With the staff continuing to be cautious with starting linebacker Dre Greenlaw, redshirt freshman Grant Morgan continues to make the most of his opportunities while running with the ones.
Morgan, a Greenwood (Ark.) native and brother of former Hog Drew Morgan, finished Saturday's scrimmage with a sack and 3.5 tackles for loss.
His latest showing drew praise from head coach Bret Bielema at Saturday's Media Day press conference, and again from teammate Karl Roesler following Monday's practice.
“I love Grant," Roesler said. "He kind of reminds me of myself. Just a guy who knows the defense and knows where to be on every play, which is huge. When you know where you’re going, all you have to do is read your keys and go there. He’s been just making play after play. It’s been exciting to watch."
Morgan, who comes off as quite a bit more nonchalant than his older brother, said he's always taken pride in his preparation.
“I pride myself in being smart," Morgan said. "The biggest characteristic of me is playing smart, because if you play smart you play faster. That’s what I’ve always been taught and that’s what I’ve always ran with.
“Someone who’s in the spot to make the tackle has a better chance to make the tackle than someone who’s not there. I think being there would be the best thing to do.”
The young walk-on linebacker began to grab the coaches' attention during his redshirt season last year.
“In the back of my head, I always felt I’d climb real fast because of the way I’ve been brought up," Morgan said. "I just think optimism. But I think I surprised myself and some of the coaches, as well.”
Morgan isn't just Greenlaw's backup, though. He's also the next man up if something happens to current starting holder Reid Miller.
“I went out there just messing around because I held in high school at Greenwood," Morgan said. "I held pretty well and (Coach Tanner Burns) said ‘alright, we need a holder for second string so you’re going to do it.’
"I think that’s kind of different. Coach (Vernon) Hargreaves kind of laughed at that and said he’s never had a linebacker play holder.”
Roesler easing back, but feeling good
Roesler is another linebacker who's been out of action lately, but he got back to work on Monday and says he's feeling fine.
“I feel 100 percent, I’m good," Roesler said. "They didn’t want me to go full go today. I did the scout periods, the (individual) periods and the skelly, but I’ll be full go tomorrow.”
The starting Razor linebacker, Randy Ramsey, shifted over to the 'Hog' spot in Roesler's absence, and newcomer 'Hog' backer Gabe Richardson earned valuable time with the twos over the last week.
“He is definitely an athletic guys and he brings energy," Roesler said of Richardson. "You’re definitely going to get 100 percent out of Gabe on every play. But with that energy, he needs to just settle down and make sure he reads his keys on every play.
"Once he gets the defense down, he’ll go a mile a minute and he’ll go as hard as he can on every play."
Defense pleased with progress
Senior starting safety De'Andre Coley said the defensive guys feel good about their showing in Saturday's scrimmage despite a few big plays against the No. 1 group.
Coley took blame for one play in particular, in which true freshman Chase Hayden made him miss and took off down the sideline for a 74-yard score.
“It was some key elements to make that happen," Coley said. "I missed that tackle and I’ve got to make that.
“Overall, we had a great scrimmage. We tackled better than in any other scrimmage since I’ve been here. I feel like we came along.”
Defensive lineman Sosa Agim said there are a lot of positives to take away from the defense's first major scrimmage of fall camp.
“For the new defense it was really good," Agim said. "We had to start back the install when we got back for fall camp, but I feel like we stepped up to the challenge.
“Today was good. We just had the scrimmage Saturday. We watched film and made sure we made corrections. We came out here and I feel like the defense balled out. The offense is just great, they’re like a well-oiled machine, but I feel like the defense held their own.”
Johnson showing more consistency at punter
Blake Johnson has been the penciled-in starting punter ever since Toby Baker graduated last year, and with that comes a lot more responsibility.
Johnson appears to be maturing and taking the right steps, and the result has been more consistency on the field.
“Honestly, it was learning a lot from Toby," Johnson said when asked what had an impact on his increase of focus. "He was a really big influence on me in the way he conducted his business. It’s been a lot of ball drops (practice) every single night and working on air kicks.
“It definitely made me realize how much responsibility I had on my shoulders. I definitely came working a lot harder to be more prepared."
Johnson is currently averaging over 40 yards per punt with over 4.0 seconds of hang time through the first part of preaseason camp.
