Chad Morris has used just about every cliché in the coaches’ manual about how he wants players fighting every single day for playing time for Arkansas this fall.
That’s why practices that start Friday morning may have an interesting battle at the quarterback spot between a pair of graduate transfers from Texas schools in Ben Hicks and Nick Starkel.
Hicks is a fairly calm, low-key, guy who seems to always keep his cool, even with the media back during spring practices.
It wouldn’t be surprising if Starkel enjoys those energy drinks Morris has daily, reading a story by Tom Murphy at WholeHogSports.com on Wednesday.
Hicks played at SMU, a Dallas-based school that prides itself on a preppy atmosphere. Starkel played at Texas A&M, which is in College Station and was a military, guys-only, place less than 60 years ago.
Hicks played for Morris and offensive coordinator Joe Craddock with the Mustangs for three years.
Starkel played for Kevin Sumlin and Jimbo Fisher, feels like he got screwed with the Aggies and knows the offense as well as Hicks.
The biggest difference is Starkel has a cannon for an arm while Hicks can fling it, but everybody has talked about the way the ball jumps out of his hand.
All of that means this may be one of the most interesting quarterback competitions in a long time on campus.
The guess here is Morris is going to not name a starter publicly until near the end of fall camp. I’m not holding out any hope we’ll be able to figure out anything in the 20 minutes of several practices the media will get to see.
Arkansas’ running game will probably be determined by how good the passing game is, especially early in games and the season.
If you’re expecting to suddenly go back 10 years in the way the world of college football has evolved and see the good ol’ running game set up the pass, well, it doesn’t work that way anymore.
The Razorbacks are going to have to throw the ball with a talented group of receivers that will be better than anybody’s guessing right now, at least in my opinion. The running backs may put up some pretty big numbers, but that will only be if the passing game opens up the running lanes.
Running backs coach Jeff Traylor talked Monday about how much he’s liking that he’s got the numbers this year. That’s why they welcomed T.J. Hammonds back to go along with a diverse group led by Rakeem Boyd.
Defense is going to be a question mark for the Hogs, so they may have to simply out-score some folks to win games.
How well they do that is likely going to depend on the quarterback.
And we probably won’t know who that will be, but the general thinking is Hicks will start the season and Starkel will take over sooner rather than later.
It likely is going to be interesting, regardless how it plays out.
