Bielema & Coordinators Presser Notes & Quotes | NMSU Week

Last look at Arkansas' 50-43 OT loss to A&M

Class of 2017: Who's play, who's redshirting

Arkansas falls to Texas A&M in OT...again

-The Arkansas-South Carolina game will kick off at 3 p.m. (CDT)

-Bielema said he had a chance to review the film and met with the players yesterday. He said he can't let any idea of failure to creep into the program.

"I feel the resentment of Sunday, and Sunday was just anger. After watching the film, guys were just pissed," Bielema said. "I think as coaches we've got to take a personal inventory, and we've done that."

-Bielema said he expects and angry group preparing all week. Healthwise, Jared Cornelius did damage his achilles and will have surgery today. He has a redshirt option available, but they will evaluate things moving forward. It would be a six-month recovery for Cornelius, so if he wanted to turn pro they would have to explore the supplemental draft, most likely.

-Kevin Richardson is cleared and will practice on Tuesday. He played sparingly on Saturday. Richardson was 'good but not great' for Saturday's game, according to what Paul Rhoads told Bielema. Richardson had a high-ankle sprain.

-Grant Morgan was injured in Tuesday's practice (rolled up from behind) and only played a handful of plays with no work on special teams, where he had been a major contributor.

-Bielema said they replaced four or five starters on the kickoff team, which was one reason for the Christian Kirk return.

-Regarding Michael Smith calling this the most talented receiver corps he has had in the preseason, Bielema said he appreciates that but thinks they have a lot to do moving forward in terms of experience. Jordan Jones, Jonathan Nance and Deon Stewart will be the top three receivers moving forward...and he has liked what he has seen from De'Vion Warren, Jarrod Barnes and Gary Cross. He said T.J. Hammonds had his best week of practice and should figure in more, as well.

Bielema said there was a planned rotation going into the game that included Paul Ramirez rotating around. They were brining pressure so they moved a bigger body inside.

-Daulton Wagner is back with the team and could be in the mix moving forward.

-They continue to push Brian Wallace and Jalen Merrick, and Bielema said if they were better options than what they had in there then they would play them. Bielema said he didn't know that Wallace has taken a step back, but he definitely hasn't taken a step forward. Bielema said it was his choice to go with Gibson at right tackle rather than at right guard with Wallace at right tackle. And with Gibson at tackle that moved Clary to the starter at OG.

-Bielema said they just had two scores against their defense and A&M had a little mojo going and he didn't want to get the ball back to them before the half. He said he does not regret not going for a score before the half.

-Bielema said there has been a lot of negatives after reviewing the game, but not it is important to focus on the positives.

-Regarding apathy in the fans, Bielema first asked to define apathy and then said...

"The fans don't care?," Bielema said. "I think they've shown that they care a lot."

"I've seen the exact opposite," Bielema said. "Just been very overwhelmed with the positive things, the mail, the email, people stopping you."

-One of his former fullbacks, Chris Pressely, was injured like Jared Cornelius and ended up playing in the NFL.

"Every time we turn around, something hits us in the head," Bielema said.

-On the last play where O'Grady was held the whole route and it wasn't called, Bielema didn't really answer as to whether or not he thought it was interference but did discuss calls versus no-calls in key moments.

-Enos said it will really hurt losing Jared Cornelius because he's such a good player and a good leader.

"We were starting to see the old Jared Cornelius starting to emerge, and I really think we would have seen a better version of him every week," Enos said.

-Enos said he thinks Deon Stewart is close to seeing the fruits of his labor because he practices really well. T.J. Hammonds has to continue to practice better. Gary Cross will see his role expand.

-On so much change on the offensive line in the game, Enos said they were trying to find a formula to be more consistent. They had to make a change because they were putting their really inexperienced guy all over Ty Clary. Clary was getting overpowered a bit in the passing game. Enos said throughout the season they'll continue to play six-to-seven offensive linemen.

-Cole Kelley brought up playing in some sort of role to help the team during the bye week, and the coaches came up with the steamboat package for him. That way they can run the QB but don't have to worry about getting Austin Allen hit extra times.

-They're calling the Chase Hayden package the 'Wild Hog.'

-Cole was called the Louisiana Steamboat after the first game, and he didn't like that, so they decided to call the package Steamboat. Everyone calls him Steamboat now.

-On Jonathan Nance...

"He's done a really good job. He's made plays, that's the big thing," Enos said. "He's got a knack. I do think you're going to see the guy continue to get better as he gets more comfortable."

-Enos said Cheyenne O'Grady is emerging as a guy who needs more touches. He also feels Austin Cantrell is very good as a receiver.

-Enos said the first play of the last drive before the half they threw a play-action pass and they didn't get the right protection. They took a first down shot and didn't get it executed and didn't want to push the envelope.

"There are three things we ask out of our kids to give us a chance to play great defense.

-Play smart, play and practice in a smart way. Rhoads said they had seven busts in the whole game, half as much as the last game.

-Play hard, play fast and strain to finish. The formula there was outstanding

-Tackle great, Rhoads said they tackled great. Gave up 500 yards and missed two tackles.

-Asked if the seven plays he is referring to is the six plays that were 18 yards or over in addition to the defensive pass interference call in overtime on Kamren Curl, Rhoads said he didn't want to get in trouble (with the SEC)...

"That was a great play by our defensive back in coverage on that play."

-On NMSU, Paul Rhoads said they're a no-huddle team that operates out of four-wide receivers about 70 percent of the time.

'It hasn't been at a level of pressure," Rhoads said. "You're trying to just get pressure where the quarterback feels disrupted, whether you move him or not...And then they biggest desire is to get the sack and get him down on the ground."

-On Kamren Curl...

"Went after him, more so than TCU did in his first start, which was surprising to us," Rhoads said. "Went after us. Over than the 50-yard pass that he gave up that he was in position to compete, to finish, I thought he really gave a stellar effort as a freshman cornerback in that game. But yeah, he was targeted and they went after him, and that won't be the end of it."

-Rhoads said that 79-yard Mond run should have been a two-yard loss but they didn't make the right read and they were right there.

-They fully expect Kevin Richardson to start at nickel this week. To be the guy who would line up against Christian Kirk he just wasn't in position to be effective. Richardson played three snaps when Joshua Liddell got the wind knocked out of him.

-De'Jon Harris has improved himself fundamentally as a football player, and he played his best game out of the three on Saturday.

-Rhoads said they were angry when they saw the numbers and the results of losing the game and giving up over 500 yards, with regard to few mental mistakes and only two missed tackles.