FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas defensive coordinator Paul Haynes knew freshmen Will Hines and Davyon “Sleepy” McKinney would be able to contribute at cornerback this season.
He didn’t know they’d be paired together in the starting lineup before the season reached the halfway point.
That’s what took place in Arkansas’ game at Auburn on Oct. 6, when the true freshman Hines and the redshirt freshman McKinney, a converted receiver, lined up on the corners. Arkansas won that game 24-7 to begin a two-game winning streak the Razorbacks will take into Saturday’s game against Ole Miss at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock.
Arkansas’ defensive backfield is essentially 100 percent healthy now, but the blitz of injuries early in the season forced young players into action and led to some ugly numbers against the pass. The Razorbacks rank 115th nationally in pass defense and 107th in pass efficiency, which is up from lows of 117th in pass defense and 113th in pass efficiency after Texas A&M threw for 498 yards and three touchdowns in a 58-10 victory Sept. 29. Arkansas’ secondary, which already had a freshman starter in safety Rohan Gaines, had taken its lumps by the time Hines and McKinney matched up together.
“Getting experience like that, it’s tough when you’re a freshman,” senior safety Ross Rasner said. “But those guys have rolled with the punches, and I think they’re going to keep doing their job.”
Hines started in the fourth and fifth games, and had given up some big plays against Rutgers and Texas A&M.
“He’s a kid that, you talk about confidence, you talk about things not bothering him, that’s how he is,” said Haynes, who is in his first full season at Arkansas. “If he didn’t make a play, it wasn’t that he got down. He went back out there and he made a couple of plays.”
McKinney also has the overt confidence normally associated with cornerbacks.
“I feel like we’re in a good position, us being young,” McKinney said. “For years to come we’ve all got the game experience, so there’s not going to be any drop-off. We all know what game experience really is and we can go out there and perform.”
The freshman cornerbacks were thrust into roles more quickly than anyone anticipated.
Sophomore starter Tevin Mitchel went out with a concussion in the second half of Arkansas’ second game of the season and then needed gall bladder surgery that kept him out until the Razorbacks’ 49-7 victory over Kentucky two weeks ago.
Senior Darius Winston started the opener against Jacksonville State and the SEC opener against Alabama, but he wasn’t providing enough of a physical, run-stopping presence. Senior Kaelon Kelleybrew, a first-year player after transferring from Mississippi Valley State, started four games before a concussion knocked him out against Texas A&M.
“They have made tremendous strides in the last three weeks,” Arkansas Coach John L. Smith said of the Razorbacks’ freshman contributors.
Junior safety Eric Bennett, who has fought through hamstring and ankle injuries and briefly gave way to another first-time starter, sophomore Alan Turner, said he has an idea of what the young defensive backs have gone through.
“I’ve seen, like when I was a freshman, at midseason the game started to slow down. You could see the game, and they’re starting to make more plays,” Bennett said. “So it’s not like everything is so fast. It looks like everything has slowed down for them.”
He’s right, Gaines said.
“It’s definitely about halfway through the season now and it’s clicking,” he said. “You know the game is slowing down and it seems like I’ve been moving faster.”
Hines, like the Razorbacks’ other true freshmen, has not been available for media interviews since early in fall camp.
McKinney said the defense’s scaleddown schemes have helped the young defensive backs play faster.
“We’re actually knowing what we need to do and what yardage we need to get to, so we’ve actually got those down pat and we know how to get to it,” he said.
Haynes told the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club on Wednesday that the progress of the young defensive backs has been impressive.
“You’ve got to make sure you don’t put them in bad positions and things like that, but you also have got to challenge them that, ‘Hey, we need you to step up and that’s why you’re here. That’s why you chose to sign those papers to play in the SEC West.’ ”
Mitchel is on track to make his first start since Sept. 8 on Saturday, while Kelleybrew has recovered and is going to take a more flexible role as a nickel back.
“Tevin is definitely going to step in and be playing, of course, and then Hines and McKinney, that gives us a little bit of time to split things up with those guys and get them better,” Smith said. “Hines is doing a great job, as is McKinney. As is Tevin getting back.
“We have to take some time away from Kelleybrew’s corner work to play him at the nickel and dime.”
Sports, Pages 17 on 10/25/2012