Details from Arkansas' 122-play spring scrimmage
The Arkansas Razorbacks ran a 122-play closed scrimmage inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium in their eighth practice of the spring Saturday, according to head coach Sam Pittman.
Some of Pittman's biggest takeaways included the defense stealing the show, nobody getting hurt, some breakdowns on the offensive line and junior defensive end Landon Jackson having "as good a day as he's had" as a Razorback.
Pittman said the scrimmage was situational and the defense really played strong.
"You know, obviously we went second and play third," Pittman said. "Then we went third and play fourth. But for the most part in that scrimmage, the defense got the better of the offense."
Pittman added that the only situation the offense won all day was the "get the ball back two-minute drill," where the offense made their first down and killed out the clock successfully.
Highlights from the scrimmage included a touchdown catch for Texas A&M-Commerce transfer receiver Andrew Armstrong, a long catch from sophomore receiver Sam Mbake in one-on-ones and 67-70 rushing yards from junior running back Raheim "Rocket" Sanders.
Though Sanders had good yardage and made some plays, Pittman wasn't very joyous about hit team's run game performance.
"I don't think the run game was good," Pittman said. "A lot of zero yardage gains, lot of negative yardage gains. Now, you're looking at ones, twos and threes and things of that nature. AJ (Green) had a nice run in a 'get the ball back'. Rashod (Dubinion), wasn't one of his better days. Didn't have a lot of area to run.
"But AJ made a few plays, and Rocket certainly made guys miss, ran over a few guys and made some yards. The run game, if we were playing a game, it would have been non-successful for the day."
Pittman also mentioned that he's pleased with how his tight ends performed, but he's going to need more out of them.
"Tight end wise, you know we've talked about (Luke) Hasz," Pittman said. "I think Tyrus Washington's playing better. (Nathan) Bax is playing better. We've got to have those guys come on because in our offense we're going to use them more. We’re still moving guys a little bit."
As previously mentioned, the defense was what stood out most to Pittman during the scrimmage.
"Well, I was really impressed with the defense," Pittman said. "I thought Landon Jackson had as good a day as he's had since he's been here. I thought he was so impressive."
After transferring to Arkansas from LSU last offseason, Jackson was recovering from an ACL injury and playing at about 75% speed at the start of the 2022 season, according to Pittman. Now Jackson is healthy and a real issue for offensive linemen.
"Now he’s bigger, confident, long," Pittman said. "He’s a problem, now. A good problem. He’s on our team, but he’s a problem if you’re an offensive lineman. It’s just his speed and his size right now that…I mean, he’s been hard to block."
Pittman added that he really likes other defensive ends such as Jashaud Stewart, Zach Williams, Nico Davillier, John Morgan III and Trajan Jeffcoat.
"Those guys, I think we're coming along," Pittman said. "We’re pretty talented there. We're a little short on the inside because Cam Ball's got a high ankle."
Moving to the second and third levels of the defense, Pittman had good things to say about his linebackers, but the secondary had a few issues.
"I was impressed with our linebackers," Pittman said. "I really was. With (Antonio) Greir, (Jordan) Crook and (Chris) Paul. Mani Powell played a lot better. I was impressed with those guys. You know blitz quite a bit.
"We had a breakdown, a little bit, we got beat in a two-minute situation at corner for a touchdown late in the scrimmage. And then we got beat another time in the secondary. But other than that I thought that they tackled well."
Though they had the breakdown late in the scrimmage, Pittman did add that the secondary wasn't tested enough to really be able to tell how much work needs to be done.
"I don't really know how good we are in the secondary yet because to be perfectly honest with you we didn't have a lot of time to throw the football, and that says something about the defensive line," Pittman said.
The lack of passing says something about the defensive line, but it also speaks volumes of the struggles of the offensive line. Pittman said they are still looking for where their five best offensive linemen need to play and they had problems with run throughs on Saturday.
"You know, as an offensive line coach a lot of time you want to get that double team fit," Pittman said. "And Cody (Kennedy's) been having those linebackers out there where they're getting their eyes up on the ‘backer, but the ‘backer backdoored them, and probably hadn't worked on that as much as we need to.
"Basically, the guard was too wide, so the center’s got to go fit the G, and the linebacker’s picking him coming back side, so we need to work on that. I thought that was probably the only real glaring point. And we had a hard time blocking them defensive ends with our tackles."
Arkansas won't scrimmage again until April 15, when it holds its annual Red-White Game at 12 p.m. CT at Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville. Pittman said the plan is to run 9-12 play segments to reach around 104 snaps or so for the spring scrimmage.