FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman has spent most of the practice sessions open to media this week working with the Razorbacks’ offensive linemen.
But Pittman, who has developed a reputation as one of college football’s best line coaches over the course of two-plus decades, said he is not working exclusively with that position group while assistant coach Brad Davis sits out of practice. Davis, the offensive line coach, has missed at least two workouts with what a team spokesperson described Monday as a pre-existing condition.
Pittman said Tuesday that Davis should return to practice within the next week, perhaps as early as a couple of days.
Quality control coach Joseph Henry and graduate assistant Ryan Yurachek are primarily working with the offensive linemen in Davis’ absence, Pittman said. Henry and Yurachek both played tight end in college — Henry at Arkansas and Yurachek at Marshall.
“Those two kids are doing a really nice job over there,” Pittman said. “I’m helping them out a little bit, but they’re doing a nice job of meeting with them and coaching them.”
Pittman painted himself as more of an adviser with Arkansas’ linemen.
“I don’t want to lose any of the trust Coach Davis had with them, so I’m just kind of a helper over there,” Pittman said. “Coach Davis is their line coach. Certainly I’m not going to not (help) coach the line, whether Coach Davis is here or not, but I don’t want to lose the trust he’s had with the room by saying something differently than he does. So I’m really just coaching a lot of technique-type things.”
That is consistent with how senior offensive tackle Myron Cunningham described Pittman’s role with the linemen during the offseason. Cunningham said it was common for Pittman to sit in on offensive line meeting sessions and offer pointers here and there.
“It helps when you have a head coach who is such a highly recognized offensive line guy,” Cunningham said.
Pittman oversaw a full-padded practice for the first time Tuesday. Last week he said it was difficult to gauge how the linemen looked until the team was in pads, noting the difficulty of blocking in shells.
In the open portion of practice Arkansas’ first-team offensive line appeared to consist of Cunningham at left tackle, Luke Jones at left guard, Ricky Stromberg at center, Beaux Limmer at right guard and Noah Gatlin at right tackle.
Pittman could be heard encouraging the group, but also getting on to players when they didn’t execute correctly.
“I was really pleased with the line today. I thought they had a nice practice,” Pittman said. “We have to strain…on our blocks and I thought they did more today than what I have seen.
“We’re still trying to find the right pieces. As we find the best five we have, we’re still trying to find the best No. 6, No. 7, No. 8. We’re a lot closer than what we were a week ago.”
Pittman has said previously that he hopes to have a starting line developed by about two-and-a-half weeks prior to the Sept. 26 season opener against No. 4 Georgia. He has said the second combination of players will likely change throughout the season.
Marcus Henderson is likely to factor into that second tier of linemen. The 6-5, 284-pound freshman from Memphis worked as the backup at left tackle Tuesday alongside Shane Clenin at left guard, Ty Clary at center, Ryan Winkel at right guard and Brady Latham at right tackle.
Pittman said Henderson has impressed with his knowledge, part of the reason he is playing at tackle.
“He’s learning the offense awfully fast,” Pittman said. “He’s got outstanding feet. He’s ahead of a lot of freshmen that I’ve coached in my past as far as the mental game of it, the strain, the competition part of it.
“I believe that if you have a great athlete, you want to start them outside (at tackle). We certainly want to see him at left tackle to see how he’s doing there. We moved him to right tackle and I think it set him back. I think at some point if you’re thinking all the time it slows you down and you’re not moving full speed, so we moved him back to his home place (left tackle)…and the last few days he’s not necessarily playing like a freshman. He’s doing a really nice job.”
Pittman said he likes the team’s overall look at center, where the sophomore Stromberg has worked out ahead of Clary, a senior who has started the past two seasons.
“I think we have three, maybe four guys who can play center for us,” Pittman said. “Obviously you can’t function (as an offense) if you can’t snap it. I’m proud about that part of it.”
Pittman said he was unhappy Tuesday with the line’s urgency getting on and off the field, and talked to the group about it after practice.
“During the plays I thought we were going extremely hard and I enjoyed watching them practice,” Pittman said, “but the transition on and off the field was slow. To me, if I’m running, I’m running to get into shape, so a jog off the field, to me, is not benefitting why I’m at practice. I need to run off the field so I can use that as conditioning as well. But I did think they played awful hard between whistles.”
Scottie Bordelon contributed