HawgBeat - Arkansas Spring Practice Notebook No. 12
Takeaways, notes, tidbits, highlights and depth charts from Arkansas' 12th practice of spring football.
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The Rundown
Practice officially began at approximately 8:30 a.m. CT and we walked out around 10:45 a.m. CT. The team began with individual drills before briefly transitioning outside for special teams and then moving back inside for team drills. The Hogs worked 7-on-7s, situational 11-on-11 drills and more.
Tensions rise
During an 11-on-11 drill during the second half of practice, a running play by the first team offense went out to the edge and resulted in a late hit out of bounds. Almost immediately, a fight broke out and the entire team crowded around.
"Well, obviously you don’t want anything to ever escalate to that point," Pittman said. "We had a good talk with the team afterwards on it about what’s acceptable and what’s not. But it was just the two guys got tangled up on the sideline and I believe one side thought it was more than that.
"It escalated into something that it shouldn’t have. But I think our team is a very together team. I think it was obviously at the end of practice and we had practiced really hard and things escalated there. But we stopped it fairly fast."
Some BIG hits
The Arkansas wide receivers got knocked around Tuesday, including Texas A&M transfer Jordan Anthony and redshirt freshman Davion Dozier. Anthony took two big shots on crossing routes, one of which kept him down for a bit. Impressively, Anthony got back up and had one of his better days of practice.
Dozier went up for a 50/50 deep ball over the middle during team drills and he came down in a bad way to seemingly injure his hand.
"I don’t I know if it had something to do with his hand so as soon as we get through her we’ll find that out," Pittman said. "He didn't come back so a lot of times if it’s a hand, that’s not great news but we’ll figure it out."
Two-minute drill
As loyal readers know, my favorite part of practice is the two-minute drill at the end. It's where we can really see them go close to full speed. Today's situation: starting from your own 40-yard line, 42 seconds left, one timeout and you need a field goal.
The first team offense didn't have a great start with two incompletions, but Taylen Green finally found Andrew Armstrong for a 12-yard completion on third down and he found him for 16 more after that. After an incompletion and a high snap that resulted in a sack from Cam Ball, the first team offense settled for a 50-yard field goal that was good from Vito Calvaruso.
The second team offense began with a 9-yard completion from Malachi Singleton to freshman running back Braylen Russell. After a Singleton scramble for five yards, the next three plays resulted in a sack and back-to-back incompletions to end the drive without points.
Led by freshman quarterback KJ Jackson, the third team offense had back-to-back short completions to Kamron Bibby and Dazmin James to start things off. After an incomplete pass and a solid 10-yard scramble by Jackson, Hawaii transfer Matthew Shipley trotted out and nailed a 56-yard field goal.
A couple of personnel things
I did notice that Tennessee transfer Addison Nichols spent a little bit of time with the second team offensive line, and he did have some issues snapping the ball. Pittman said that is likely due to not being familiar with the quarterback, as Nichols has worked with Taylen Green all spring.
"It hadn’t really been a problem since the very beginning of practice, when he’s working with Green," Pittman said. "Just was a problem today. So obviously there’s a concern any time anything’s not going the way it should, but I think we can fix that real easy. Maybe give him a few more reps with those other guys, let him get comfortable with their cadence."
Freshman Jaden Allen also saw some time at cornerback with the first team defense during 11-on-11 drills.
"Jaden is such a quick-twitch guy, very, very smart that is a cover corner," Pittman said. "That’s what he is. Body positioning is extremely accurate. He understands what’s going on for a young guy, that’s hard."
Injuries
Junior running back Rashod Dubinion, tight end Ty Washington and linebacker Justin Logan all remained in green jerseys Tuesday.
Wide receiver Andrew Armstrong (hamstring) went through team drills for the first time in a while. Fellow receiver Jaedon Wilson (hamstring) continues to not participate in team drills and Tyrone Broden (family matter) missed his second practice in a row.
South Alabama transfer corner Marquise Robinson (undsiclosed), former Georgia transfer corner Jaheim Singletary (undisclosed) and sophomore defensive tackle Ian Geffrard (hamstring) did not participate in Tuesday's practice.
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Notable plays
- To me, play of the day was an incredibly tough grab from Isaac TeSlaa on a beautiful throw over the middle from Taylen Green.- Jordan Anthony made a big catch crossing over the middle on a pass from Jacolby Criswell during team drills.
- Andreas Paaske looked a little like Luke Hasz with a big gain on a pass from Green with the first team offense during an 11-on-11 drill.
- Hudson Clark forced a fumbled against redshirt freshman tight end Shamar Easter during 7-on-7 drills. Later on, Malachi Singleton completed a 49-yard touchdown to Easter with the third team offense during 11-on-11.
- Dominique Johnson made a nice one-handed snag on a wheel route pass from Singleton during team drills.
- Jaylon Braxton had a pass breakup against Green in 7-on-7s, as did Doneiko Slaughter.
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11-on-11 Depth Chart
These depth charts are unofficial and just a general list based on the multiple 11-on-11 drills ran. They go with different personnel and different formations often.
FIRST TEAM
Offense
QB: Taylen Green
RB: Ja'Quinden Jackson
TE: Luke Hasz
WR: Andrew Armstrong, Isaac TeSlaa, Isaiah Sategna
LT: Fernando Carmona
LG: Patrick Kutas
C: Addison Nichols
RG: Joshua Braun
RT: Keyshawn Blackstock
Defense
DE: Landon Jackson
DT: Cam Ball
DT: Keivie Rose
DE: Nico Davillier
LB: Xavian Sorey Jr.
LB: Brad Spence
NB: Doneiko Slaughter
CB: Jaylon Braxton
CB: Kee'yon Stewart, Jaden Allen
S: Hudson Clark
S: Jayden Johnson
SECOND TEAM
Offense
QB: Jacolby Criswell
RB: Isaiah Augustave
TE: Var'keyes Gumms, Andreas Paaske
WR: CJ Brown, Jordan Anthony
LT: E'Marion Harris
LG: Josh Street
C: Amaury Wiggins
RG: Kobe Branham
RT: Ty'Kieast Crawford
Defense
DE: Anton Juncaj
DT: Eric Gregory
DT: Kyle Thompson
DE: Quincy Rhodes
LB: Carson Dean
LB: Alex Sanford
LB: Kaden Henley
CB: Selman Bridges
CB: Jaden Allen
S: TJ Metcalf
S: Miguel Mitchell
THIRD TEAM
Offense
QB: Malachi Singleton
RB: Braylen Russell
TE: Andreas Paaske
WR: Kamron Bibby, Dazmin James, Jordan Anthony
LT: Tommy Varhall
LG: Paris Patterson
C: Brooks Edmonson
RG: Luke Brown
RT: Aaron Smith
Defense
DE: Charlie Collins
DT: JJ Hollingsworth
DT: Kaleb James
DE: Kavion Henderson
LB: Brooks Both
LB: Brooks Yurachek
NB: Tevis Metcalf
CB: Landon Phipps
CB: Aidan McCowan
S: RJ Johnson
S: Ahkhari Johnson
