FAYETTEVILLE -- A key component in rebuilding a football program is the establishment of self-confidence.
Confidence comes in part from feeling fit, fast and strong. As the saying goes, if you look good, you feel good.
The Arkansas Razorbacks, eager to rebound from a 4-8 season, went through their first winter work under strength and conditioning coach Trumain Carroll and his staff in January and February. They came out the other side feeling robust for spring drills, which continued Thursday with the fourth of 15 practices.
Cornerback Ryan Pulley, who rehabbed from pectoral muscle surgery most of last season, was asked about his clearly bigger shoulders and biceps last week.
"Psssh, coach Tru," said Pulley, referring to the gravely voiced Carroll by his nickname. "We've been working hard the last six, seven weeks, lifting hard, trying to get more buff, as y'all can see."
The reporters around him chuckled at Pulley's "buff" reference, but the Razorbacks' gains in conditioning are no laughing matter.
"We ran four times a week," senior safety Santos Ramirez said. "We did a lot of speed training, more than we ever did since we've been here. I feel like the conditioning got us in great shape for spring ball."
Coach Chad Morris has pointed out the Razorbacks need an upgrade in speed across the board.
"You either have speed or you're chasing speed," Morris says.
Tight end Jeremy Patton said the offseason work dovetails into the preferred style of play for Morris.
"I think this strength staff really fits the style of offense and the style of team," Patton said. "We run really up pace, so you have a lot more of getting cut, getting faster and not as much putting on weight and getting stronger. You have guys building speed and changing direction a lot more."
The winter workouts led to substantial weight losses for most position groups, as the Razorbacks began implementing Morris' up-tempo Spread offense and defensive coordinator John Chavis' attacking defense.
Sophomore quarterback Cole Kelley is down about 5 pounds from his listed playing weight of 268 from last season to put him into a better position to execute the run-pass options and designed quarterback runs in the fast-paced system.
"It's more lean protein instead of just like fat and sloppy," Kelley said. "Just get my speed up, but I don't want to be too light, because tackling somebody that's fast that weighs more is harder than tackling somebody that's fast that weighs less, in my opinion. Just trying to get my body less fat on it."
Defensive end McTelvin Agim called the offseason conditioning work good.
"It was hard, though," Agim said. "It wasn't easy at all. We were getting up at 5 and ... running at 6, early in the morning. Then we'd come back and work out at a later time. That was kind of harder, having to be accountable for basically two workouts in a day."
Agim said he lost around 10 pounds, down to about 280 pounds.
"I've been feeling good lately because of dropping that weight off," Agim said. "The weight drop has got me feeling back like an athlete again."
Morris said the players have begun spring drills with good attitudes and healthy conditioning.
"I definitely thought, with the length of practice and as much as we ran, I thought the guys were in shape," Morris said last week. "I asked them, 'How did you feel shape-wise?' and they all gave coach Tru and his staff a big round of applause. So they definitely see a difference."
Count linebacker De'Jon Harris as an advocate for Carroll's system.
"I like it, man," Harris said. "There were a lot of things we didn't do [before] and he made a lot of changes. The conditioning was way better than what we did in the past."
Receiver Jonathan Nance said the conditioning work helped prepare the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville for a faster practice tempo.
"It's different than Coach [Bret] Bielema's," Nance said. "It's run here, run there. Everything is run. I like it.
"We're in pretty good condition, but you can always be in better condition. We'll get better as practices go."
The Razorbacks will engage in their first major scrimmage of the Morris era Saturday morning. Due to the threat of thunderstorms, the free youth football clinic scheduled that day for after practice has been postponed.
Sports on 03/09/2018