Aaron Torres of Fox Sports Radio is in agreement with the guys on Halftime the mishandling of the B1G season will probably cost Kevin Warren his job.
Pittman using hard, physical, camp for conditioning of mind and body
People have spent two years getting paralysis by analysis over the problem with Arkansas mired in a 4-20 run of unprecedented futility, but it was really kind of obvious.
They were soft. Physically and mentally.
It started from the top and filtered down through an entire team that didn’t trust the coaches who really didn’t have a head coach that knew how to be a head coach.
Sam Pittman has never been a head coach at the major college level, either, but already is acting and sounding like he’s been one more than the previous coaches.
Take the reports of Friday’s scrimmage.
“We have to get in better shape,” he said Friday after giving the numbers in the scrimmage. “We’re not there yet nor did we think we would be.”
Pittman put them through a long scrimmage in the hottest part of a day that was sweltering. It was hot just walking outside, much less banging on other guys and running with pads on.
That was how he chose to end the first week that was mostly in pads.
In today’s world of college football with the practices spread out due to the delay caused by the coronavirus, everybody is trying to figure out how to get folks in shape.
Remember, instead of working through a spring practice and an off-season conditioning schedule directly overseen by the strength coach, players spent months away from the facilities.
Now they’ve got several weeks with workouts spread out before the opening game against Georgia on Sept. 26.
“The practices being spread is a good point,” Pittman said. “Any time you have that lengthy of a scrimmage and it’s hot, I’m not for sure you’re ever ready for it whether it’s mentally or physically.”
First scrimmage of the season with a new staff and nobody really had an idea what to expect.
“You know how it is when you don’t know what’s coming?” Pittman said. “The next time you know exactly what the expectation is, how long it’s going to be, how many plays I have. The next one will be much better.”
One of the things Pittman has mentioned before is not being pleased with how the players come on and get off the field between drills. You get the idea it’s a big deal for him.
“We just have to transition better on and off the field,” he said, referring to what he’s wanting to see. In other words, no casual strolls out to line up.
It’s part of the instilling a new air of just being, well, tough around the Hogs.
“We have to push ourselves and a lot of that goes back to that mental toughness,” Pittman said. “We HAVE to express that mental toughness. If we do it will help us get in shape because instead of jogging off the field we’ll be running off.”
There won’t be a break anytime soon.
“Next week is a work week,” Pittman said. “It will be identical to this week. It’s a go-get-it week once again. We may tackle once other than the scrimmage, but it would be on a limited basis.”
He’ll start working on getting ready for Georgia in a couple of weeks. That’s not going to happen soon.
“We’re not worried about (the players’) legs and all that stuff right now,” he said. “We’re worried about getting in shape.
“We won’t back off the pedal for at least another two weeks.”
It’s the way experienced football coaches literally work a team into shape.
Pittman is also using it to develop a tough mental approach.
That hasn’t been around in a few years.
Henry likely starter at TE, but Toll’s change offers couple of clues
More than a couple of eyebrows raised Friday afternoon when Sam Pittman announced in his press conference that freshman Blayne Toll is a tight end again.
“We’re trying to find two really good tight ends and if we can get three and four, that’d be great,” Pittman said.
He’s probably got one. By all accounts, Hudson Henry is doing fine as the No. 1 tight end.
“Henry caught a couple of short passes for touchdowns today,” Pittman said. “He broke a tackle and got in the end zone. It was good to see him have some success.”
Toll’s move from the defense may be because of the emergence of Julius Coates as a playmaker at defensive end and Dorian Gerald coming back from injury fully healthy.
Even though Pittman is acting publicly like nothing is locked down there, he’s trying to add numbers to a thin position.
“I don’t have a clue who the starting tight end is yet,” he said. “I’ll know a little bit more after I watch this film this afternoon, but this next scrimmage will be really, really big for the tight end position.”
The previous staff’s plan to redshirt Henry while using Cheyenne O’Grady as the starter and a committee after that backfired. O’Grady had to sit out some games for injury, then was kicked off the team later but they kept the redshirt on Henry.
“We’re still trying to figure out who’s one, two, three on the depth chart, including who’s the starter,” Pittman said. “Hudson, again, is doing a nice job, but he’s young and he hasn’t played, either.”
Without seeing a whole lot, though, Henry, who appears to have bulked up some in the offseason is the odds-on choice to be the starter.
Behind him would be true freshman Toll, senior Blake Kern (a former walk-on) and a couple of other true freshmen in Collin Sutherland and Eric Thomas.
It will be interesting to hear what the coaches think after looking at the film. Pittman’s press conference came right after the scrimmage ended Friday and he mentioned he was holding back any judgements until after seeing that.
“We’re just trying to find, to be honest with you, two really good tight ends,” he said, “and if we can get three and four, that’d be great.”
Sights & Sounds from Razorbacks’ first scrimmage of 2020 fall camp
Here’s what it looked and sounded like at Arkansas’ first scrimmage Saturday for Sam Pittman’s first look at team in live action.
Pittman on ‘powerful meeting’ on racial injustice; overview of Hogs’ scrimmage
Arkansas held the first of what Sam Pittman said will likely be two scrimmages in fall camp and he talked about a “powerful meeting” before on the shooting in Wisconsin.
Smith on bonding with Boyd, scrimmage, statement from offense on injustice
Hogs running back Trelon Smith talked after Friday’s scrimmage about his friendship with senior running back Rakeem Boyd.
Nichols with defensive statement on racial injustice before update on scrimmage
Razorbacks defensive tackle Isaiah Nichols gave a brief statement on the defense’s unity against the Wisconsin shooting before talking about his development and the Friday scrimmage.
Little taught Turner about soccer-style kickers and he coached All-Americans
When Frank Broyles signed the highly-recruited Steve Little out of Shawnee Mission, Kansas, back in 1974 and announced he would do nothing but kick, some were surprised.
Little was recruited as a quarterback and defensive back by a lot of people. He was an all-around athlete and Arkansas kicking coach Ken Turner had never coached a soccer-style kicker.
“Little taught me all about soccer kicking,” Turner told Tye Richardson, Tommy Craft and Clay Henry (The Morning Rush) on ESPN Arkansas on Friday morning a day after the announcement he was joining the UA’s Hall of Honor. “I didn’t know anything about it.”
Turner had coached straight-ahead kicker Bill McClard to an All-American level, the first of a whole string of punters and kickers that won All-Southwest Conference honors.
Every one of them had a different personality, strength and weakness. Turner managed to get the best out of every one of them.
“Each one was different, had a different personality,” Turner said. “You gotta deal with that.”
He had good psychological instincts.
“Some kickers you could jump on, some you can’t say a cross word to,” he said. “You gotta know that fine line when you’re coaching ’em.”
But he knew how to put the pressure on them in practices.
“You never know when that kicker’s on the sideline and all of a sudden he’s got to go out there in front of 70,000 people to win or lose a game,” Turner said. “So I was tough on them in practice trying to get them where a game situation wasn’t any tougher.
“That was my theory then but they didn’t know that.”
Turner also had a rule that you didn’t just start yanking the ball up in the air.
“Don’t ever kick one unless you’re trying to make it,” he said. “A lot of times kickers would get out there and mess around at practice and if I saw ’em, I wanted them to make it every time they kicked it.
“The pressure on a kicker is tremendous. I used to tell ’em, ‘you’re the only guy in the stadium and watching on TV knows when you mess up. It’s obvious.’
“They don’t expect a kicker to miss and that’s the way I coached ’em.”
At various times, Turner coached the offensive line and tight ends in addition to kickers. He coached six first team All-Americans before leaving in 1989 for his alma mater, Henderson State.
Turner joins a Hall of Honor class that includes Darren McFadden, Corey Beck, Amanda McCurdy, Ralph Kraus and Jon Brittenum.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, no ceremony will be delayed until the fall of 2021.
Razorbacks’ Sights & Sounds from Wednesday’s fall camp practice
Here’s what Wednesday’s practice for Arkansas in fall camp looked like.
