FAYETTEVILLE — There was an eye in the sky and the head coach had a headset with a microphone as Arkansas went high tech in a fast, furious first practice of the Chad Morris football era.
Morris covered the use of the drones after the first practice of spring, a workout that went about 15 minutes long. He's been using the drone since his second year at Clemson. It provides better looks for the quarterback in tape review and is perfect for a straight down look on special teams.
“We follow the ball on special teams,” Morris said, noting it's just another way of giving the quarterback more data in passing drills. “Sometimes it's just eight or nine feet above the quarterbacks. Sometimes, it's higher on special teams.”
There's also a camera attached to the helmet of some quarterbacks. Morris is going to use all of the tools he can find.
The high tech stuff to the side, pace is what really jumped out as Morris opened to the media the 15 minutes of warm-ups, then four periods (almost 30 minutes) of his first practice. There will be more glimpses of the early parts of practices for the media. It was also revealed that all scrimmages will be open to the media, including the first on March 10.
Morris was scheduled to meet with the media around 6:30 p.m. Thursday. He popped into the interview room at 6:58 p.m.
“There's only one first practice,” he said, then grinned. “We wanted to make sure they felt it. We wanted the energy to flow.”
It was clear the energy was high octane, with the head coach setting the tone.
“We are learning to practice and it wasn't perfect,” he said. “But I didn't think it would be.”
Morris said there were some periods that he stopped to make sure players understood exactly what pace was expected.
“The overall energy level is exhausting,” he said. “Some of the coaches who hadn't been with us were in awe struck just like the players.”
Most went as planned. Morris said there were no issues with the new terminology with both offense and defense new.
“There was very little look of newness to what they were doing,” he said. “They knew terminology. It looked like they had listened.”
They seemed to listen to Morris when he spoke through the head sets.
“If you're juiceful, you're useful and it's got to start with the head coach,” Morris said. “What I was doing was all about getting movement in the practice, getting them from one place to the next.
“We went long, but I thought they were in shape. They were excited at the end. I asked them how they felt and they gave (strength coach Trumain Carroll) some applause. They did not taper off at the end.”
Morris said there were some players in new positions because of the change in defensive scheme. For instance, senior Randy Ramsey moved from an outside linebacker spot to “a down, true wide end. He's a pass rush end.”
Morris said the pads will be added in a 10 a.m. Saturday practice. He said there would not be tackling to the ground, but thudding up. Interestingly, quarterbacks might feel some contact.
“We have quarterback rules and we went over them again today,” he said. “We have some drills that we don't touch them in the pocket. We have tracking drills. And we have some where we want to see a running quarterback and we thud them up.
“I control that. It's my whistle. Some times I'll blow it quick and sometimes I won't because I want to see a running quarterback go down the field. I'm in constant communication as far as that. I want them to understand what we are doing with tackling (the quarterback).”
There were no specifics to individual play, despite a question about quarterbacks.
“It's hard to say,” he said. “We gave them a lot. There were some throws long and some under thrown. Everyone got a lot of reps. The timing was off, but they were drinking from a fire hose.
“Some of the things we did as far as pace was over exaggerated. We wanted to just let them know how we roll.”
As far as the Morris whistle, it's also a key in determining who is loafing.
“Today, there were a lot of loafs,” he said. “But I expected that. I know it will be better Saturday as they get a better feel for what we expect. I do know that at 7:15 p.m. Tonight, then we are a better team than when we stepped on the field today.”