FAYETTEVILLE -- A chipper Chad Morris bounced into the media room at the Smith Football Center on Friday night after what he termed an energetic and productive first day of training camp for the University of Arkansas.
"There's no doubt in my mind that this football team is obviously more full capacity than we were a year ago," Morris said after the workout in helmets and shorts. "You can definitely tell this football team has worked extremely hard this summer on their own with player-led workouts.
"This is as good a first day in grasping the install that I've been a part of. It's strictly their hard work and what they did, and the meetings that they've had."
Morris said he held a meeting Thursday night to talk about expectations after the team's weigh-in activities.
"We talked a lot about the culture of our football program and where we are," Morris said. "And how we're going to beat teams that we're not supposed to beat.
"Nobody's giving little old Arkansas any credit. And that's OK. They shouldn't. We have to earn it. And we talked about respect. And going out and earning it."
Morris said the quarterbacks were on target and communicative, and that the newcomers to the position -- junior transfer Nick Starkel and true freshman KJ Jefferson -- were better prepared than he anticipated.
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"I was impressed," he said. "I was very impressed. No. 1, they were all working together. They were very accurate and communicating when something wasn't right or they didn't like a look.
"I thought the ball was jumping out of their hands extremely well. I thought we were, again, accurate. We pushed the ball down the field early in practice. We challenged them late in practice in some team settings, and we hit some deep balls down the sidelines."
Morris said 110 healthy players opened the practice. Redshirt freshman offensive tackle Noah Gatlin suffered an injury, believed to be to his knee, late in the workout.
"We'll re-evaluate him and hope to get him back," Morris said.
Graduate transfers Ben Hicks and Starkel worked at quarterback with the first and second teams, respectively, during the periods available to the media.
Morris said he would like to name a starter at quarterback as soon as possible, but he wasn't going to rush into a decision.
"I'm not going to put a time limit on it," Morris said. "It'll work itself out. It always does."
Morris, in a 20-minute question-and-answer session, touted the work from the tight end crew, led by senior Cheyenne "C.J." O'Grady.
"C.J. O'Grady made some unbelievable catches today, and Chase Harrell made some fantastic catches," Morris said. "Those were a couple of guys off the top of my mind. [O'Grady] had to go up and make a catch over the top of a guy.
"I thought they made some really good catches. I saw that Hudson [Henry] made a really nice catch. ... We targeted the tight end quite a bit today, so I'm sure they'll be good and happy tomorrow."
Starkel, a 6-4, 218-pounder, and Jefferson, listed at 6-2, 228 pounds, brought a different look in terms of height and size to the quarterback spot than what the position looked like in spring.
Starkel showed easy heat, plenty of spin and depth on his deep balls, and a natural spiral on his deliveries.
Jefferson's movement on run-pass options displayed his quick feet and agility.
"I thought it came very natural to KJ, especially on some of our zone reads," Morris said. "I thought he looked really comfortable doing that. Now there's techniques and some intricate details we've got to get. Same way with Nick, getting Nick to understand what the answers are out on the edge if the ball is pulled.
"But I was pleased with both of them. I think they're both well ahead. I knew Nick would be. I thought KJ was well ahead of where I thought he would be, especially for Day One."
There were no surprises regarding the offensive depth chart. Rakeem Boyd and Devwah Whaley split runs at first-team tailback, while Chase Hayden, T.J. Hammonds and A'Montae Spivey slotted in behind them.
The top wideouts were Deon Stewart, De'Vion Warren and Mike Woods working with the tight end O'Grady. The next group up featured Jordan Jones and Trey Knox out wide, Tyson Morris in the slot and Grayson Gunter at tight end.
The first offensive line group went, from right to left, Colton Jackson, Austin Capps, Ty Clary, Shane Clenin and Dalton Wagner. The second unit featured left tackle Myron Cunningham, Kirby Adcock, Silas Robinson, Ryan Winkel and Gatlin.
A trio of Razorbacks who are coming off knee injuries -- cornerback Britto Tutt, receiver Treylon Burks and safety Jalen Catalon -- wore braces to protect their knees.
The Razorbacks will conduct camp practice No. 2, closed to the public, at 10:05 a.m. today. It will also be media day for the team in the afternoon.
Morris said the Razorbacks must continue to attack camp, and he hopes there are some 100-degree days looming because the team needs to be strained under adverse conditions.
"That is the challenge of this football team to keep that energy and that attack mode 100 percent of the time when they step across that red line that that's what they're doing," Morris said.
Sports on 08/03/2019