UA SPRING FOOTBALL : Arkansas offense has advantage
Days like Saturday give Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino reason to believe there could be bright days ahead for his 2008 Razorbacks.
Arkansas powered through a ™-play scrimmage with few penalties and broken assignments and plenty of big plays on both sides of the ball on a sunsplashed morning at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
The Razorbacks piled up 11 touchdowns, 7 passing and 4 rushing, and starting quarterback Casey Dick completed 26 of 38 passes for 309 yards and 3 touchdowns, 2 of them to London Crawford.
“This is probably the most comfortable we’ve felt as a team in a while, just putting in the new offense and everything,” said Dick, who also had two interceptions. “It’s really comfortable. Everybody knows what they’re doing.” The offense converted 9 of 13 third-down plays, including a third-and-1 fade-route touchdown from Dick to Crawford.
“Offensively our third downs improved a lot from the last [scrimmage ],” Petrino said. “The last scrimmage the defense got after the offense, but the offense won the thirddown battle today.” Dick and the other quarterbacks again found the tight ends repeatedly, as D. J. Williams and Andrew Davie combined for seven catches for 114 yards. Ben Cleveland also re-emerged after a slow spring because of injury with two catches, including a 5-yard touchdown throw from Alex Mortensen.
Wide receivers emerged from the shadows, like the sun, and put up big numbers.
Crawford had nine catches for 111 yards, including a pump-andgo route down the right sideline that beat Shedrick Johnson for a 31-yard score on a second-and-2.
Crawford did not participate in last Friday’s scrimmage because of an ailing hamstring.
“This was a lot more fun today, most definitely,” Crawford said. “I came out today and I felt like, regardless of how I feel, like Coach says, everybody has to be mentally tough.” Carlton Salters added nine more catches for 91 yards and a touchdown from Dick, and Lucas Miller caught four balls for 61 yards, including a 30-yard scoring pass from Nathan Dick.
Feisty walk-on cornerback Darrell Glasper sparked the defense when given a chance to run with the first team after an injury to Jamar Love.
Glasper intercepted two passes, including one on the fourth play of the scrimmage after a 48-yard seam pass from Casey Dick to D. J. Williams put the offense at the 20.
“They ran two short routes on me in the fire zone,” Glasper said. “I just broke on the ball real quick on the third one. I felt it coming, quick out of the quarterback’s hand, so I just broke on it.” Glasper also intercepted a Casey Dick deep seam pass for Williams late in the scrimmage and returned it 20-plus yards before referees whistled the play over.
“The great thing about it, is it shows the guys that when you have the opportunity to step up when somebody’s injured you’ve got to make plays,” cornerbacks coach Lorenzo Ward said. “You’ve got to come in and not have a letdown. We talked about that before we came out, and Darrell came out and played well.” Glasper’s day wasn’t perfect. Crawford got behind him for the fade-route score, and Glasper also missed a tackle on a Michael Smith touchdown run.
The Razorbacks attempted 79 passes compared with 64 runs, which included about a dozen tuck-and-runs by the quarterbacks.
Smith ran 21 times for 142 yards and two touchdowns, including a 17-yard burst on a second-and-10 inside handoff up the middle.
“I wanted to make sure we came out this week and established the run after we didn’t really move it as well last week,” aid Smith, who was back closer to full strength after a hip-pointer sidelined him last week.
Brandon Barnett ran 10 times for 34 yards and scored twice. He powered in from 3 yards out for one touchdown, then turned a one-handed grab in the right flats from Mortensen into a 26-yard score.
Arkansas’ thin linebacking corps battled through another long scrimmage and came out OK physically.
“The defense is getting a lot better,” said senior Elston Forte, who was in the thick of the action. “We’re coming a long ways and we’re blending pretty good right now.” Behind Casey Dick, the battle for No. 2 continued between Nathan Dick and Mortensen. Nathan Dick took the more significant reps Saturday and hit 12 of 21 passes for 146 yards, while Mortensen went 8 of 20 for 107 yards with 1 interception, a diving grab by Ramon Broadway.
Nathan Dick and Mortensen threw two touchdowns apiece.
“Nathan, the last week and a half, has really improved his ability to throw the ball,” Petrino said. “Coach [Garrick ] McGee is doing a nice job with his technique, and he’s getting the ball out of his hand quicker.”
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