Hogs convert DL to OL, continue to mold starting five

FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas has once again plucked away a defensive lineman to fix its depth issues on the other side of the trenches.

This time it’s junior defensive tackle Austin Capps, a former three-star recruit who played both ways at Star City. He missed most of spring practice after having hernia surgery, but was primed to compete for a starting spot in fall camp before converting to offense.

“When I approached him, his mindset was, ‘Coach, I just want to win football games,’ and that’s what we’re looking for,” head coach Chad Morris said. “We can win a lot of games with guys with great attitudes like that, so very pleased with him.”

Capps is the fourth former defensive lineman now listed as an offensive lineman on Arkansas’ roster, joining Hjalte Froholdt, Dylan Hays and Deion Malone.

The move was out of necessity as several players have gone down with injuries. On the flip side, they have been rotating quite a few guys at defensive tackle.

“Selfishly, I’ve been begging for him for a while just because I know what kind of kid he is and I know what he did in high school,” offensive coordinator Joe Craddock said. “Our defense, they felt like they were at a point where they could give him to us and we really needed him with the injuries that we’ve had.”

After a few walk-through sessions while he was dealing with some nagging injuries himself, Capps got his first live action on offense in Saturday’s scrimmage as the second-team left guard. Offensive line coach Dustin Fry was in his ear pretty much all day to avoid a huge missed assignment and the coaches were pleased with what he was able to do.

“We had the walkie-talkie today, kind of telling him what to do,” Craddock said. “For the most part, he knew the base stuff, but we’ve just got to bring him along quickly, try to get him ready to go.”

If he works his way up to the first unit, Capps would likely be playing alongside Froholdt, a senior who made the switch to offense before the 2016 season. After some early struggles, he has evolved into one of the best offensive linemen in the conference and was a preseason second-team All-SEC selection by the media.

Froholdt said the biggest challenge facing Capps is simply learning the plays and terminology, as well as understanding the different blitzes. However, he does have the advantage of playing the position in high school.

“I think he played really well,” Froholdt said. “He looked pretty smooth out there. He’s not a greenie. He’s played some O-line before.”

Although it’s still early in the transition, Craddock said Capps has a chance to be “really, really special” and even compared him to Tyler Shatley, who made a similar move during his time at Clemson and is now entering his fifth season with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Even moderate success by Capps would be a huge help to Arkansas’ offensive line, which has taken on many shapes during the first eight practices of fall camp.

There were some signs of life at the position in Saturday’s scrimmage, with Morris praising their performance in some short-yardage situations.

“I want to brag on those guys because I did think they did some really good things today,” Morris said. “There’s been a lot of things going on, a lot of moving parts and those guys had some success early on today. I was pleased to see that.”

With Malone suffering a season-ending knee injury, Colton Jackson (back) and Ryan Winkel (pectoral) out for an extended period of time and Hays (back), Jalen Merrick (head) and walk-on Tyler Hall (undisclosed) dealing with minor injuries, the Razorbacks are really light on numbers.

There were a few days this week when they had only 10 players dressed out and able to go through practice.

“It’s tough when you don’t have that third line trying to give the ones a little time off,” Froholdt said. “This is a couple of years in a row we’ve been doing that, so it’s not really something new. You’ve got to have the next-up mentality.”

On top of the addition of Capps, Hays also returned to action in Saturday’s scrimmage as the second-team center.

Craddock said it is “hard to say right now” if Hays will move back into his starting role when he’s fully healthy and bump Froholdt back to left guard, but Froholdt took all of the first-team reps in the scrimmage.

Although he had some initial issues snapping the ball, he said he has fixed that and is now focused on the technical aspect of the position.

“The main issue is that even though it’s only a couple of inches, you’re closer to the defender,” Froholdt said. “You have to get your footwork quicker, you have to get your hands up quicker, considering they’re right there in your face.”

Redshirt freshman Kirby Adcock was the first-team left guard ahead of Capps in the scrimmage and played a few reps alongside true freshman Noah Gatlin, who was getting some first-team work at left tackle.

There were some mistakes by Gatlin and Morris said he needs to continue getting stronger, but he and his teammates were still impressed with what he was able to do.

“He’s been doing a really good job coming in as a true freshman,” Froholdt said. “Still, he’s a true freshman. There’s some things that, some mental lapses here and there, but he’s doing a good job.”

A pair of redshirt freshmen, Dalton Wagner and Shane Clenin, have also gotten reps as the first-team left tackle, with Clenin also getting work at guard and center.

“All of those guys are getting quality reps there,” Morris said. “We’d love for it to be an older guy, and I think it will be, but Noah is pushing some guys.”

The right side of the offensive line is more stable with Johnny Gibson Jr. at guard and Brian Wallace at tackle, but the latter was held out of the scrimmage to give him some extra rest.

Instead, sophomore Ty Clary got the start at right tackle. Wallace should return to practice Monday, though. Morris also mentioned that they hope to have Merrick back soon.

With so many moving pieces and the new rule that would allow players to appear in up to four games and still maintain a redshirt, Craddock said the Razorbacks could go a few games into the season before settling on a final group of five players.

“With the new redshirt rule, I mean, we could possibly play just about all of them at some point this season and get them redshirted,” Craddock said. “So everybody’s got to be ready to go. Like I said when Colton got hurt, the next guy’s got to be ready at all times.”

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