May 18, 2013

Practice Report — 8/21/10

August 21, 2010 by

A few notes after attending Razorback football practice on Saturday morning.

As you might expect, Razorback Fan Day festivities brought out a good crowd to Saturday’s final open practice inside Reynolds Razorback Stadium.  We were only able to attend the first hour of practice so make sure and check out the other practice reports linked below.  Only 14 more days until kickoff!

Broderick Green (AP Photo/April L. Brown)After the changes made this week at linebacker for the Hogs, we were watching closely how former safety Anthony “Juice” Leon looked at linebacker.  Well…so far…so good.  In fact, based on how he looked on Saturday, moving Leon might be THE move of fall camp.

It’s a crash course for Juice at outside linebacker, where he obviously doesn’t know the position well enough yet to “play fast” the way Bobby Petrino wants on every play.  But you see flashes…like when he broke cleanly and nearly intercepted Ryan Mallett on the first play of 11-on-11 drills on Saturday.  It will be interesting to see how much playing time Leon gets in the first two non-conference games.

It was good to see defensive end Tenarius Wright back out on the field again.  Even though Wright returned to practice earlier this week after dealing with back spasms, Saturday was the first chance we’ve had to see “The Tank” this fall and he looked good.  While freshman Chris Smith has an impressive speed rush at defensive end, the veteran Wright looks even quicker and more disruptive.  Get ready for more sacks this year, Hog fans.

There seemed to be extra emphasis by the quarterbacks on making the proper pre-snap adjustments at the line of scrimmage.  Defensive coordinator Willy Robinson was changing defenses frequently during the early 11-on-11 session.  In response, Ryan Mallett was making blocking adjustments and calling audibles as needed.  Backup quarterback Tyler Wilson was doing the same, although he seemed to be a bit slower than Mallett at reading the defensive positioning.

Bobby Petrino was preaching one thing over and over to the offensive line on Saturday: “Get up!  Get down!  Get off!”  As in (we think): 1) Break the huddle and get up quickly to the line of scrimmage; 2) Get down into your stance; and 3) Get off when the ball is snapped.  Easy to remember, huh?

Also:

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  • OwassoHog

    Wow… this is going to be fun!!!

  • http://GonzoHog GonzoHog

    Is Redshirt Freshman Travis Swanson really good enough to be a starter?

    I’ve heard his name talked about a few times over the past few weeks, but I never really thought about him actually being the starter until now.

    Mallett never seemed to have that much of a problem with the snaps until now, so I’m wondering if maybe he and Swanson are still building a little cemistry there, or if he’s still just a little bit rusty from being out of action for so long?

    • http://www.razorbloggers.net Walking on Sunshine

      It sounds like Coach K likes Swanson a lot. He is taller and more athletic than Oxner and I think that helps him with some of the blocking schemes they are doing. More pulling, more counters, more stretch plays force those guys to get out and go. I would still imagine Oxner will start.

      They’ve got 8 or 9 O-lineman that they feel really good about. Comforting to know if they get hit with any injuries.

  • http://www.arkansashuntingland.net Arkansas Hunting Lan

    Thanks for the report. It’s good to see that Tenarius Wright is back at it. I know back spasms can be tough to overcome. I’m sure he’s well taken care of though. Can’t wait for kickoff!

  • EArHog

    I’ve watched the Hogs over years hang in there with bigger, stronger, better teams only to fade in the 4th quarter. It was apparent that our first string guys were good enough, but they were having to play against both first and second string players of the other team. Our guys were making up for their lack of size and strength with their heart and passion. When it’d get to the fourth quarter our starters just couldn’t give any more. Now we’re a bigger stronger deeper team. I like it!