Rain a good thing at Arkansas' 10th preseason practice

Arkansas quarterbacks Cole Kelley (15) and Jack Lindsey (18) are shown during practice Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2018, in Fayetteville.

— For the first nine practices of August, Arkansas coach Chad Morris and his staff had to manufacture wet footballs.

Mother Nature took care of that in practice No. 10.

The Razorbacks practiced in pouring rain most of Tuesday morning, giving Morris exactly what he wanted.

“The only disappointment was it let up on us right there at the end," Morris said of the rain. "I was wishing it would have rained a little harder and a little longer, but guys responded. Again, it was all about the adverse conditions that we actually had scripted in; today was a big wet ball day all day long.”

That included some situational work at the end of the workout. Morris had planned to have wet ball drills back in the early summer.

“In fact, the last scenario of the game was we had (1:52) on the clock in a driving rainstorm,” Morris said. “The offense is up by seven and the ball is on the minus 20 with the defense having two timeouts.

“I did that (scripted it) I guess back in late May or early June. I didn’t realize it would be raining today, but we were able to get that in. So that was good stuff able to let those quarterbacks handle the wet ball and the running backs handle the wet ball. Something we do every day anyway as an inside drill. But for us to do it all day long it was good.”

Ball security is a primary focus in the rain.

“I thought we had decent ball security,” Morris said. “I think there may have been one that got on the ground. I was more concerned - I wanted to see how the centers got the ball back to the quarterback and they did some good things there.

“Anytime that you can put them in those situations and conditions and see how they respond, that is what it is about. You couldn’t have scripted a better day today.”

It came a day after the Razorbacks were lackluster in practice, drawing the ire of Morris. Arkansas scrimmaged Saturday, then had a mandated day off Sunday.

Morris was much more pleased with the team's focus Tuesday.

“I thought the guys had great energy and bouncing around and the conditions didn’t affect them,” Morris said.

Morris made it clear that if he doesn’t get the start he wants from practice, he will just start the workout over.

“I thought yesterday our energy level was extremely low,” Morris said. “I was waiting on that day to come. I didn't know when it was gonna be here, but it showed up yesterday. It was evident when they came out of the locker room. But that's not our style, not what we're about.

“So I challenged them really hard yesterday through practice; had the long practice yesterday, longer than I wanted to practice, but we had to get some good work in. We were gonna get our 22 periods of work in. It might have taken us six hours to get it in, but we were gonna get it in regardless.

“So my message to them was, 'You either push or I will.' And I had to push a little bit yesterday, but that's OK. That's to be expected. They responded well today and I was excited about that.”

The rain gave the Razorbacks a chance to work on the kicking game in less-than-ideal circumstances. Junior Connor Limpert, who was 8 of 9 last season, and true freshman Preston Stafford are vying for the kicking duties.

“We really have gone live a lot with the kickers,” Morris said. “We were one for one in the rain today, but we had a good day Saturday. We have to be more consistent and develop more consistency at kicker. Connor has done a lot of good things and the Preston Stafford kid is another one that is really coming on. They are challenging each other, Preston and Connor.”