every year I take my son and a couple of kids I coach up to the Razorback camp. It's a great experience to spend the day doing drills with the hog coaches and players. It's great for the players now, because there's an incentive to come out and be a counselor at the camps because the NCAA now allows schools to pay the players for working the camps. Bielema said at the beginning that the players working the camp have to meet certain requirements like a 3.0 GPA or be on the 18 member "Hog Council" that the team votes on to be the leaders/spokesman.
Last year I really enjoyed spending time talking with Randy Shannon and Sam Pittman during the lunch break.
This was my first time seeing Coach Enos, Coach Singleton, and Coach Hargreaves in person. I really like Enos and Singleton. Hargreaves was pretty quiet. Enos and Lunney worked with the QB's and I spent some time watching them and talked with Lunney for a bit. Lunney really likes Enos and loves his offensive philosophy. Hunter Henry was there and was taking charge of every drill, being loud, and making a lot of the coaches laugh. Aaron Henry was a camp favorite as always, kids love him. Sebastian Tretola was walking around all day just messing with people and laughing.
Some of the players that were involved in the camp:
Didn't get to talk to Pittman this year like last year, but spent some time watching him teach technique in drills. He's a great teacher, and does a great job of mixing in his sense of humor to make sure he's got your attention when teaching. It's easy to see why he's such a great coach. Mateos can get a little intense sometimes, but Pittman never raises his voice and just has that presence.
Coach Singleton was extremely nice and great with the kids. Of the assistants on staff (other than Aaron Henry) he was the most engaged and running around during the camp. Not to dog Thomas, but I think we got an upgrade at that assistant position.
Coach Hargreaves was pretty quiet. I didn't spend too much time over there watching him, so I didn't get to form much of an opinion on him. As stated above, I like Enos.
Right before lunch they took all the kids into the players meeting room. They put a large panel of players up front and allow the kids to just fire away any question they want to ask. I'll just post the answers to the questions that I remember being asked. The team that everyone said they want to beat is Bama and felt like they really let that one slip away last year. Brandon Allen isn't scared when he drops back to pass any more like he was when he first got on campus. Hunter Henry grew up a huge Atlanta Falcons fan. DJ Dean was the fastest player at the camp and said his fastest time he ran was a 4.45 laser. When a kid asked how it felt to beat LSU last year, Jared Cornelius yelled out "It felt GREAT" which drew a lot of laughs from his teammates. Kody Walker gets injured the most, and Brandon joked "thats why he's still a junior". Rohan Gaines and DJ Dean argued about who was stronger between the two of them. After the players answered all the questions, they ran a 15 minute video of the turnaround from last year and really pointed out the LSU game, Ole Miss game, and of course the bowl game against Texas. In a portion of the video, a lot of current and former players answered the question "what would you tell your 12 year old self?". A lot of them talked about focusing on academics, respecting their parents, strong relationship with god, and a few joking answers like Brandon Allen to lay off of the cupcakes because he was a chubby kid, Rohan Gaines to quit thinking he was going to be the next Allen Iverson, and Brey Cook to stop eating fast food.
Near the end of the day I talked with Bielema for about 5 minutes with a friend of mine that also brought his son. Bielema recognized me from last year, and said it was good to see us out here again and that he appreciated us bringing our boys out. I talked about the excitement around the program with him and he just started talking and talking. He's excited about what he's building and thinks we are getting the pieces in place to be a real force and thinks we're getting really close. He bragged on recruiting the right players, academic progress, and was happy he is able to get all these players out there for the camp because of what it means for the kids. We got a pic and then the camp started to wrap up. Bielema answered a few questions from the kids while everyone filed into the indoor facility. One kid asked "why do you always run a zone defense". And Bielema quickly said, "we don't always run a zone, you need to stop listening to your dad" which drew big laughs.
As a fan its awesome just being able to talk with the coaches and players. They're all genuine, good guys. I'd encourage any of you that are super fans and have kids to take them up there for the camp every June. It's a great experience for the kids and the parents.
Last year I really enjoyed spending time talking with Randy Shannon and Sam Pittman during the lunch break.
This was my first time seeing Coach Enos, Coach Singleton, and Coach Hargreaves in person. I really like Enos and Singleton. Hargreaves was pretty quiet. Enos and Lunney worked with the QB's and I spent some time watching them and talked with Lunney for a bit. Lunney really likes Enos and loves his offensive philosophy. Hunter Henry was there and was taking charge of every drill, being loud, and making a lot of the coaches laugh. Aaron Henry was a camp favorite as always, kids love him. Sebastian Tretola was walking around all day just messing with people and laughing.
Some of the players that were involved in the camp:
- Hunter Henry
- Dan Skipper
- Mitch Smothers
- DJ Dean
- Rohan Gaines
- Jonathan Williams
- Frank Ragnow
- Marcus Danenhauer
- Brey Cook came back to work it
- Brandon Allen
- Rafe Peavy
- Drew Morgan
- Jared Cornelius
- Alex Voelzke
- Kody Walker
- Tevin Beanum
- Jamichael Winston
- Josh Harris (kids kept calling him JWill, looks a lot like him)
Didn't get to talk to Pittman this year like last year, but spent some time watching him teach technique in drills. He's a great teacher, and does a great job of mixing in his sense of humor to make sure he's got your attention when teaching. It's easy to see why he's such a great coach. Mateos can get a little intense sometimes, but Pittman never raises his voice and just has that presence.
Coach Singleton was extremely nice and great with the kids. Of the assistants on staff (other than Aaron Henry) he was the most engaged and running around during the camp. Not to dog Thomas, but I think we got an upgrade at that assistant position.
Coach Hargreaves was pretty quiet. I didn't spend too much time over there watching him, so I didn't get to form much of an opinion on him. As stated above, I like Enos.
Right before lunch they took all the kids into the players meeting room. They put a large panel of players up front and allow the kids to just fire away any question they want to ask. I'll just post the answers to the questions that I remember being asked. The team that everyone said they want to beat is Bama and felt like they really let that one slip away last year. Brandon Allen isn't scared when he drops back to pass any more like he was when he first got on campus. Hunter Henry grew up a huge Atlanta Falcons fan. DJ Dean was the fastest player at the camp and said his fastest time he ran was a 4.45 laser. When a kid asked how it felt to beat LSU last year, Jared Cornelius yelled out "It felt GREAT" which drew a lot of laughs from his teammates. Kody Walker gets injured the most, and Brandon joked "thats why he's still a junior". Rohan Gaines and DJ Dean argued about who was stronger between the two of them. After the players answered all the questions, they ran a 15 minute video of the turnaround from last year and really pointed out the LSU game, Ole Miss game, and of course the bowl game against Texas. In a portion of the video, a lot of current and former players answered the question "what would you tell your 12 year old self?". A lot of them talked about focusing on academics, respecting their parents, strong relationship with god, and a few joking answers like Brandon Allen to lay off of the cupcakes because he was a chubby kid, Rohan Gaines to quit thinking he was going to be the next Allen Iverson, and Brey Cook to stop eating fast food.
Near the end of the day I talked with Bielema for about 5 minutes with a friend of mine that also brought his son. Bielema recognized me from last year, and said it was good to see us out here again and that he appreciated us bringing our boys out. I talked about the excitement around the program with him and he just started talking and talking. He's excited about what he's building and thinks we are getting the pieces in place to be a real force and thinks we're getting really close. He bragged on recruiting the right players, academic progress, and was happy he is able to get all these players out there for the camp because of what it means for the kids. We got a pic and then the camp started to wrap up. Bielema answered a few questions from the kids while everyone filed into the indoor facility. One kid asked "why do you always run a zone defense". And Bielema quickly said, "we don't always run a zone, you need to stop listening to your dad" which drew big laughs.
As a fan its awesome just being able to talk with the coaches and players. They're all genuine, good guys. I'd encourage any of you that are super fans and have kids to take them up there for the camp every June. It's a great experience for the kids and the parents.
