The Arkansas Razorbacks held their first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday in closed fashion at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
Plenty of things went right, such as redshirt junior running back Dominique Johnson having a 50-yard touchdown run and the defensive line creating plenty of pressure.
While the d-line having a good day was a positive for one side of the ball, it was a negative for the other. With starting left tackle Devon Manuel not participating Saturday for an undisclosed injury, the offensive line gave up more pressure than head coach Sam Pittman would like.
"Our protection has to get better," Pittman said. "We have to give him more time. Devon Manuel did not play today. He's out for maybe another two, three, four days. Something like that. Our pass protection — obviously (Andrew) Chamblee stepped in and did a nice job — but they have some pretty good pass rushers over there. We have to get better there."
Starting quarterback KJ Jefferson didn't have a lot of time to throw the ball, according to Pittman, but when he did, it was on the money.
"Friday he threw the ball as well as I’d ever seen him throw," Pittman said. "Crazy accuracy. And when he had time to throw today he did one heck of a job."
Jefferson attributed the lack of pass protection to a slow start for the offense on Saturday.
"Going into the next week, that’s going to be a big emphasis for us, is starting fast," Jefferson said. "Being able to get out on the field and move the ball and get some momentum going early. That’s the main thing."
Another glaring issue from the scrimmage for Pittman was the amount of penalties his team had. With an SEC officiating crew on the field, the Razorbacks had some things go wrong that will likely be cleaned up.
"There's some pass interference and things like that are going to happen at times," Pittman said. "But the pre-snap penalties, most of them were with the younger guys. But we had some pre-snap penalties with the offensive line and things of that nature. Several secondary penalties with holding.
"We made mistakes as coaches. We had 12 on the field coming out of the huddle a couple times. Some of those things we have to get better at, but that's why you scrimmage. And we will."
Having the penalties during the first scrimmage of fall camp could end up being turned into a positive, as it allows them to recognize what went wrong and fix it for later.
"I told the guy, call it as close as you possibly would in a game," Pittman said. "We need this. We need to be able to show penalties and just have a reel of them and say why and teach them, things of that nature. So, yes, I was disappointed we had pre-snap ones.
"The ones on the secondary, that’s just simply, to me, coaching and teaching that we can correct. The other thing is mental and we ought to do better than that. We’ve got to do a better job coaching too on the the pre-snap things too. We’ve got to be better there too."
Though some things went wrong, there were plenty of standouts and big plays that the Hogs can build on. Pittman said his team respects each other and he believes they will clean up their mistakes throughout the next week.
"I really like this team," Pittman said. "I like the looks of the team. We went down there and ran sprints at the end of scrimmage, there wasn’t no heads down, ‘Oh this, that and the other.’ They do what we ask them to do because they believe that everything we do is for them and for their success. And that’s what we’re trying to do."
Arkansas will get Sunday off before returning to the practice field Monday. Stay tuned to HawgBeat's premium message board, The Trough, for the latest updates from Arkansas fall camp.
