Early Practice Observations

The weather was beautiful when I visited practice earlier this week.  You can definitely tell there is excitement for the upcoming season as a good crowd was in attendance.

As usual, I noticed a few things in practice that the Razorback media guys — which, by the way, are doing a great job of covering spring practice — failed to either notice or mention that I thought were interesting.

Let’s start with new offensive line coach Chris Klenakis.  Think of the younger Lou Holtz in size and movement.  While Klenakis stands well above five feet and is as skinny as a long distance runner, the top of his head only reaches to the armpit of the average offensive lineman.

So Coach Klenakis is not going to be grabbing anyone by the face mask and lifting them off the ground.  But what he lacks in size he makes up for in intensity.  This guy is loud.  He’s so loud that it bears repeating — this guy is LOUD.  He’s more serious than even Mike Markuson used to be…without all the flop sweat going on.

Hands on, full body, demonstrating what he wants from technique.  I saw a huge emphasis on firing off the line and holding blocks.  Watching the offensive line practice quickly became a pastime of mine.

On the quarterbacks front, I couldn’t help but notice Brandon Mitchell:  size, quickness, impressive footwork, bullet arm.  He did a perfect Doug Williams imitation on a ‘flick of the wrist’ long throw to Joe Adams that zipped through the wind and was spot on.

Tyler Wilson looked very solid.  He throws the ball well, but not with the velocity of either Mitchell or Ryan Mallett.  Think more of a Joe Montana arm:  the appropriate touch for the type of pass and very accurate on short to mid-range throws.

Wilson missed a couple of wide open receivers on long throws in 11-on-11, but hit a couple in pass skeletons.  I like the demeanor and leadership that he is showing.

I saw some different looks and sets out of the pistol/shot formation.  It appears to be more incorporated on top of Petrino’s regular offense this year.  Obviously the coaches have been working on this.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out as spring practice continues.

I’ll save running backs and receivers to talk about later.  Other than to say: “They looked great.”  Things may change when they get the pads on.

Compared to past seasons, this year’s team is a spirited and boisterous group.  Lots of team noise in the 11-on-11 session.  It’s apparent this group has made the switch from learning on the job the past couple of years to now focusing on getting better at the job.

As far as the coaching attire goes, there doesn’t appear to be much more organization than in the past two years.  These guys obviously spend their time on coaching and not on coordinating clothing.

Everyone should note that the “Razorback Football” hat is apparently reserved for Coach Petrino.   When the Nike version comes out, we’ll be sure and feature it in the RazorBloggers Network Fan Shop, as we learned last year there was demand for this item.