FAYETTEVILLE — Just when Arkansas felt like it had a good grasp on its starting offensive line, injuries shook things up this week.
After earning a lot of praise from the coaches for his performance this spring, left tackle Colton Jackson went down with a knee injury Thursday. It has forced him to miss the Razorbacks’ last two practices and will require a “cleanup” procedure that will keep him out about four weeks, head coach Chad Morris said. That means he’ll miss the rest of spring practice, but he should be back for summer workouts.
Guard Drew Vest - an early enrollee - and center Silas Robinson also went down with shoulder and knee injuries, respectively, on Thursday and have missed the last two days.
“It gives other guys an opportunity to step in against a defensive front that’s bringing a lot of pressure right now, which is good,” Morris said. “We’ve done a lot of teaching.”
The situation would be more dire had the trio of linemen gone down earlier in the week, but the Razorbacks did return guards Shane Clenin (foot) and Austin Capps (flu) on Friday. They were back in the starting lineup for Saturday’s scrimmage.
Clenin’s return is particularly encouraging because he was originally ruled out for the rest of spring when he got hurt. Instead, he missed just two weeks and one of the weeks fell during spring break.
“He missed some time, so it’s just knocking this rust off and getting back to his fundamentals and what we’re asking him to do,” offensive coordinator Joe Craddock said. “He’s doing a fine job of doing it.”
The return of Capps - coupled with Jackson’s injury - allowed junior college transfer Myron Cunningham to move back out to left tackle after getting some work at left guard in a couple of practice earlier in the week.
Arkansas also had to move some linemen around on the interior, with walk-on Austin Nix going from guard to back-up center in place of Robinson and center Ty Clary getting some second-team reps at left guard in addition to his first-team center work.
“We’ve had to mix and match a lot of different areas,” Craddock said. “What I love is thankfully it’s spring and not fall and we are able to get some more guys some reps. The hardest thing has been the continuity up front. You want to get used to playing next to a guy, but we’re building a lot of depth.”
Both units of the reshuffled offensive line struggled in the 20-minute segment of Saturday’s scrimmage open to the media, giving up several sacks, tackles for loss and pressures.
However, part of that could also be the result of walk-on running backs not hitting holes as quick Rakeem Boyd and Devwah Whaley - who are still recovering from injuries of their own - might.
“Prior to losing these guys, I thought we were kind of solidifying our five that we were going to go with,” Morris said. “There’s no doubt about we’ve gotten better. I just wish we could have finished this spring off with the solid five that we felt confident with to start the season with.”
It is also worth mentioning that the Razorbacks were without tight end Cheyenne O’Grady (lower back) and nickel back D’Vone McClure (concussion protocol) for Saturday’s scrimmage, but neither injury sounds serious.
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