A few thoughts after Tipster and I watched spring football practice over the weekend.
The media have been talking a lot about the fast pace of practice. But they’re not just fast…they’re intense. The sounds of pads popping and coaches…well…coaching…are everywhere.
While the past few years mainly featured Reggie Herring providing the ‘vocal entertainment,’ the new Razorback staff has several coaches who can employ a diverse vocabulary. My favorite was Defensive Coordinator Willy Robinson channeling Lombardi — “What the hell is going on out here?”
Head coach Bobby Petrino is definitely the CEO in charge. He spent equal amounts of time on the offensive and defensive ends of the field, while the position coaches moved around aggressively doing their jobs.
About the only thing not seriously organized in this year’s spring practice is the coaching apparel. While the Adidas brand was well represented, it’s obvious that these coaches have their minds on coaching…not on dressing alike. I won’t go into details — check out the pictures from Saturday by TipsterHog.
From the start of practice, I liked the look of things. During the offensive drills, quarterbacks were zipping the ball to receivers. Running backs were getting hit and running under bars to encourage them to keep low. And receivers were running shuttle cones and then catching the ball at the end.
For those who were wondering — Casey Dick looks like he will do fine in this system. But Ryan Mallett is half a head taller, has a bigger arm and is obviously pushing Casey. It’s very apparent that quarterbacks in this system are expected to be the leaders of the offense…not just bus drivers. We heard that loud and clear when Bobby Petrino yelled at Casey once to “get up there and tell everyone what to do!”
The ball was thrown to everyone on the roster multiple times. With the accelerated pace of practice, there were plenty of opportunities for players to show their skills. And, of course, that means the coaches will have more film to study afterwards.
Even after only a few days of practice in a new system, the receivers looked great. The quarterbacks are being asked to really zing the ball. There’s no floating passes and leading people by five steps. Precise patterns are definitely a coaching emphasis. There were several good catches and lots of multiple receiver patterns, as well. This is good looking stuff.
That’s it for now. More about the defense and special teams — as well as a few more thoughts on the offense — tomorrow. Anyone else who’s gotten a chance to visit practice, feel free to chime in with your first impressions.
I haven't been to practice but, just reading between the lines you can see very clearly that these boys know exactly what they are doing both in building a team of young men and competitors with a plan who can execute underpressure. These guys will take Arkansas to another level. We will see a new talent level out of the same players at every position unless I miss my guess. People will be shocked at Casey's play as well as the recievers.
What a huge get this was to get Petrino. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. We were the only good job left in the SEC. Now we can finally compete for that title, those titles.
I'm very glad to see my hopes realized (at least in small ways) from the reports of Spring Practice. Seems that Petrino and staff really know what they're about in molding team/program(we aleady know whow they can recruit).
Like what I'm hearing about Casey. I've akways admired his attitude and effort. I hope he really comes into his own this year.
Hope we continue to hear good things about the receivers (go London Crawford and Marques Wade!).We need to get Cleveland and Tuck back but it's great to hear that the RBs are being used as receiving threats as well.
I'm glad to hear our new DC say he's "hard to please." Sounds like he won't only expect much from his befense but will stand a good chance of getting it.
Was kind of surprised to read all the reports of surprise at the greatly increased tempo at practice. Guess I wasn't too good at reading between the lines (it can be very difficult and frustrating to get an accurate picture of what's going on over there in the Boston Mountains when you live somplace like Atlanta [Kennesaw]). I didn't realize just how laid back practices were under Nutt. I'm glad to hear that Petrino wants to get the most out of every second he has. I doubt this philosophy will change once he has his schemes firmily in place.
Keep up the great work, guys! Looking forward to much more!
Hawgfan100 — It wasn't so much that Houston Dale's practices were laid back, it was that he just didn't seem to get a lot accomplished with them. We noted that the offensive practices that Gus led were much more fast paced and intense. Houston Dale was always worried about something and thus being very careful — don't get anyone hurt because we are thin, don't tackle to the ground, not much scrimmaging. Our offensive line was physical but it seemed everything else was fragile.
To scrimmage 72 plays on Sunday . . . that was about the final Spring practice number that Houston Dale would work up to.
There's a lot of football being played in these practices. That's not how it has been in the past few years.
It is clear that the strategy is not to spoon-feed people, but rather to figure out who can keep up both mentally and physically. It is clear these coaches have high expectations.
Cleveland and Tuck are out there working hard. Tuck has had his share of catches and looks good, just hasn't gotten any ink. The pace right now requires you to take things from the classroom sessions and immediately apply them on the field. That gives the early advantage to the ones with more practice and game experience.
Coaching makes a huge difference. There's a reason Petrino has had success everywhere he's been (except Atlanta, but who has done well there?).
I get the same feeling watching these practices that I got from watching Nolan the first couple of years in practice. 'This guy's gonna get it done.'
Only time will tell.
I'm happy to here all the good reports on the practices. I have always had high hopes for Casey Dick. I see talent, but the coaching at that position was never there, along with the recieving corps. Something tell's me your going to see players at the WR and QB positions step up this year and produce what they couldn't in the past. I'm also keeping an eye on London Crawford. Also, if Cleveland can make it back to 100%, then I exspect our TEs to be productive as well. With Cleveland and T.J. Williams at those posiitions, I can't remember a year that we had two guys with thier kind of talent. Both of those kids are capable of playing multible positions at TE / FB / HB. Spring practices should get more and more interesting every day. GO HOGS!!!!!
After reading some more articles on the program, I have to say the title for this piece was spot on: intense. From Veltcamp's conditioning to Paul's having the receivers finish every play, catch or not, to Bobby's demanding improvement in every area every day; I see intensity and passion at every turn (without being psycho about it).
I'm an intense person myself so that's one of the things I love about the college game. I liked Houston's passion but I often thought he failed to couple it effectively with intensity: lots of 'rah, rah' but with a disconcerting lack of focus at crucial moments.
Also was pleased to read Veltcamp's characterization of the players as 'hungry'. That's the kind of team we need to have for a successful season this and every year. I think it's cool that he uses a bell in his training and that the staff will transfer that concept to gametime. Arkansas teams have aways been known as being very physical, no matter the outcome (I still fondly remember the comment that Spurrior made after one of his Gater teams took it to us: he hated playing the Hogs because his team spent most of the next week in the whirlpool instead of practicing. ;^) With the way Veltcamp likes to condition, SEC teams better watch out!