can catch the ball.
— Scoota Harris has been very impressive. Played him last year hoping he'd be calmer now and it's worked. He's very serious. Had to be a leader without Dre Greenlaw. He's a playmaker, dating back to high school.
— Vernon Hargreaves lost his brother earlier in the week and was at a funeral.
— Grant Morgan and Josh Harris can contribute on special teams.
— Kyrei Fisher "has been impressive. One thing you don't have to worry with Kyrei is he'll be physical." Made 2 of the bigger hits of spring practice. Told him today that he loves his contact, but needs to be more disciplined. Needs to extend his arms.
— Nate Dalton switched to corner in bowl prep and has excelled there. "He's done a lot of things away from the game, too. We had some heart-to-heart moments in December" about what he needed to do.
— On the yards after contact: When one side has success, it means the other isn't the way they want. This was the first tackle session of the spring. Didn't want the defense to go low on tackles for safety reasons, which puts them at a disadvantage.
— Was a long scrimmage. Had 32 scripted plays. Got 52 total plays with the ones and 52 with the twos.
— Kept Kevin Richardson with the twos but will roll with the ones some in practice. To have him back out there and talking was a good thing. Will be in more on third down stuff and some packages for him.
— Haven't worked low red zone and goal line yet. Will do that. Will start working blitzes and pressures for the defense.
— Hadn't been in the stadium until today since the Broyles Center was torn down. Was worried about the access road on the visitor's sideline, but it wasn't an issue.
— Moving to the 3-4 has been a transition for Sosa Agim but it's been a good one. Needs to keep improving his maturity, but he's a talented player and the sky's the limit for him.
— Jake Raulerson has gained weight and changed his body. He's beginning to understand what they want him to do. He's done a nice job at right guard. Can line up pretty much anywhere.
— Really struggled with Ragnow not playing. Plan in December was to get him 20-30 reps. The risk-reward of playing him wasn't worth it. Reached out to Barry Alvarez about it, among other coaches. Jared Cornelius had a nice week. He might be limited going forward in a similar fashion.
— Today was the first live scrimmage time they've seen Michael Taylor in. Has to get used to using his hands and setting the edge. Did have a nice play stringing one out. Hit Devwah Whaley hard in practice Thursday. Pleased with where he's at.
— Petitioning to get Taylor's year of eligibility back after the NCAA denied. For sure has two but they want to get him back to having three left.
— Zach Rogers is intelligent. Knows his strengths and weaknesses. You feel good about what he can bring them. Can play guard and looked good there.
— Thinks Agim will start to excel when they start moving the defensive linemen around. Next week will be different when the do that.
— Bijhon Jackson pulled his hamstring with a few weeks left in the offseason. Had 5 good practices. Last Saturday wasn't great but he came back well this week. Likes the idea of having his size outside.
— Austin Cantrell is as good of a blocking tight end that he's had. Had his way with Myles Garrett last year. Had a third-down pass he wishes he would've pulled in. That's the part of the game he has to improve.
— C.J. O'Grady has made nice strides. Didn't see it today but he can be a receiver.
— Will Gragg has had a huge spike in accountability.
— Jamario Bell can catch the ball as well as anyone, but is limited unless he knows the plays.