• last year
Arkansas Razorbacks running backs Rashod Dubinion and Dominique Johnson with the media after Saturday morning's practice.
Transcript
00:00 Dominic, good to see you back out there.
00:02 Curious how you are, not so much physically,
00:05 but mentally after, you know, first ACL
00:08 and then coming back and tearing another one.
00:11 I mean, how have you been dealing with that?
00:16 I'm just trying to take it day by day.
00:17 I mean, being around my teammates every day
00:19 is just, you know, helping me get through --
00:22 well, being around my teammates
00:23 helped me get through, you know, both of those ACLs.
00:26 Just, you know, coming in every day,
00:27 seeing those guys just wanting to be back out there,
00:30 that motivated me to push myself harder
00:32 to go harder in the training room
00:35 to be back out there with those guys.
00:37 So I say being around my teammates
00:39 and the ones in the training room,
00:41 just being there for me, you know,
00:42 encouraging me every day, telling me it's going to be all right,
00:45 just going through that whole process,
00:47 I feel like my teammates and the trainers
00:49 helped me get through that.
00:51 You came in three weeks after everybody started last year,
00:55 and you're on time this year.
00:58 You listed at 252 last year, listed at 252 now,
01:00 but you look different physically.
01:02 You feel like maybe you were maybe a little out of shape
01:05 last year versus this year, maybe.
01:07 I mean, you look a lot different to me.
01:09 Can you --
01:10 I feel like Cossada's definitely going to help me
01:12 rebuild my weight back up
01:14 in a way which is putting it back on muscle,
01:16 and I feel a whole lot better than I did last year, too.
01:18 Even with the leg, my leg feels a lot better
01:21 than it did last year,
01:22 and I think Cossada's in the swing stuff.
01:27 Shawn, you know, what are some --
01:29 I know Jimmy's been around you guys for a while,
01:31 but what are some of your early takeaways from Coach Enos
01:33 in his first year with the program?
01:37 He's a very good coach, and I like him a lot
01:39 because he picks everybody's brain.
01:40 He coached everybody the same way no matter what.
01:44 He's going to make sure, like, everybody pays attention
01:46 to the details, like, the small things.
01:48 Like, you're a very detailed coach,
01:50 and I feel like that's what you need.
01:53 Back to last year, we're getting 100 yards in the bowl game.
01:55 What -- you know, you got a shot,
01:57 you got 100 yards, what did that mean to you?
02:01 You know how you've been waiting on the shot since birth.
02:04 That was one of them moments where I was like,
02:06 "We can't lose this."
02:07 I tell everybody that all the time.
02:09 Like, we had a great running back rule.
02:12 Them guys pushed me to be the best in my ability
02:15 and pass possession, running.
02:18 Even when I don't have the ball in my hands,
02:20 I try to be around the play.
02:22 Like, you watch me, you'll notice.
02:24 You feel like you have to have a little patience
02:26 with the room having so much talent in the room
02:28 and a 1,400-yard rusher in the room?
02:30 Yeah, that's right.
02:31 I never complained, right?
02:32 We all get along well.
02:33 We all talk to each other.
02:35 Every time we come to the sidelines,
02:37 what you see, like, what I could have did better.
02:38 It was never, "Man, I don't want to be here
02:42 because we're scoring the best."
02:43 No, we all good at pushing each other,
02:45 so we're like, "Make everybody better."
02:48 You know, you got to kind of fight your way back up.
02:50 You were the starter, as AJ said.
02:52 You were the starter two years ago.
02:54 Yeah, so before I was a starter, I was a foot running back,
02:57 and basically now coming again, I'm a foot running back again,
03:01 so I don't feel like, you know, I have to work harder,
03:03 you know, to get my spot back.
03:05 I just feel like I'm lucky doing what I was doing,
03:07 you know, play how I play,
03:09 because we're going to give everybody a chance.
03:10 You know, like he said with the rotation,
03:12 everybody's going to get a chance to start
03:14 or play more than somebody else.
03:15 So, you know, it's not a problem for me.
03:18 So I feel like as long as I keep doing how I do,
03:20 run my way, my way is going to come into play
03:23 in a game that, you know, we might need it.
03:25 So I just do what I do and encourage everybody else
03:29 to keep going like that.
03:30 Rashad, Coach Pittman, I think, Wednesday,
03:33 Tuesday or Wednesday said that you had your best summer,
03:36 that you're in shape now.
03:37 Coach Smith said that you like the weight room now,
03:39 kind of something that you want to do instead of have to do.
03:42 Do you want to talk about that a little bit
03:44 and maybe how the summer will benefit you?
03:46 All right.
03:48 Yes, sir.
03:50 I've never liked the weight room in high school.
03:52 So, like, when I got here,
03:54 that was the only challenge to me, the weight room.
03:57 Everything else I got fast, like the playbook,
04:01 the going to school on time, all that came naturally to me.
04:04 But the weight room was my biggest critic.
04:06 That's what I want to get better at, so that's what I did.
04:08 I just worked, put my head down like Brian.
04:11 Like, even today, you don't want to do it.
04:12 You know, you got more guys in there that's pushing you,
04:16 like, no matter what, Coach Souders,
04:19 you don't let nobody quit in the weight room.
04:21 It was like some major injuries.
04:23 Why didn't you like the weight room initially?
04:27 I felt like I didn't need it because I didn't understand it.
04:30 If that makes sense, I just didn't understand it.
04:33 I'm like, I don't want to be that dude.
04:35 [Laughs]
04:40 Isaiah, you know, now he's a fifth running back in the ring.
04:43 What does he look like so far?
04:45 Isaiah is coming along pretty well.
04:47 You know, he's getting the players down.
04:49 Every running back is going out there
04:50 helping him along with Emmanuel.
04:53 I mean, we push those guys every day,
04:55 but Isaiah is looking good.
04:57 He's fluent. He understands the play.
04:59 He's going out there. He wants to get reps,
05:01 even if he can do that stuff.
05:03 He wants to get the reps. You know, he wants to understand.
05:05 So I feel like he's coming along good so far.
05:07 [Laughs]
05:09 I feel like everybody in the room got the same intelligence,
05:13 and that's why it works.
05:15 Like, everybody want to make each other better.