Early Impressions — Defense And Special Teams
August 10, 2009 at 3:05pm by Walking on Sunshine
Filed under Arkansas Razorbacks, Football
After breaking down in our last post how we thought the offense looked at practice this past weekend, we turn our focus now to the Hogs’ defense and special teams.
- But first…one more note we accidentally left out earlier about the offense: we have a new favorite player and his name is Zhamal Thomas. The agile 6-5, 343-pound offensive lineman has NFL size and quickness, and we predict he will not be a backup for long. Thomas has tremendous burst off the line and quick feet — very impressive. True freshman offensive guard Alvin Bailey (6-5, 323, Broken Arrow, OK) also seems to be pushing for first team O-line reps.
As for the defense, Bobby Petrino was spot-on when he said cornerback David Gordon might be the fastest player he’s ever coached. Gordon looks like he breaks on the ball extremely well. When he’s beaten by his man…he’s not beaten for long. We saw firsthand how “sprinter’s speed” allowed Gordon to recover and make the play very quickly.- Junior college transfer free safety Anthony Leon (6-4, 230, 4.4) has impressive size and excelled in all of the tackling drills. Leon (whose nickname is “Juice”) appears to be behind, though, in his cover skills. Keep an eye on that as the fall camp rolls on.
- Assistant coach John L. Smith wasn’t kidding about utilizing more starters on his special teams units. That was evidenced on Saturday when the kickoff return team had Broderick Green and All-American tight end candidate D.J. Williams manning the front line.
- New punter Briton Forester put in a good performance on Sunday when the punt team got some work in the special teams periods. While one of his eight punts was a “shank shot” after a bad snap, his other seven kicks averaged 43.8 yards with a long of 53.
- Wide receiver Austin Tucker (Shiloh Christian) was holding for kicker Alex Tejada on Saturday’s PAT and field goal team practice. Tejada knocked through 7 of 8 field goals between 25 and 44 yards, with the lone miss coming from 44.
- After practice on Saturday, we snapped a picture of one of the newly painted yellow goal posts at Razorback Stadium. Coach Smith says the color change was made to help the kickers “visually see the target.” Hmmm…I guess we’ll find out about that soon enough.
TipsterHog and HogBlogger also contributed to this post.
I have to disagree with you guys over who is a better punter. While you did not say Forester is better than Dillon, you did leave him off completely. I think that Dillion is far superior to Forester. If you have missed the practice today that is fine but Forester was clearly outshone today by Dillon.
Paul, we did see Dillon Breeding punting on Sunday and we were impressed with the freshman walk-on. On the punts we saw, his hang time wasn’t quite as good (overall) as Forester but his distance was probably better. We heard he had a really good day today, as well.
We tried to keep our impressions short and decided not to mention him. No slight was intended or “favorite” was picked.
In the end, Forester has the scholarship and that means it’s his job to lose. Like most every other position, there’s a lot of great competition going on out there.
That is true the competition at this position is quite good. I am looking forward to seeing both progress as the practices continue. When a player has a scholarship and the other doesn’t that generally means that it will be hard for the walk-on to get the job. I hope the competition pushes these two to becoming ten times better than they already are.
Anthony Leon is playing strong safety. He has great value in run support.
I can’t believe that we got Bobby Petrino.
I don’t know which is more impressive, the coaching, the schemes, or just simply the recruiting.
Yes I do, it’s the recruiting. Houston Nutt could win the SEC with Petrino’s recruits.
What FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!
What about Winston??
Golf, Winston looks good. It probably set him back to not get on campus sooner because of the credits he had to make up in the summer.
Both Winston and Gordon (and Leon, for that matter) just need to do the little things better and gain some confidence. Once that happens, they’ll be ready to contribute this year.
I thought Winston has looked good in the 1-on-1 cover drills. He is fast, but not David Gordon fast. Like all the newcommers, I think the pace of practice has been a transition for him.
A lot to learn for him right off the bat, so Coach Petrino taking him off the “punt return audition-ees” list was a good thing I think.
Rudell Crim has probably made the best adjustment of all the DB new-comers so far. Gordon has great breaking ability on the ball. Very impressive speed.
Winston has speed, but I think he’s yet to get comfortable with everything just yet. Same goes for Leon.
Issac Madison looks like the best CB on the field. He definately knows what he’s doing these days.
Ramon Broadway looks good, but I think he’ll really be pushed for playing time by Crim.
I’m excited about the potential of the D-line this season. Jake Bequette is having a superb fall so far. Caleb Evens and Demario Ambrose should give both Bequette and Adrian Davis solid backups this season. Colton Nash could figure in this season as well. They are all 250 to 270 lbs.
All our DTs are between 290 and 330. The returning LBs are all between 230 and 240 lbs. this season.
We should be much more physical on defense this season.
GO HOGS GO, BABY!!!!!
Im a long time hog fan and though I was allso a houston nutt fan and supporter I do feel bobby is a better coach to teach the fundamentals of the game and will lead us to a top program in the sec once again GO HOGS GO