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We may have to wait until a few more weeks for SEC games after the conference delayed the start of the season, but the players won't have to wait any longer to put on their pads.
Arkansas' fall camp is still scheduled to start on Aug. 7, but according to athletics director Hunter Yurachek, it won't look like what the team is accustomed to.
"It’ll look dramatically different from what fall camps have looked like in the past," Yurachek said Thursday in a Zoom videoconference with local media. "Our coaches will not be forced to compress six weeks of instruction and practice into three weeks. They won’t be putting in the 40-, 50-, 60-hour weeks that sometimes these coaches and student-athletes put in during those couple of weeks of fall camp. It’ll be more like a regular week of practice for them."
Reduced hours per week could be great for the players both mentally and physically. They won't be forced to put excessive strain on their bodies, but they'll still be able to learn everything they need to know for the upcoming season, which is now an even tougher 10-game, all-SEC slate.
By starting the season three weeks later and still starting camp on time, there is also a bigger window for practice. That will allow schools to learn how to deal with potential coronavirus outbreaks as teams begin close-contact workouts and weekly testing.
"I think that September 26th date will also provide us time to figure that piece of it out," Yurachek said. "We don’t know, because nobody has practiced football that way - not in the NFL, not in college football, not in high school football. So we’re going to learn a lot over the next couple of weeks as we begin to practice."
More weeks of practice can help the team make up for some of what was lost during the spring, as well.
The Razorbacks didn't get in even a single spring football practice and, while they got to compensate for that missed time with virtual meetings during the summer and walkthroughs this month, it still doesn't have the same effect as 15 padded practices and scrimmages.
With more time to prepare, new head coach Sam Pittman and his staff should be able to figure out depth charts early and get the playbook in line with the personnel they have at their disposal.
"We can really take what we missed in the spring and funnel that in the next three or four weeks and allow Sam and his staff to not feel so rushed to put so many things in if we were going to start on Sept. 5," Yurachek said. "This is really a blessing for our football program, having a new staff, for Sam and his staff to take their time putting their systems in and evaluating their players on the field."
On top of extra practice days, Pittman and his staff will have an opportunity to get much more acquainted with the team, building trust and communication along the way.
