Razorbacks report

Secondary revisions take shape

Arkansas linebacker Bumper Pool (16) goes through practice Saturday, March 3, 2018, in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The University of Arkansas had three fresh first-teamers on defense at Tuesday's practice and apparently a new face in the tight end unit.

Redshirt freshman Montaric Brown and true freshman Joe Foucha worked with the first team at cornerback and safety, respectively, in the spots opened up by the suspensions of Ryan Pulley and Kamren Curl for Friday's season finale at Missouri. Additionally, true freshman Bumper Pool was at weak-side linebacker, paired with De'Jon Harris, while senior Dre Greenlaw watched from the sideline not in practice gear.

If Brown and Foucha start, the Razorbacks would have three freshman starters in the secondary along with cornerback Jarques McClellion -- senior Santos Ramirez is the other starting safety -- against Missouri quarterback Drew Lock. The Tigers rank No. 27 in the nation with 275.6 passing yards per game.

When the team split into scout team work, quarterback Cole Kelley took some snaps at tight end with the team. Kelley missed last week's game due to an illness, according to Coach Chad Morris.

Pool has started three games, two early in the year when Greenlaw was out with a high ankle sprain, and another against Vanderbilt when Greenlaw was held out for the first play.

Sixth-year senior Kevin Richardson practiced with the first team at nickel back and played second-team cornerback with Britto Tutt.

The four-man safety rotation will apparently consist of Ramirez, an 11-game starter, freshmen Foucha and Myles Mason, and senior Ryder Lucas, who has eight tackles, mostly as a special teams standout.

Must be disciplined

Arkansas' players said they understood why Coach Chad Morris suspended defensive backs Ryan Pulley and Kamren Curl after they took photos with members of the Mississippi State spirit squad before Saturday's 52-6 loss to the Bulldogs.

"He was upset with our performance on the field Saturday and obviously what happened with those guys before the game and everything," senior safety Santos Ramirez said. "It wasn't a sight to see, obviously.

"But we have to have discipline and as a head coach you've got to do what you've got to do to keep order on the team. Coach Morris is doing a great job with that. All we can do is control what we can control."

Senior offensive tackle Brian Wallace said the Razorbacks have responded positively in practice this week.

"We need to focus more," Wallace said. "We had an incident happen that shouldn't have happened and we all realized that. If it does happen we need to get other teammates to check it if we see it."

Shoulder carry

Arkansas' seniors were carried off the field on the shoulders of their teammates at the end of the final practice in pads Tuesday.

"There's still great emotion and everybody's excited to be out there," junior tight end Cheyenne O'Grady said. "The seniors had a great last day."

O'Grady said it was fun to give the seniors a ride, but that carrying offensive linemen such as Brian Wallace (6-6, 320 pounds) and Hjalte Froholdt (6-6, 315) was a challenge.

"A lot of trouble getting B-Wall and Hjalte up there," O'Grady said. "But we managed to do it somehow."

O'Grady said Coach Chad Morris announced Sunday that the other players would carry the seniors.

"It was his idea to do that," O'Grady said. "He thought it would mean a lot to the seniors, and it did."

Senior defensive back Kevin Richardson is 5-11 and 180.

"I had people fighting over me, the lightest senior out there," Richardson said.

O'Grady helped carry Wallace.

"It was uncomfortable to him at first, but he got used to it," O'Grady said. "He looked like a king up there, just propping his hands on everybody's helmets."

Injury update

In addition to linebacker Dre Greenlaw, who has battled ankle injuries all season, several other Razorbacks were limited or out on Tuesday.

Running backs Rakeem Boyd and Devwah Whaley both wore green limited-contact jerseys as did receiver Gary Cross.

Munson out

Defensive back Derrick Munson announced in a Twitter post on Tuesday addressed "To my Hog Family" that his time as a Razorback was coming to an end.

Munson, a true sophomore from New Orleans, posted 14 tackles, including one sack for an 8-yard loss while making one start and playing in all 11 games this season.

"I'm going to miss grinding for and with you guys," Munson wrote.

Tuesday takes

Cornerback Montaric Brown had a breakup on a deep pass on the first play of the move-the-ball sequence early in practice. Ty Storey delivered a long ball to freshman Mike Woods, who had his hands on the ball before Brown came in to break it up.

Kicker Connor Limpert missed both of his field goal tries that came after the first two move-the-ball series on Tuesday. The field goals appeared to be in the 40- to 45-yard range.

Accurate kicks

Connor Limpert will enter the season finale holding the Arkansas record for field goal accuracy. The junior from Allen, Texas, has converted 19 of 24 field goal tries this season and is 27 of 33 in his two seasons as the primary starter.

Limpert's career field goal percentage of .818 is substantially higher than that of the current record holder Zach Hocker, who made 67 of 79 kicks (.772) in four seasons (2010-13) to surpass Todd Wright (.759).

15 grabs

The Razorbacks completed 15 passes to their wide receivers against Mississippi State, the most combined catches by the wideouts since they had 15 in the 55-20 season-opening victory against Eastern Illinois.

Deon Stewart led the way against the Bulldogs with 6 catches, though they only went for 13 yards, while La'Michael Pettway had 4 receptions for 83 yards. Mike Woods had three catches, and Jordan Jones added the final two.

In the season opener, Pettway and Jones had 5 catches each, Chase Harrell had 4 and Stewart had 1.

Third-down numbers

Mississippi State converted on 7 of 10 third-down plays against the Hogs, a 70 percent conversion rate that was easily the best by an Arkansas opponent.

The previous high this season had been 60 percent (6 of 10) by Ole Miss in the Rebels 37-33 victory on Oct. 13. Arkansas entered the game holding opponents to 34.6 percent conversions on third down to rank 37th in the country.

Arkansas converted 5 of 17 third-down plays against the Bulldogs.

Whatever, weather

On Monday, Arkansas Coach Chad Morris said he had not looked into the weather forecast for Friday's 1:30 p.m. season finale at Missouri for the Battle Line Trophy.

The outlook calls for a very strong chance of rain for much of the game, with the temperature hovering in the mid 40s in Columbia, Mo.

"Really, to be honest with you, I haven't looked that far in advance, and I really could care less what the weather is like," Morris said. "It has zero bearing over the way we should -- the way we're going to play and what's asked of our program, top to bottom," Morris said. "That's to be at our best."

Sports on 11/21/2018