Razorback Football Practice Reports

I have two Razorback Football Practice Reports that were emailed to me over the weekend, thought that those of you who follow the Hogs might be interested in seeing these.  It sounds like the team is starting to come together.  I already have tickets for the season opener in Little Rock and I could not be more excited.

I am really looking forward to this season, I think we will be a lot better this year, maybe not contenders for the SEC championship but capable of pulling of some exciting finishes.  My only concern this season is that we beat Ole Miss and possibly LSU.

Here’s the report from the first practice session:

Okay and Guys & Gals here is my 1st report.  Again the opinions are my own, and some from Coach Jerry Dollins, and whoever else will talk to me. Nate Allen, the local sportswriter, said these were the 105 allowed to practice before school starts.  Others can come on wants school starts.  This list is different from the one I ran off of the Razorback web site. It had some additional names that I guess aren’t allowed to practice – one name jumped out at me was Andrew Norman- who in the spring showed himself to me to have great hands.

Practice started at 3 and early on it was pretty hot and muggy, but the clouds moved and and really cooled it down.  For the first hour it was just the newcomers and some of the redshirt freshman and sophomores.

Some general thoughts about these guys, but as a side note I saw Bobby Allen at Crossover Liquor a week or two ago.  He was buying wine and me beer.  His son, Brandon, is the QB for Fayetteville and is consider to be a very good qb and had just won a big 7 on 7 tournament.  Anyway I asked about the recruits and he said this class was special like the Matt Jones, Shawn Andrews, Jason Peters class.  He was excited about them.

On to modern times…..  The new d backs in this class are much bigger than the the guys we have now.  Where our corners are 5’8″ now Darious Winston and David Gordon are 6′ (Gordon is a little bigger than Winston – Jerry thinks Winston looks like 35 year old).  The new safetys #1 Anthony Leon 6’4″ 230 and #38 Jerry Mitchell (the sheet says he is 6’7″ he is not- he is no taller than Leon), but they are bigger than the guys we have.  Both Winston & m safetyGordon move really fast and make it look easy.  Anthony Leon looks like Steve Atwater.  He was already playing 2nd team.  He did not get practice here this summer and you could tell he was fagged.  At one time he feined a tight hamstring so a trainer could work on him for a could work one him-but his chest was heaving for air.  However he got up and continued.

#17 Brandoned Mitchell, the QB from Louisana, is a specimen.  I am sure he will be redshirted, but he looks like an athlete.  His passes were sharp and in the few plays he got to run in the skelton drills he had good touch on the ball.

#20 Ronnie Wingo body wise looks like McFadden; tall and lean 6’3″ 218.  When he runs he lowers he shoulders.  During the passing drills he caught the passes thrown to him.  He has good hands.

I wasn’t close to the lineman, but on both sides of the ball the lineman are really big and the linebackers looked as big as what we have now. The only wide receivers that caught my attention were #11 Coby Hamilton & #83 Neal Barlow looked good and didn’t see them drop any passes.

Two other players that stood out because their small size were #10 Nick Petrino QB and #6 Bobby Petrino safety.  Bobby was a really good safety for Fayetteville High last year.  He was head hunter.  He had a scholarship to the air force academy, but Didley Dawson said after a week he had enough of the military life.

At 4 the juniors and seniors came out and we all cheered.  They were excited.  Kniles Davis was not there because his dad passed away, but Dudley said he would be there Saturday.  Brandon Barnett was on the sidelines running and he was favoring his leg.  I bet he won’t be ready for at least a month.  Last year he was also on the side line.  Nate Allen said it is going to be tough for him because of all the numbers at running back.

Nate and I discussed Broderick Green #29 and frankly like me Nate was not that impressed with him in the spring.  To me his 1st step in not quick and he doesn’t lower his shoulders and run over people like he should.  Hopefully now that he knows he is eligible he will show more. I bet before his career is over he will be a fullback.  However he looks like a super stud.  But the best looking athelete to me continues to be Van Stuman #44 6’1″ 266. Jerry and I agree that maybe since he is listed as the starting fullback he has new motivation.

They practiced the special teams early they had the punt team out there.  Briton Forester #49 the transfer punter kicked some really high spirals.  However #14 Dillon Breeding crushed a few. The 4 guys returning punts were Michael Smith #21, #27 Jerral Norton, #3 Joe Adams, #16 Darius Winston.  Kickers did not kick, but just watching the kickers we have Alex Tejada needs to be it because the others had no legs.

Mallet # 15 physically looks better than ever.  While the qbs were throwing the ball back and forth one got away (probably from youngblood) and a la Matt Jones he just stuck out one hand and pluck it out of the air.

During the skelton drills when there was a pass rush he threw some good balls, overthrew some receivers, overpowered some throws and threw a couple on INTs.  He did throw a couple of long balls that were right on the money.  He is obviously the starter and seemed to genuinely trying to be a leader.

Tyler Wilson #8 looked good.  He seems to spot open receivers really well.  At one time on a play he quickly spotted a wide open Ben Cleveland #86 and it would have been a big gainer.  Later in one of the drills the pocket broke down and he spun out and threw a quick pass downfield intercepted.  On the day he probably had a higher % of completions and only 1 int to Mallets 2 or 3.

Jim Youngblood had a couple of good throws and some that were really overthrown.  He is way back from Tyler & Ryan. Greg Childs #85, London Crawford #3, Reggie Fish #1, #3 Joe Adams all made some tremendous catches.

Michael Smith looks as quick as he ever did, Dennis Johnson and D’Anthony looked good as did Wingo.  D’Anthony still looks like he is carrying a loaf of bread.  Hard to tell about any of these guys until they get pads on.  Mitchell Bailey #30 the star of the red-white spring game didn’t get any carriers as far as i can tell, but I don’t believe any of the fullbacks did.

This is the second report from what I think was the Sunday practice session.  My father and law and I almost headed up for this one…

I was able to get to practice when they ran the first play from scrimmage.  There was nothing wrong with the passing game today with the QB’s on target and very few dropped passes.  In my 11 years of watching practice in Fayetteville I have never seen a Razorback team with so much size and speed.  This coaching may be the best we have had since Broyles had some of his best staffs.  They are the most organized, energized, and focused that I have ever seen.

There is very little difference in the two QB’s.  Mallett is more of a risk taker than Wilson.  Both are winners.  On the down side Mallett will occasionally throw a horrible pass and Wilson still has trouble catching the snap (this is hard to understand, maybe he is looking down field instead of looking the ball into his hands).  With all the other positives you still have to feel very good about both of them.  For the future a freshman named Brandon Mitchell from La. is a name to remember.
All the receivers looked good today.  Of course the first of a few dropped passes was by London Crawford.  Most passes are thrown to Jarius Wright.  The freshman that had the most catches was Cobi Hamilton from Texarkana.  They seem to really like him.

Speaking of freshmen.  Last year we played 16 freshman because we had to.  This year do not be concerned if some freshmen play because they are so talented ( Darius Winston and David Gordon ). Three of the biggest human beings in world are on the offensive line.  Matt Hall, Anthony Oden, and Grant Freeman should be able to block anyone and protect the QB’s.

Jake Bequette nearly died of heat exhaustion.  He did something that pissed off some coach and had to run the steps.  When he got to the top row on the east side he went down for the count.  No less than three trainers treated him for at least an hour on the top row and then two of them had to assist him to the dressing room.  I was surprised that they did not call an ambulance he looked so bad.

Coach B. Petrino rarely pays attention to the defense but I thought today he was going to kill Ramon Broadway when he lined up in the wrong defensive formation.
Tejada looks great.  The worst thing he did was miss one of four field goals from 49 yards. It looks like they will throw a lot to the backs, especially Broderick “Crawford” Green.  He is very dangerous when he catches a pass on the run.  Not many DB’s will want to take him on when he is at full speed.

My best advice is to take Arkansas and the points against Georgia in Fayetteville!!!