FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Thursday marked the Razorbacks' first full-pad practice and the sixth practice of fall camp.
Head Hog Sam Pittman has had the opportunity to see his team work through the heat for most days and work inside the indoor facility for one day.
Here are a few things that Pittman talked about Thursday after watching the first six days of fall camp:
How was the first day of full pads?
"All I want to do is tell the truth, and I do. It's hard for me sometimes on injuries and things of that nature, I get it, but if we had a terrible practice, I'd say it. But this was a wonderful practice. We got a lot of things accomplished.
It was our first day in full pads. We did third-and-1, we had a low red area, we did goal line situations, we did 2-point conversion prep today, team run, just a lot of things. It was a loaded practice, physical practice.
We did pocket pass protection. Two days ago I thought we really had some good individual linebacker-running back drills in pass protection that helped us tremendously on both sides of the ball. We had the tight ends and the D-ends doing the same thing. Of course the O-line and D-line were working one-on-ones at that point, but I think it really helped us.
We were concerned a little bit about, which you always are, field goal protection early in the year. We had an individual period today in pods, tight ends, wings, interior, tight ends and wings on the other side. All those things, I thought our coaching staff did a wonderful job today in preparing that.
The kids took advantage of the day off, they were really good-spirited, understanding how to practice against each other. For the most part, doing a really good job of staying up."
Anything stand out to you Thursday?
"We went through a series there of blitz and fourth, and I thought that the defense was wanting to get to the ball worse than we wanted to keep them away from the ball in those two periods. I felt that, then I think we kind of bounced back a little bit on offense in the tempo period, the red area period, down there in third down, in short. Certainly the offense didn't win every one of them but I think they competed a little bit harder in blitz and fourth. I felt like the defense wanted to get to the ball worse than we wanted to keep them away, and of course we talked to them about that."
Things you've learned about your team?
"Well, I think we’ve got good leadership. We’ve got good leadership on defense, especially coming out of the secondary. I feel like we’ve found a few more corners. I thought Drew Sanders was a good player and he is.
D-line, Terry Hampton has come on and is really going to help us, that’s a guy we didn’t know anything about coming in.
On offense, most of the guys were here. I think Isaiah Sategna is going to be a good player. I don’t know when, but it could be Cincinnati, it could be next year, I don’t know. But he’s done a really good job, caught a nice ball today for a touchdown.
(Jake) Bates is a really good kicker. I mean, a really good kicker. So is Cam Little. But they’re both really good kickers. And Max (Fletcher) is kind of settled in a little bit. There’s good competition there with Max and Reid (Bauer)."
Have some injuries at defensive tackle (Marcus Miller, Cam Ball, Taurean Carter), are you worried?
"Sure we are. The thing about that is, we can move Gregory inside, which you guys have been out there, we've done that a little bit. So you have him, (Isaiah Nichols). And then I'll tell you who's come on a little bit is Nico Davillier. We've moved, because of these injuries, we've moved him inside. Terry Hampton has been a blessing for us. He's really done a nice job in there.
So, I think it'll benefit us whenever all of those guys come back, but Cam was playing well in, I think it was practice 3, he went through the whole practice, then had the situation after the practice. But, those injuries there last, I don't know how long, anywhere from 7-10 days, and that's all three of them. So I'm really concerned about why we would have that happen at this point with skull caps and all that stuff. We didn't have three in spring ball."
Who has impressed you on d-line — specifically Jordan Domineck and Landon Jackson?
"Well from the first two practices - and I’m talking about from an effort standpoint - Jordan Domineck is night and day. He’s been up on the film for the team twice because of effort. I do a little thing in my meeting, I start it with effort plays, and that’s bad effort and good effort. He’s been on there twice over the last three days. He’s very talented. He’s kind of what we saw on film, after the first two days. I think he’s going to really help us.
Jackson is really long, a big, strong guy. Both of those guys were good gets for us, and we’re happy. Both of them are here. And I think they’ll just continue to work and work up the depth chart. The guys in front of them are playing well, too. Jashaud Stewart is playing really well, along with Zach."
How has Trey Knox come along as a blocking tight end?
"Blocking success has went way up. Willingness to block has always been there. I mean, he’s always been a willing guy to block. But he’s 245 pounds vs. 212 or 217 or 220, so obviously his physicality, his strength is better. But he’s always been willing. He’s always been a tough kid. But he’s really come into, ‘I’m a tight end, I think I can help the team there, I think I can help myself in the future there.’ He’s bought into he wants to start on at least two special teams. He’s really locked in. I do believe it’s team-first, but I think he understands that if he can start on some special teams… Caught a nice pass today in the high-red. So he’s really improved that. He’s always wanted to, but now he physically can do it."
Thoughts on Warren Thompson as a returning receiver?
"As improved as anybody. He was a guy… To this point, now, and I think he’ll keep continuing… I think he’s in a really good space. I think he’s comfortable. I think he went through a year last year where he didn’t know if he wanted to be here, go home, who’s my friends. He had a lot of things going on, I think, last year. You’d have to talk to him. But I think he’s in a good space.
He’s always been very talented, but he’s catching a contested ball and catching some you’re going, ‘Man, how’d he catch that one?’ He’s always been fast, he hasn’t always used it, but he is now. So I’ve been really pleased with him. You’d have to ask KJ it because I think KJ looks for him now."
With wideouts coming along nicely, how does that affect Malik Hornsby seeing time at wide receiver?
"What’s happened in the wide receiver room now is Jaedon Wilson has started playing ball. And you’ve got Sategna coming on. You’ve got Warren Thompson playing as good as he has right now. (Jadon) Haselwood the same thing. He was ‘a guy’ honestly in spring ball. Now he’s a football, he’s a better football player. You’ve got Ketron (Jackson). You’ve got Matt Landers. So now all of a sudden you’ve got all these wideouts that are playing pretty good ball.
That doesn’t mean that Malik won’t continue to go out there. It’s just, it’s harder to put him out there if we have to take somebody off the field. And my thinking before was that he would be by far the best one we had out there. If he still is, we’re going to put him out there. If not, we’ll decide that a little bit after Saturday, a little bit. We’re going to put him out there, just how much."
How big is Saturday's closed scrimmage for depth?
"I think it’s big. I don’t know that it’s a whole lot more than today’s practice to be honest with you. There’s a reason that you don’t change the depth chart much unless injuries make you, until after a scrimmage type situation because you’re trying to see if you have a gamer in there, a guy that’s much better in a game than in practice. It goes the other way too, much worse in a game than he is. That’s why I had open scrimmages two years ago, whenever it was, in the spring, because I wanted to put KJ and Malik under with people in the stands and see how they perform.
There’s a reason that you don’t change the depth chart much, unless injuries make you, until after a scrimmage-type situation because you’re trying to see if you have a gamer in there - a guy that’s much better in a game that he is in practice. It goes the other way too, much worse in a game than he is. That’s why I had open scrimmages two years ago, whatever it was, spring, because I wanted to put KJ and Malik under with people in the stands and see how they perform. But, I don’t know if it’ll make a whole lot of difference. I bet there’ll be a change or two come out of it, but I don’t know if it’ll be that big of a deal as far as depth goes."
