FAYETTEVILLE — Dre Greenlaw was wearing his white practice jersey Thursday in the indoor practice facility, same as everyone else.
But everyone else was in shorts. The junior linebacker was wearing red sweats and a boot on his right foot. That injury, sustained in the Belk Bowl, has relegated him to a coaching role this spring as he recovers.
“You’ll see him from time to time over there giving signals and back there teaching guys,” inside linebackers coach De’Jon Harris said. “… He’ll be busy.”
Greenlaw isn’t going through drills, but De’Jon ‘Scoota’ Harris, the sophomore likely to start next to him at middle linebacker this fall, is.
It’s a big spring for Harris, a 6-foot, 255-pounder who earned coaches freshman All-SEC recognition after recording 37 tackles in 12 games last fall. He flashed potential in spurts, showing instincts and tackling ability. Arkansas needs him to translate that potential into realized production with the graduation of four-year starter Brooks Ellis.
“He’s done a great job with his body,” Hargreaves said. “He’s changed his body. You can see it out there on the field. He’s running around and has great energy. Now it’s just a matter of that being able to translate to the field and making plays.
“He’s gotta just embrace the whole idea of being the guy out there and running the show. And that’ll come the more he does it, the more confidence he gains and he’ll be able to control it pretty good.”
Harris is far from the only young linebacker Arkansas wants to see make strides in an important spring. He and senior Dwayne Eugene are the only healthy players who have played meaningful reps. Eugene is working with the starters next to Harris, with Josh Harris behind him. The rest are all young players, like redshirt freshmen Grant Morgan and Giovanni LaFrance and true freshman Kyrei Fisher.
There will be players working inside and outside in the new 3-4 scheme all spring as the coaching staff experiments with different combinations and identifies each player’s strengths and weaknesses. Redshirt freshman Dee Walker is playing the Hog, the hybrid safety-linebacker spot, at the moment, but is among those who may be versatile in where he lines up.
“He’s a really good athlete,” Hargreaves said. “He’s playing for Chad (Walker) out there, but as I see him, he’s doing some good stuff in space. I think he’s going to give us a nice addition as far as having more speed on the field.”
“Dee (has a) great attitude,” Walker said. “Love the way he works, the way he gets after it. Really positive. Really good feet. He looks really good in space. He’s been fun to work with.”
Junior Michael Taylor, who redshirted last year after arriving late from junior college, has run with the first-team defense in the limited media availability so far, lining up at both outside linebacker spots.
“We’re trying to learn what these guys can do,” Walker said. “At one moment, we’ll play Randy Ramsey at Razor and then one second I’ll say, ‘Go to Hog.’ Or we’ll play Michael Taylor at Hog and then all the sudden we’ll say, ‘Hey, go to Razor.’
“Right now what we’re doing with those guys is let’s see what they can do. So, as of right now, it’s a work in progress with our defense. We’ll figure out what those guys are able to do and we’ll put them in the right spots.”
There is sure to be plenty of movement in the front 7 this spring, but Harris appears to be entrenched as a starter. His development is key.
“He’s played a little bit and he understands how important it is for that guy in our defense to run the whole thing,” Hargreaves said. “I’ve tried to point that out to him and I think he’s embraced it.”