Bobby Petrino gives assessment of Taylen Green so far
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Arkansas quarterback Taylen Green has yet to take a snap as the team's starting signal caller, but he has the confidence of first-year offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino through 12 fall camp practices.
As a transfer from Boise State, Green made quick work of the "quarterback battle" in spring practices as he took all first team quarterback reps, and has done so since. The 6-foot-6, 230-pound dual-threat passer has made tremendous strides since the spring, according to Petrino.
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"He did a really nice job in the summer on working on his technique, on his drops, his sets, keeping his front shoulder where it needs to be and we’ve worked really hard on getting him to have more of an over-the-top release," Petrino said Tuesday. "He’s 6-foot-6, he’s an outlier, so his advantage is to be a 6-foot-6. When he first got here, he was dropping down and sometimes making him 6-foot. So, I think that’s been a tremendous improvement. Just his technique and his release and his accuracy has went way up."
Formerly the Razorback head coach from 2008-11, Petrino eventually ended up as head coach at Missouri State (2020-22), where he was the first to offer Green out of high school. A product of Lewisville High School in Lewisville, Texas, Green didn't choose Petrino the first time around, but Petrino got his guy the second time.
Now, Green has consistently been praised for his leadership by both coaches and teammates. Getting Green to stop working with his wide receivers during the summer was an issue for Petrino, he told reporters Tuesday.
"Even in the spring, I almost had to tell them to not go out on the weekends and throw," Petrino said. "We’re doing so much during the week that you want to stay healthy, you don’t want to overtrain. They were wanting to go out on Saturdays and Sundays, we cut it back to just Sunday.
"But, they’ve worked hard together and the ability to be on the same page, we do some reads by our receivers, give them options to break in and out or take it over the top. We are continually improving on that. We’re not where we need to be yet by any means, but we’re getting better at it."
Green completed 57.1% of his passes for 1,752 yards with 11 touchdowns and nine interceptions last season at Boise State. Petrino said he doesn't look at completion percentage when recruiting, but they are working on cutting down the interceptions.
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"I like his mindset," Petrino said. "I think he's been very aggressive, and there's a certain route that we've been working on that he's been awful at. And I asked him, 'Hey, give me a list of plays that you would like to run-in practice tomorrow.' That was the number one play on the list, which was great to see because he wasn't shying away from it. He was aggressively trying to attack it so he could make the throw for a touchdown."
The potential is there for Green, who has the size and 22 mile per hour speed to go with it. Continuing to focus on the details will be key, though, as the Southeastern Conference is much different than the Mountain West Conference.
"We've done a pretty good job throughout camp taking care of the ball," Petrino said. "Yesterday, we turned it over a number of times. Tipped pass has always resulted in interceptions in the SEC because everyone's so fast. They close and make the plays on the ball. They weren't Taylen's yesterday, though, but they were tipped interceptions.
"But that's a big part of playing quarterback is, especially in practice, you've got to challenge yourself enough to see if I can stick that post, if I can make that throw. And then you have to be smart enough to dump the ball off and take your check it downs."
Arkansas will open its season Thursday, Aug. 29, against UAPB at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT and the game will be televised on ESPNU.