WholeHogSports
HOG CALLS : Hogs appreciate Petrino’s consistency
Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2008
URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/nwat/67098/
Those who played for the late Vince Lombardi shared how they were treated by the Green Bay coaching legend.
“ He treats us all the same, ” a Packer was quoted, “ like dogs. ”
No Razorback has been that acidly descriptive of first-year Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino and Jason Veltkamp, the strength coach Petrino brought to Arkansas.
Yet while “ like dogs” might be an overstatement, the same unsparing on-field treatment for all doesn’t appear an inaccurate description.
At least that seemed the gist a couple of weeks ago when media were allowed to chat with Razorbacks Jonathan Luigs, D. J. Williams and Patrick Jones after a conditioning workout.
The three echoed receiving the same treatment despite considerably different positions on the Razorback strata.
Senior Luigs is the most decorated current Hog, last year’s Rimington Award winner as the nation’s outstanding center.
Tight end Williams is a sophomore so loyal to former Arkansas head coach Houston Nutt and former Razorback assistant coach Danny Nutt, the coaches that recruited him from Central Arkansas Christian, that he almost followed them to Ole Miss.
Now he talks highly of Petrino while Petrino talks highly of him as the team’s most explosive offensive skill player.
A true freshman last fall like Williams, Jones a defensive tackle from Hampton, Ga., spent the spring locked in a by default battle for a first-team berth with veteran Cord Gray while incumbent senior starter Ernest Mitchell rehabbed all spring from knee surgery.
The Jones-Gray contest had must improve all over it, Petrino implied.
Petrino demands better whether they back up Mitchell should Mitchell start the August preseason healed or again contend for a starting berth if Mitchell doesn’t progress as anticipated.
So here they are, three under different conditions eyeing the new staff the same way.
Williams recalled how close he came to exiting, how his change of heart transformed and how the new staff’s treatment essentially didn’t change even as mutual respect did.
“ A lot of people around the state know I was thinking about maybe even leaving the school after the coaching change, ” Williams said. “ I was really close to the Nutts, really close to all that coaching staff. Petrino and his staff came in and I wasn’t too thrilled about it. But I gave them a chance and learned to respect them and their philosophy. ”
Of course most will say Petrino’s philosophy is easy for a tight end to accept.
A tight end might catch cold but not much else in Nutt’s offense.
Petrino throws frequently to tight ends, particularly when they are the team’s best receivers which Williams and fellow tight end Andrew Davie decisively were last spring.
“ That helps, ” Williams concedes, but asserts that’s not why he stayed. He says it came down to mutual respect, even if fun and games aren’t much in the equation. “ He’s pretty much still no fun, ” Williams said of Petrino. “ He’s strictly business. And when it comes down to it, if you take care of your business, you are going to be successful. ” Especially if everyone believes they’re all getting the business.
“ I really appreciate how the coach doesn’t put anyone on any higher level, ” Williams said. “ He doesn’t have favorites. Everyone is the same. ” Luigs, the nation’s best in 2008, found himself starting 2009 from scratch like every other Hog. “ Every day we get better, and we are starting to remember things we learned in the spring, ” Luigs said. “ The more it becomes second nature to us, the easier it’s going to be, especially in the third and the fourth quarter. So that’s what we are trying to build. ”
Some of it’s novel, like Veltkamp instructed unorthodox exercises. Some is as basic as one player slightly messing up a drill causing Veltkamp to make everyone repeat the whole exercise.
“ It’s a mindset, ” Luigs said.
And sometimes mind games.
“ A lot of times we don’t even mess up, ” Jones said of drills repeated. “ But what they are trying to teach is everyone can seem perfect but one mistake can cost us the game. We saw last year a lot of that. That’s what we are trying to eliminate this year and the new staff is trying to make us understand. ”
Apparently they want everyone understanding the same things the same way.
Nate Allen covers the Razorbacks for the Northwest Arkansas Times