Oh, no, came the cries. Don’t put a 266-pound guard on the field against SEC defensive lines.
I get it. Someone said, “That’s 1960s size for an offensive guard in college football.”
Well, that would have been a big one back then as my research confirmed.
Before we dive into the story of Ricky Stromberg’s journey from 335 pounds to 266 (then back to his current 277), let’s check the roster weights on some of the good Arkansas teams. Let’s focus on guards, since that’s where Stromberg plays.
Arkansas started Jerry Welch (6-0, 210) and Jerry Jones (6-0, 190) at guard for the 1964 national title team.
By 1975 when the Hogs won the Cotton Bowl again, they started Leotis Harris (6-2, 246) and R.C. Thielemann (6-3, 234).
It wasn’t until Ken Hatfield took over as coach that the Arkansas guards turned into behemoths. Hatfield seemed to prefer his guards to be the biggest on his lines because his favorite play was the fullback dive. Suddenly, there were giants like Freddie Childress (6-4, 345) and John Stitten (6-6, 308) as the starting guards in 1987.
The next Cotton Bowl team — the first of two under Ken Hatfield — featured a slimmer Childress (6-4, 310) and James Morris (6-3, 265). Then, the next year, in 1989, the Hogs got tiny again at guard with Mark Henry (6-5, 262) and Todd Gifford (6-4, 270).
Weight is not the tell-all for an offensive lineman. And, remember, the weight you see in the program often was right for only the instant the player stepped on the scales one day.
That’s the case with Stromberg. His weight has changed almost daily since he arrived on campus in late spring.
Weight is one of the reasons Stromberg wasn’t on the Arkansas radar list — or with any other Power 5 team — until near the end of his senior season. He was a sloppy 335 as a junior and not considered a top prospect despite playing well for three seasons at Tulsa Union, one of Oklahoma’s best programs.
The Redskins won a state title Stromberg’s sophomore season, then went to the title game his junior year. They made the semifinals last season when he was committed to Tulsa. Some of his other offers were from Colorado State, Arkansas State, North Texas and Utah State.
That offer list didn’t make sense with the way Stromberg played as a senior. After dropping to 280 pounds by the start of his senior season, Stromberg was voted offensive lineman of the year in his Class 6A district, long one of the state’s toughest.
It was late in the season when the Hogs figured out they wanted Stromberg. Head coach Chad Morris checked his most trusted Oklahoma sources and found one willing to give a top recommendation.
Owasso coach Bill Blankenship had worked under Morris, then the offensive coordinator, on Todd Graham’s Tulsa staff. Blankenship called Stromberg the “best” his teams saw last year.
The Hogs were about to offer anyway, but that put some intensity into the process. And, Stromberg wasted no time in accepting during a phone call from Arkansas offensive line coach Dustin Fry and Morris.
“I had gotten back from my visit right after the season,” he said. “Coach Fry got me and then gave the phone to Coach Morris.”
Morris asked him, “Do you want to come be a Razorback?” Stromberg quickly asked for a translation.
There had been calls from the likes of Oklahoma, Texas and TCU about walking on. Was this another one of those pitches?
“I just said, ‘Is this an offer?’ And he said it was,” Stromberg said.
It was an instant “I accept” from Stromberg.
Back to his weight, Stromberg accepted as a 6-4, 280-pounder, but was headed toward 260 when he got to campus six months later.
“I got acid reflux,” he said. “I had some trouble with my sinus.”
That’s singular.
“Yeah, I’m weird, I have only one sinus,” he said. “I was having trouble with it when I got here, real bad allergies. And, I just couldn’t eat because of the acid reflux.
“It was awful. I couldn’t swallow. My throat burned down into my chest. I didn’t even want to look at food. I’d cough up stuff after it got stuck.”
Doctors got him straight with some Zantac.
“I didn’t have to take it for long,” Stromberg said. “I had begun gaining back the weight when they weighed me (for the media guide in early July). It was 266 then. I’m at 277 now and I’ll probably be 280 soon. My goal is 295 by next season.”
Stromberg may be a bit undersized, but he’s got impressive leg strength. That’s always been the case and it was on display early in August camp when he turned heads as the true freshman most likely to help this season.
When starting left guard Austin Capps went down with a knee injury early in camp, Stromberg began to get snaps with the first team. When Capps hurt an ankle in the opener, Stromberg was the man at left guard.
“I played both right and left in camp,” Stromberg said. “I played left tackle mostly in high school, but I also played some guard and center. I have snapped some here, too.”
The left side is no problem, but Stromberg said he feels most comfortable when he’s in a right hand to the ground stance.
“So playing the right side is just more comfortable,” he said. “But it doesn’t really matter.”
It doesn’t seem that anything really bothers Stromberg. He’s matter of fact in his conversation. It didn’t faze him when coaches suggested early in the Ole Miss prep that he could start.
“I didn’t come here expecting to be playing much this season,” he said. “Really, I talked with my dad and we both agreed that my life the first year would be about going to class and lifting weights.
“My goal was to make the travel squad. I sure wasn’t thinking I’d start the first road game.”
And, it went well from the perspective of the coaches. Morris said on his weekly radio show Wednesday night that Stromberg was “extremely impressive” against the Rebels. He graded as the team’s second-best lineman.
“He did really well in pass protection,” Morris said. “He had a couple of breakdowns. He let a guy beat him across his face and had a tackle for loss, but overall Ricky responded well.”
That’s not the play Stromberg recalled.
“The one I’ll always remember was about five minutes left in the first half,” he said. “I was pulling and a linebacker was screaming downhill. He blew me up.
“I was so mad. He showed me what SEC football is all about. He knocked the nerves out of me.
“I made sure I stayed low the rest of the game. I wasn’t going to let that happen to me again. I just played harder and harder. It was a lot of fun.”
The tough part wasn’t the physicality, it was playing on the road.
“You go on the field and look around and it’s a lot more people,” he said. “And, the noise was loud. I had to really strain to hear the cadence. And, you have to hear it and also block out everything else and see the movement of the defensive line.”
There was plenty of help on either side. Center Ty Clary and left tackle Colton Jackson provided the right communication so there were no missed assignments.
“I just followed what Ty told me,” Stromberg said. “Those guys told me all week that I was going to be fine and that they trusted me.
“I knew pretty much after Wednesday’s practice I was going to start and I spent the next few nights really studying the guys I was going to see. I got my work done quickly in study hall each night and went on to tape study.
“I wasn’t nervous. I slept fine. I slept fine Friday night. I just told myself, ‘Go back to my roots and that’s to work hard.’ I have good confidence. My dad always told me I was a good player and could do this. I believe him.”
There is no question, this is a different level than Class 6A football in Oklahoma.
“I was the biggest guy on the field in high school and now I’m the smallest,” he said. “Every guy is fast, every guy is physical, but I think I showed myself I could compete at this level in camp. I was going against our first-team tackles.”
It was early in scrimmages that he found himself matched against McTelvin “Sosa” Agim, T.J. Smith, Isaiah Nichols and Jonathan Marshall. There were some wins for Stromberg. Quickly, he began to see more action in scrimmages.
“I found out I could play with them,” he said. “I didn’t win every battle, but sometimes I moved them half of a yard. Doing that or getting a stalemate was a win for me. Moving Marshall is like trying to move a tank.”
Stromberg’s physicality has never been questioned. It was his speed that caused concern, but that disappeared when he dropped weight after his junior year at Union.
“I think I was 310 as a sophomore and by the time I finished my junior year, I looked like a puff ball,” Stromberg said. “I was like a marshmallow.”
His older brother, Tim, once a strength and conditioning intern with Arkansas basketball, was relentless in his critique of that look.
“It was every day,” Stromberg said. “He was on my case and called me fat all the time.
“Tim is one of the most disciplined people I know. He’d gotten his body right. I just finally got sick of hearing him. I looked in the mirror at my body and decided to change.”
The diet was simple: chicken and rice two times a day, but nothing else.
“I was eating so much bad food,” he said. “I was down to 305 when my senior season started and 285 by the fourth game. I think I might have gotten to 284 eventually.”
The transformation was incredible.
“I could do everything quicker,” he said. “I never got tired. I was energized.
“You go back to my junior year, I cramped up after the first half of the opener.”
Still, the big offers didn’t come.
“I thought they would because I was the best linemen in our district,” he said. “I thought my play would produce offers.
“I was happy about Tulsa, but I was probably about to grey shirt at Oklahoma.”
There was always interest in Arkansas.
“My mom went to Ohio State, so that was my favorite school,” he said. “But since Tim had been at Arkansas with basketball, it was a school I always watched on TV. I knew about the way the fans supported the team. I’d root for them over about anyone.
“And, I really wanted to play in the SEC. It’s the best conference. So it was real easy to pick Arkansas with that offer. I never looked back.”
Stromberg wasn’t one of the many mid-term arrivals, so he didn’t see the tough love offseason transformation.
“But I heard about it,” he said. “Players and coaches still talk about the change in attitudes. The coaches got rid of those with a bad attitude.
“I think the culture is good. All we need is to get a couple more wins and we’ll be on a roll. We can compete with the teams on our schedule.
“What the coaches say about this team is true. It’s not false accusations about the change in culture.”
Stromberg knows the key. It’s discipline and hard work, just exactly what he’s done for the last 18 months to get ready for SEC football.
“I still watch what I eat,” he said. “The acid reflux taught me to stay away from the spicy foods. There are certain things like breaded food that I can’t eat. And, drink lots of water.”
And, then there’s the lesson learned in his first SEC road game: stay low.
That’s where the keys to victory start for this week’s matchup with Colorado State set for 3 p.m. Saturday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Stay Low
Pad level is everything in football. The team that gets under the others pads will win the leverage battle.
As line play develops, so does good pad level. That’s a key to watch to see if line coaches Kenny Ingram and Steve Caldwell (defense) and Fry (offense) are making progress.
I saw signs of that against Ole Miss, especially in the second half. The SEC is a physical slugging match with pad level winning out.
The Hogs had some success against Colorado State last year because of superior line play, but turnovers and mistakes in the passing game trumped that in the second half when the Rams rallied.
Arkansas rushed for 299 yards, but almost zero after leading 27-9. The Hogs will try to pound on the Rams this year and not just for three quarters.
Starkel Sparkle
The big news of the week is Nick Starkel, the new starter at quarterback. The junior graduate transfer from Texas A&M replaces Ben Hicks, the senior graduate transfer from SMU. Starkel gets the nod after a strong second half against the Rebels.
Starkel completed 17 of 24 passes for 201 yards after getting the reins at halftime. He said afterward that all he wanted “was a crumb” of playing time. He’s going to get the whole pie this week.
Change the Play
Well, Starkel might not get the entire pie, just all the snaps. Morris said Starkel might be prepared to run 25 to 30 percent of the offense, but that includes the right to audible. There are checks for Starkel to make, especially on first and second down.
“If he sees it, he has the flexibility,” Morris said. “We give him the leeway to change it or get to what he wants to get to. We ask all of our quarterbacks to have input in the game plan and what they like, what they don’t like. We would never want to call a play they don’t care for or didn’t feel like they could understand.”
The End Game
Defensive end play will continue to evolve around a youth movement. That unit began the season with hopes that three seniors could rotate and provide leadership for a host of talented freshmen.
Dorian Gerald, the most experienced senior, is out for the season with a stretched artery in his neck that requires blood thinner for weeks. Jamario Bell, another senior, is nursing a sore knee and will miss his second straight game. Gabe Richardson is the lone senior left and the leader of the unit now.
Among the freshmen, Mataio Soli is going to make his second straight start. He’ll get backup help from Zach Williams with more help on the way soon. True freshmen Collin Clay and Eric Gregory are bright prospects and may get playing time soon. Morris likes them all.
“When you talk to (defensive ends coach Steve) Caldwell, who is with them every day in meetings…they’re like a sponge,” Morris said. “They’re so hungry and they’re going to do what you ask them to do. You have to continue to stay on them and tell them, ‘This is the way this league is. It’s tough, it’s rough and you’ve got to continue to play physical and play fast.’ These guys did a good job of that.
“They had too many mistakes, they missed a few tackles, but that’s going to happen. They’re going to continue to get better every week.”
Disruption
That’s what the Hogs hope they get at defensive tackle with Agim, Smith, Marshall and Nichols.
The Hogs got to the quarterback only once at Fort Collins last year. There was too much time as the Rams rolled to four straight scores over the games final 18 minutes.
Changes at Receiver
When you scan the list of receivers who made catches against Colorado State last year, an incredible turnover has taken place at that position in 12 months.
Here is that list and their catches: LaMichael Pettway (2-31), Jeremy Patton (2-26), De’Vion Warren (2-minus-3), T. J. Hammonds (1-64), Deon Stewart (1-10), Austin Cantrell (1-10), Jordan Jones (1-2), Jonathan Nance (1-minus-2).
Out of that group, only Warren is expected to play against the Rams this time. Pettway, Patton, Cantrell and Nance are gone. Stewart and Jones are injured. Hammonds is suspended for two more games.
Here are those most likely to play significant minutes at wide receiver this week: junior De’Vion Warren; sophomores Mike Woods and Koilan Jackson; and true freshmen Trey Knox, Treylon Burks and T. Q. Jackson.
They were not always on the same page as their quarterbacks in the first two games. There were too many drops and a few passes that arrived before receivers were turned and focused.
That has to improve this week as Starkel takes over with a strong, accurate arm.
Running Room
If the passing game becomes solid, the running game will follow.
From a time when Arkansas tried to pound the ball to set up play-action passing, this is a change of systems that features a desire for better and more passing to open up the ground game.
There were some creases against Ole Miss, although backs didn’t hit all of them. There will be more as defenses are forced to back their safeties out of running game “fits.”
You can clog more lanes — and that’s what run game fits are — by inserting a safety outside the end to give you more than one player in an inside gap. Basically, it’s better for play calling if a defense can’t overload a gap.
Offensive coordinator Joe Craddock looks forward to a healthy run game list of plays when the offensive line and tight ends out-number the front of the defense. That hasn’t happened yet in the 14 games under Morris at Arkansas.
The Youngsters
Watch for the youth movement to continue. The Hogs have played 12 true freshmen in meaningful situations so far and more are going to slide into the rotation each week.
Jalen Catalon played safety in mop-up duty against Ole Miss and will probably be used in special teams this week. Tight end Hudson Henry didn’t make the travel squad last week, but is getting closer to being ready after missing a good chunk of camp while recovering from a concussion.
Running back A’montae Spivey, a true freshman, is getting more work each week and could figure into the plan. Remember, you can play in up to four games and still retain a redshirt.
Redshirt freshman LaDarrius Bishop has impressed in practice and could log more minutes at cornerback as defensive coordinator John Chavis looks to build depth.
Polish
That’s what I want to see in Week Three. There were just too many breakdowns in small areas that eventually add up to big things in the first two weeks.
Two botched kickoff returns resulted in bad field position against Ole Miss. Both could have been fair caught. One was caught and downed by the up back. Another was allowed to bounce near the boundary.
There were two punts that could have been caught and downed inside the 10-yard line against Portland State. Both bounced into the end zone for touchbacks.
The clock was mismanaged at the end of the first half against Portland State.
The young receivers had alignment errors at Ole Miss. One resulted in a touchdown catch being wiped out by an ineligible receiver penalty. And, they’ve had too many drops.
Can these issues be cleaned up this week?
Toughness
It’s probably the single thing I’ll be looking for this week. I’ve never liked the idea of the NCAA legislating two-a-days out of August camp.
It’s the single thing that emphasizes toughness (both mental and physical) in the game of football.
Can the Hogs play tougher in Week Three? I’ll be watching for tackling in the second half as an indicator. It was poor in the second half against Ole Miss, perhaps because the offense didn’t keep the ball long enough.
Red zone toughness is one of the other indicators if a team is making progress. The offense has to take advantage of opportunities and the defense has to force more field goals.