Observations from Arkansas' preseason practice Aug. 8, 2018
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas is 24 days away from its season opener Sept. 1 against Eastern Illinois.
In the meantime, the Hogs have many questions to be answered during preseason practice. Arkansas held its fourth practice of the preseason Wednesday. The first 20 minutes of which were open to the media as the Hogs practiced for the first time in full pads. Here are a few observations during that time from HawgBeat contributor Trent Shadid:
· Ty Storey was the first quarterback out today. This was only running the offense against air, though. The media did not get to see any live practice featuring the offense vs. defense. Storey seemed to do fine handling things, which is to be expected.
· Cole Kelley followed Storey. They actually split the first series. Kelley came in and promptly dropped the snap on his first play. It was a good feed from center Shane Clenin, who didn’t have any bad snaps during the portion of practice open to the media.
· Connor Noland was the third quarterback out for a second straight day. This time, though, he did not split snaps with fellow freshman John Stephen Jones. Noland is incredibly accurate, but there’s obviously a huge difference between what we saw Wednesday and playing against a live defense. Daulton Hyatt did not check in during this portion of practice.
· The starting offensive line was the same as it’s been every day this week: Dalton Wagner (LT), Hjalte Froholdt (LG), Shane Clenin (C), Johnny Gibson (RG), Brian Wallace (RT). Dylan Hays, the presumed starter at center, was at practice but did not participate for a third consecutive day.
· Chad Morris downplayed it Tuesday, but there has to be some real concern with the offensive line. With Deion Malone now out for the season due to a knee injury, Arkansas had just 10 healthy offensive linemen practicing Wednesday. The goal coming into preseason camp was to find the best five starters and the best five behind them to form a solid two-deep. At this point, there’s nothing to find out with the Hogs barely having enough bodies to fill out a two-deep offensive line.
· Redshirt freshman Kirby Adcock had a false start before Noland’s first snap. It’s obviously not a good sign to have a false start without a defense lined up across from you, but at least it’s early and Adcock may be pressing some with his first real chance at playing time in front of him. The whole offense had to do up-downs on the spot as a result.
· Defensive tackle Austin Capps was back in pads and going through drills. He had a green non-contact jersey on, but that’s still an upgrade from riding the bike the past couple days.
· Freshman linebacker Andrew Parker looks like a senior. I’m not sure if he’ll play or not, but he’s very physically impressive.
· The Hogs opened practice with a few field-goal attempts in non-rush situations. Here’s how the kickers fared:
1. Connor Limpert good, 39 yards.
2. Limpert no good off left upright, 44 yards. (This would’ve been a false start on the kicker in a game. The timing was definitely off. It looked like the snap didn’t come on time.)
3. Limpert good, 48 yards.
4. Preston Stafford no good wide right, 39 yards.
5. Matthew Phillips good, 44 yards.
6. Matthew Phillips no good wide left, 48 yards.
7. Limpert good, 48 yards.
8. Limpert no good wide right, 48 yards.
· I’d be surprised if Limpert doesn’t end up being the starter. He seems far more capable than the others. He did have a couple of attempts where his timing appeared to be off (he actually made one of those), so that’ll need to be corrected between the snap, hold and kick.
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