FAYETTEVILLE — After a two-week break, Arkansas is set to return to the practice field this weekend.
Earning an invitation to the Outback Bowl against Penn State, the Razorbacks will get an extra 14 practices in what most football coaches consider an extra spring ball period.
That starts Friday and Saturday for Arkansas, as head coach Sam Pittman had given his players some time off following a win over Missouri on Black Friday that capped an 8-4 season so they could rest and the coaching staff could turn its attention to recruiting.
Those first two practices, Pittman said, will be very similar to what the Razorbacks did at early in fall camp back in August.
“Friday, Saturday won’t be really physical on our older guys,” Pittman said. “We want to get timing of throwing and catching and things back and some conditioning with the older guys.”
The coaches will meet as a staff next Monday before four straight days of practice Tuesday through Friday. That includes a practice on Dec. 15, which is the first day of the early signing period.
However, Pittman said he doesn’t think that will be much of an issue because it’s something he did while an assistant at Georgia, as well.
“I thought that might be a little problem,” Pittman said. “But to be honest with you, by 7:30 in the morning on national signing day, you have if not all your scholarship guys, the guys that's going to sign with you, you have at least 90% of them in and you can kind of go about your day.”
Those first six practices will be solely focused on development and improving themselves. Arkansas won’t dive into Penn State prep until practice No. 7 the following week.
That will be a shortened week because of the holiday. Pittman said they’d practice Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of that week, with the goal of being done by noon on Wednesday, Dec. 23. They’ll have off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
“I think if we start talking about Penn State and practicing about Penn State earlier than that, I think we could have negative results when we get there,” Pittman said. “We’ll have a segment or two that week before Christmas and then we’ll rev up, certainly, full-fledged when we get down to Tampa.”
After reconvening in Fayetteville on the 26th for a team photo with their three trophies, the Razorbacks will then fly to Tampa, Fla., and go through a usual practice week leading up to the Saturday, Jan. 1 kickoff at 11 a.m. CT.
Pittman added that the younger players and reserves will do more contact work throughout the full practices, with some scrimmaging mixed in for development purposes.
“We may look at some guys at different positions and different things like that, just try to use it a little bit more spring ball-ish but not with the physicality of it with the older guys,” Pittman said. “We want to take our good players to the party, you know.”
