Mostly it seems the spring football game gets forgotten as quickly as it’s played.

But Bobby Petrino remembered someone out of the spring game he had not mentioned before it.

He remembered Rod Coleman.

Even when citing the lack of blazing speed among the wide receivers he mentioned during the middle of spring drills, new Arkansas coach Petrino had never mentioned Camden’s Coleman period.

Coleman might be the fastest of all the Razorback receivers on hand. Just not the best one. Otherwise the fourth-year junior would have been known as a wideout for former coach Houston Nutt instead of the fast guy who would move to scout team quarterback any time the Razorback defense knew it would be beset with an option-scrambler.

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Coleman had played quarterback at Camden Fairview.

His two Razorback letters he received under Nutt were way more for special teams work than as a receiver mopping up.

Most of the spring he seemed headed for a similar role under Petrino and still could be.

However, Coleman’s 76 spring game yards on two touches turned Petrino’s head a bit. The coach now doesn’t just talk about incoming freshmen adding speed at receiver after Coleman both caught a 26-yard pass and took a reverse for 50 yards.

“ We got some production from Coleman in the spring game, ” Petrino said in his spring practice postmortem press conference. “ He showed he can catch the deep ball and he did a nice job running on the reverse. ”

Now of course two plays don’t put Coleman on the map.

Just on the radar after evaluations that previously apparently did nothing to make Petrino think Coleman would factor.

Especially with at least five scholarship incoming freshman receivers to be evaluated in August preseason drills plus any of four others who could be tried at wideouts. Those four — Albert Gary of Citra, Fla., Jerico Nelson of Destrehan, La., Khiry Battle of Dacular, Ga., and Warren’s Basmine Jones — are listed as “ athletes. ”

Running back / receiver / defensive back generally are the mixand-match positions that coaches seek to fit on those with both sides of the ball possibilities.

“ He was just up and down, ” Petrino said of Coleman’s spring prior to the Red-White game. “ He had a few days where he was pretty good and a few days where he dropped off a little bit. He’s got to get much more consistent. ”

Of the returning wideouts, junior London Crawford and third-year sophomore Carlton Salters were deemed the spring’s top two and Marques Wade next.

“ London Crawford came out of spring with confidence in himself and the quarterbacks, ” Petrino said. “ He’s a strong (6-2, 200 ), physical guy that we can utilize when cornerbacks come up and press. That’s one of his strengths is beating the corners at the line of scrimmage simply because of his combination of strength and speed.

“ He’s catching the deep ball and must continue to work on that. He’s got to learn to locate the ball and keep his shoulders going forward. He just needs a lot of reps. What impressed me the most is his ability to run after the catch. And that was from the first scrimmage to the end. He’s hard to tackle. ”

Salters has better hands but isn’t as elusive or physical once he catches it.

“ He can catch the ball over the middle and has very good hands, ” Petrino said. “ We’re going to continue working with him running the ball after the catch and on his speed. He needs to be more of a threat downfield. We’ve got to utilize him down the field. ”

More wideouts will be utilized period in Petrino’s multiple offense. Petrino lists three wideout positions on the depth chart with Wade (“ He caught some deep balls but needs to get stronger, ” Petrino said ) and Coleman 1-2, Salters and Lucas Miller 1-2, and Crawford and Reggie Fish 1-2.

Bobby Petrino and receivers coach Paul Petrino will see what freshmen like Joe Adams of Central Arkansas Christian, Cruz Williams of Pulaski Academy and Warren wideouts Greg Childs, Chris Gragg and Jarius Wright can do plus some of the crew recruited as “ athletes. ”

“ I’m not going to single any of them out, ” Bobby Petrino said. “ But we need help at receiver. ”

Nate Allen covers University of Arkansas athletics for the Northwest Arkansas Times.