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FAYETTEVILLE — For the most part, Sam Pittman was pleased with how his team looked on the first day of camp Friday afternoon.
The second-year coach thought his players, wearing shorts and helmets, practiced hard and even looked pretty sharp in some areas, but he’d still like to see them pick up the pace between drills.
“Our transition needs to get better, our moving on the field between plays needs to get better,” Pittman said. “That'll come. A lot of times that's a first practice problem that our kids will fix.”
Something that could have slowed them down was the fact they were practicing in the heat of the day, which they likely weren’t used to. Temperatures were in the upper 80s, but the heat index stretched into the 90s and it felt even hotter on the turf field.
“I thought that was something that we’re going to have to get used to because of the fact that we practiced in the morning the previous years, but I think it’s something we need as a team,” linebacker Bumper Pool said. “Our games are going to be at 1 o’clock that first week, then 6. We’re going to have a bunch of hot games playing teams also practicing in hot temperatures.”
Here are a few other notes and tidbits from the Razorbacks’ first practice of fall camp…
QB Report
With the departure of Feleipe Franks, all eyes will probably be on redshirt sophomore KJ Jefferson as he takes the reigns as Arkansas’ starting quarterback.
The media was allowed to watch only 20 minutes of practice and didn’t get to see a bunch of passing, but Pittman sounded happy with how Jefferson - as well as the other quarterbacks - threw the ball on Day 1.
“That's probably the thing I was most excited about today, was our quarterbacks' accuracy,” Pittman said. “I thought KJ did a nice job in there (and) you can go look down the line.
“I thought Malik (Hornsby) had a good day. I thought John Stephen Jones made some really good plays. (Lucas) Coley, (Kade) Renfro, and I was really excited to see Landon Rogers.”
Speaking to reporters after practice, Jefferson said he was impressed by the two freshmen Arkansas brought in. Coley enrolled early and went through spring ball, but Rogers didn’t join the team until this summer, so this was his first practice.
“Lucas Coley made big-time throws today,” Jefferson said. “He really stepped up and has matured since he’s been here. Landon, he’s coming along. He also made some big-time throws today and looked really good in certain areas.”
Despite that praise, the defense apparently had a big day. Pittman said during one segment of practice, they made three interceptions in a span of four plays. On at least one of those, a defensive lineman - either Markell Utsey or Dorian Gerald, Pittman couldn’t remember which - batted the ball into the air before it was picked off.
That was just half of the interceptions, as Pool said there were six total on the day. He came down with a couple of them, with both coming against Hornsby.
“I had a couple today which I was excited about,” Pool said. “Just something I wanted to work on was my pass coverage. I think that comes with working on your technique (and) knowing the coverages better. That’s a credit to Coach Scherer and Coach Odom.”
