Arkansas transfer receivers adjusting to life in the SEC
Two of Arkansas' three transfer wide receivers came to Fayetteville without having a single snap of Division I football under their belts.
Isaac TeSlaa of Division II Hillsdale College and Andrew Armstrong of FCS Texas A&M-Commerce are starting to adjust to life in the SEC after 10 spring practices with the Razorbacks.
"I feel like coming in, I feel like it was going to be challenging," Armstrong said Thursday. "Like my first day of lifts, I was like ‘Uh, I got to do this for a couple, three months? I don’t know. But I got used to it. Everybody brought me in the family. Isaac, the receivers, the coaches, the defense...So me coming here, I was more comfortable than I was if I had to go to another school. But I’m very glad I came here."
Armstrong – 6-foot-4, 201 pounds — was an FCS sophomore All-American in 2022 after he recorded 1,020 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns on 62 receptions for the year. His efforts earned him 5.8 four-star transfer rating from Rivals after he was rated a 5.3 two-star recruit out of Bishop Dune High School in Dallas.
He told reporters that he didn't feel like has overlooked coming out of high school, he just needed time to develop into the receiver he is now.
"I wasn’t as fast coming out of high school," Armstrong said. "I really didn’t play varsity football until my senior year of high school. I had a lot of D2 offers so I ended up going to Commerce and from there I just worked, worked, worked, worked. Three whole years I really didn’t play, then that fourth year, which was last year, you know. I zone in, locked in and what happened happened."
For TeSlaa — 6-foot-4, 214 pounds — it is much of the same. He played quarterback at Unity Christian High School in Hudsonville, Michigan, but he knew he always had the ability to make a smooth transition to wide receiver.
"I don’t blame coaches for not recruiting me out of high school," TeSlaa said. "I mean, I was a quarterback and I didn’t have any film at receiver. Small school, we played the wing-T and I was a quarterback. I mean, I don’t blame them for not seeing the receiver potential in me.
"But I knew if I put the work in I would be able to produce some numbers, then obviously I balled out last couple of years and luckily the guys here noticed I’m a playmaker and that’s what I’m here to do now."
In 2022, TeSlaa recorded 68 receptions for 1,325 yards and 13 touchdowns in 11 games for Hillsdale. He played two full seasons for the Chargers, and he caught 118 passes for 2,116 yards and 20 touchdowns in his three total years at Hillsdale.
Now that he's made the jump to SEC football, TeSlaa is learning how to adjust to a much bigger playbook and more talented defensive backs.
"There’s a lot more room for creativity," TeSlaa said. "I feel like the playbook, we’ve got an answer for everything. If you’ve got an answer for everything that playbook’s going to be pretty big.
"So but also with that, just facing a lot of press man. I wasn’t used to facing a lot of that over at Hillsdale so learning the technique, learning how to slow the game down a little bit and how to beat DBs off the line because we’ve got some good DBs here."
Armstrong said learning the playbook has been his biggest challenge and he's putting in the effort outside of practice to catch up with the others that are already familiar with it.
"That's my main thing I’m trying to lock into, the playbook," Armstrong said. "I’m starting to really zone in on it. I’ve been at home every day for like 45 to an hour looking at it every day in my playbook. Going over it, going over the signals and what I’m supposed to do on this one besides the other one. That’s really the main thing is the playbook. Once I get the playbook down I’ll feel more comfortable."
As far as adjusting to the physical expectation of a program like Arkansas, Armstrong said the first day of workouts was "crazy". TeSlaa's "welcome to the SEC" moment was a little bit different.
"I’d say for me it wasn’t the workout so much more than like the speed of everything," TeSlaa said. "The SEC is a whole different level, especially the defense. Just the speed of everyone, even the linebackers. I feel like some of these linebackers are just as fast as I am. It’s crazy learning the speed and how to get off man, like I talked about earlier."
With 10 practices under their belt, both Armstrong and TeSlaa seem to be getting the hang of things. Armstrong can cut on a dime and TeSlaa's size paired with his speed is starting to really benefit him.
"I’d say the more practices we have, the more practices we have under our belt," TeSlaa said. "It’s less about thinking and more about playing ball. Football is all about just going out and playing. If you’re thinking too much, you aren’t going to do it right and you’re going to mess it up."
Arkansas' 11th practice of the spring will be held Saturday morning and it will hold its Red-White spring game a week from then on Saturday, April 15, at noon CT inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.