The biggest fear of preseason scrimmages is the potential injury of a player, but Arkansas was able to get through its first of fall camp on Thursday relatively unscathed according to head coach Sam Pittman.
Arkansas' scrimmage was closed off to the media and fans, but Pittman met with reporters afterward to talk about how things went and said he was very pleased with all phases of the game.
"I thought we got a lot done and I think we pretty much came out injury-free," Pittman said. "From what I know right now guys, I didn’t see anybody going over the sidelines with an injury, so I thought it was a great day."
The Razorbacks did have multiple expected starters who did not participate in the scrimmage. Most notably offensively, junior offensive lineman Patrick Kutas, redshirt senior wide receiver Andrew Armstrong, redshirt senior wide receiver Tyrone Broden and redshirt senior running back Ja'Quinden Jackson did not participate, among others. Pittman said sophomore tight end Luke Hasz also didn't play due to a recently suffered concussion.
"(Patrick) Kutas has got a back so we’re resting it," Pittman said. "We’ve rested it for a few days. We feel like we’ll get him back. I’m not positive but it may be another week, it may be another week and a half. But we feel good we’re going to get him back.
"(Wide receiver) Khafre Brown, we held him today. That was us. He’s had some knee surgeries and things. We’ve been holding him some in practice as well. So that was a knee deal. (Offensive lineman) Luke Brown is gonna have to have a trim on his cartilage that he had worked on before. So that’ll be — that was two days ago.
"Rashod Dubinion didn’t play because of a knee, swelling on his knee. Ja’Quinden Jackson has a mild ankle sprain. Tyrone Broden, we didn’t play him today from turf toe. I would imagine he’ll be — some of these guys will be back tomorrow but we just held him today. (Andrew) Armstrong’s got a slight hamstring too."
Defensively, the Razorbacks kept a few key pieces off the field for cautionary reasons. Senior defensive end Anton Juncaj, senior defensive back Marquise Robinson and redshirt sophomore cornerback Jaheim Singletary were a few mentioned.
"Jon Hill, Anton Juncaj and Marquise Robinson are out with concussions and they’ve all been out different time," Pittman said. "I think Anton was the first one so I anticipate him being back this coming week. Marquise would be the next one.
"Dylan Hasz has a back and he’ll probably be back tomorrow as well. Jaheim Singletary has a hamstring and Vito (Calvauruso) has a pulled groin muscle and obviously we know he’s a kicker so we held him."
Looking on the bright side for Arkansas, it doesn't appear that any of the injuries will keep players out for the long term according to Pittman.
"I think they could have played if we pushed them," Pittman said. "But we didn’t play anybody today, we’re trying to get better today and we felt like as a staff that it would be better to hold these kids and get them back healthy because we still have another scrimmage and some other live reps going on. So we decided to do that.
"The longest one that I think is going to be out is Luke Brown because he’s going to have to be out a couple of weeks. But the rest of these guys will be back."
Arkansas will return to practice on Friday, so stay tuned to HawgBeat's premium message board, The Trough, for the latest updates from Arkansas fall camp.
