Pair of players won’t be at start of preseason drills

Alexy Jean-Baptiste and Montaric Brown won’t be on the field when Arkansas starts fall practices Thursday.

Blame the snail pace of getting things through the NCAA in Brown’s case.

Montaric Brown

“Unfortunately, sometimes there is a little big of lag in the NCAA side as well, as you’re dealing with a lot of paperwork and coursework,” Bielema said Monday about Brown’s situation. “Getting everything in in a short amount of time, sometimes it just doesn’t happen as fast as we want.”

He didn’t appear too concerned, though, citing what he thinks is a strong group of incoming players at the defensive back positions.

Alexy Jean-Baptiste

“It’s not like a do-or-die situation for him to get here,” he said. “We’ll find out — just like we do with all freshmen — what can they handle mentally and physically, and if the answer is yes, then we’ll go ahead (and play him). If not, we’ll have a chance to redshirt him.

Jean-Baptiste redshirted last year and injured a foot in spring practice and the rehab hasn’t progressed as far as the coaches want.

“He wasn’t going to be where we needed him to be,” Bielema said, adding that he expects him to be in drills closer to the start of the fall semester.