Arkansas tight ends coach Dowell Loggains talked about his group, the offense overall and more after practice Friday afternoon.
Halftime Pod Presented By Eastside Liquor —August 13- 2021
Phil and Drew talk the Field of Dreams game, Razorbacks, college football, Dumas of the Week and more!!
Guest:Aaron Torres
Halftime is LIVE! Phil and Drew are going to practice, MLB, NFL, CFB and more!
Aaron Torres of Fox Sports Radio with Phil Elson, Drew Barrett and Matt Travis to wrap up the week on Halftime.
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Bud Light Seltzer Morning Rush Podcast – Pittman happy with practice
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Hogs bigger, but appear to be adding backfield speed as well
For several years, coaches have wanted Arkansas to be bigger and faster. That last part hasn’t caught much attention.
One former coach wanted big guys. Another was looking for speed.
For whatever reason, nobody could get everything on the same page at the same time and the results showed a dramatic decline with no SEC wins before getting three last year.
The line has gotten bigger with reports of an average of over 30 pounds of muscle weight increase per player.
Josh Oglesby and AJ Green alone make the backfield faster.
Originally coming to Arkansas as a track athlete, Oglesby started with football last year, was injured and never really got things squared away.
“He’s showing flashes of a real running back now,” wide receiver Tyson Morris said Thursday afternoon about Oglesby. “:ast year he was just kind of getting his feet wet being in the backfield and being out here with bigger guys.
“Guys are way bigger out there on that field than they are on the track, so I feel like he’s showing real good flashes. He’s hitting the hole way faster. More confident now.”
Pittman has noticed Oglesby’s improvement, too.
“He’s a willing blocker in pass protection,” Pittman said. “He’s 10.3, and the thing with him is we wanted to see 10.3 on the football field. I think we’re starting to see that a little bit more as he’s getting more comfortable.”
Oglesby’s speed has gotten everybody’s attention.
“He’s fast. Fast as hell, really,” defensive back Greg Brooks said Thursday about Oglesby. “He gets on that corner, ain’t nobody going to catch him. He’s definitely come a long way since last year. You can see the progression towards being a real running back in the SEC.”
Then there’s Green, who’s almost as fast (10.38 to Oglesby’s 10.3 for 100 meters), but was a late enrollee and is dealing with the learning curve early in his time.
“He’s started to become a more willing blocker in pass protection,” Pittman said. “I don’t know how much he did of that in high school. If I was a high school coach, I’d turn around and hand it to him and I’m sure that’s what they did.”
To see that speed, though, he’s got to get some more reps in practices.
“You know how it is when you first come in,” Pittman said. “He also ran 10.3 something, 10.4. But you’re playing about 10.8 or 10.9 because you’re thinking all the time and that’s what it was.
“In that comparison he’s probably running about a 10.7 right now. He’s getting towards that 100-meter mark he set, but not quite there yet.”
Once he picks it up some quality depth could emerge behind Trelon Smith at running back. It’s maybe the biggest question mark for coaches on the offense.
And the depth may have speed and it could be blazing speed.
The Morning Rush is LIVE! after ‘best practice of year’
The weekend is finally here, looking back first full week of practices and what’s ahead for Razorback football.
Pittman said first day in pads’ ‘best practice’ … but it’s early
Sam Pittman doesn’t seem to pay a whole lot of attention to negative stuff … at least publicly and certainly not at a press conference.
“I’m probably the most positive guy in the world, so I’m looking to see positive things,” he said later after he called Thursday’s first day in pads.
It was hot. Air temperatures were in the 90’s and it was a whole lot warmer whenever you stepped on the artificial turf. Nobody was using that field except some of the kickers and punters.
Nobody really seemed to notice.
“I don’t even want to say they fought through the heat because you didn’t even notice they were struggling through it,” Pittman said. “We got a lot done.”
Most of what got done was situational work. With the searing heat, the coaching staff may have wanted to see what the players could do staying focused on situations in the heat.
About the only thing that seemed clear was this team looked to be in shape through at least the first 20 minutes or so of Arkansas’ sixth practice of fall camp.
Maybe the most important thing we saw in our brief time watching practice was the players coaching and encouraging their teammates. That’s been seen much more in fall camp and it picked up a little the first day in pads.
Pittman noticed, too.
“We took care of each other,” he said later. “The guys policing their own team about running to the ball and staying and thudding and not going on the ground with thud. Not a lot of mistakes.”
Part of that is the experience on this team, including several “super seniors,” who have been around long enough to nearly qualify for university tenure status. The older guys are teaching and we’ll find out how much the younger guys get from it.
“The thing about these guys, they work now,” Pittman said. “They’re not afraid of work.
“Any time you have big people and fast people and smart guys, guys who love the university and they go out and work, you’re going to get better. That’s kind of what we’ve seen. Guys are not afraid of work, and we’ve been very pleased with that.”
It wasn’t a perfect practice, though. Pittman saw some things he talked about immediately after the practice ended.
“We’ve got to get better at protection,” Pittman said. “I’m not just saying we can’t protect. We’re violating our eyes a little bit, and between the backs and O-line we have to get better there because we can’t cut somebody loose on our quarterback.
“We have to get better at that.”
He’ll find a few more things watching the film. As running backs coach Jimmy Smith said in passing earlier this week, the coaches do things in drills to review with the players on the practice film. Everything is on tape these days.
Pittman thinks this team is getting a little tougher, which is something that has disappeared over the last few years.
“We had some guys that got knocked down and got back up and we haven’t always done that,” he said. “A lot of times (before) we went to the sideline. We’re getting a tougher team. I guess I’m most excited about that.”
Don’t expect all of the fall practices to be like that. It is a positive start.
And Pittman is looking for positives in a program he inherited with too many negatives.
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Pittman on status of Hogs after first day in pads on Thursday
Arkansas coach Sam Pittman talked about his team’s work in the heat Thursday afternoon in pads for first time.
Morris, Brooks recapping early drills plus Oglesby ‘fast as hell’
Hogs wide receiver Tyson Morris and defensive back Greg Brooks have discovered Josh Oglesby’s track speed in camp.
