When the Arkansas Razorbacks return to spring football exercises on Tuesday at 8:25 a.m., they will be stepping into extremely cold air.
With gusts gusting to 15 mph and a predicted temperature of 33 degrees, spring practice No. 6 will begin, sending the Razorbacks back inside Walker Pavilion to resume their 15 spring sessions.
Before Spring Break on March 14, the Hogs held a 72-play scrimmage at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in much nicer conditions.
In that mini-scrimmage, the offense had some highlights, but the defense had the majority of the big plays. Taylen Green’s 61-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Sategna with the top units matched up was one of them, and wideout Davion Dozier’s leaping, one-hand backhand grab to set up Malachi Singleton’s 19-yard touchdown was another.
Coach Sam Pittman, in his seventh year, described Green’s deep ball to Sategna as a “really super throw.” “He ran to his left and landed it exactly on target.”
After five practices, the Razorbacks have only had a few minor injuries. The most notable one was a sprained ankle sustained by senior tight end Luke Hasz when he stepped on tailback Dominique Johnson’s foot in the fifth practice.
Compared to previous year, Pittman said he has placed more emphasis on a rougher type of football during this spring session.
He declared, “I wanted a physical football team.” “I don’t think it’s possible to be physical if you’re not physically active. Recalling that, one may ask, “Well, why didn’t you do it earlier?”
“We succeeded. But we had a veteran team that one spring that I didn’t. I was aware of our possessions, such as that. In the same way, the weight room operates. This year seemed harder than any other, in my opinion. You have to do harsh things in order to become tough.
Early in the spring, Bobby Petrino, the new offensive coordinator, had his units train well, mostly against zone concepts.
As the team moves into the third week of the spring, the Razorbacks will be using new systems on both sides of the ball. The team started the week with an NCAA-permitted walkthrough on Monday following the players’ weekend report.
“We’re going to look at a whole different defensive front,” Pittman declared. “We must. We intend to operate it.
When we go back, we’re going to execute a small “odd” package. not in terms of staff. Put another way, we need to find the buck linebacker without removing a defensive end off the field.
“Compared to last year, we don’t have quite as many D-linemen.”
According to Pittman, before to Spring Break, the Razorbacks considered using defensive end Landon Jackson in an inside place in some of their packages.
Pittman stated, “On third down, we did that.” “He can accomplish it, especially on [pass] rush downs, since he weighs 285 pounds. And when it came to that third-down scenario, you could feel him there.
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