Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman delivered an update Wednesday afternoon on players banged up, including one high-profile guy who may be banged up a little, before Saturday night's game with Kent State.
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00:00 Yeah, obviously you said on teleconference earlier
00:02 that you might have some update on Rocket.
00:04 Any news?
00:05 Yeah, I don't have any more news at this point.
00:11 Obviously, he hadn't practiced.
00:12 He's not in practice today either,
00:14 so that would limit him at best in the game,
00:18 regardless of what we find out.
00:20 But I don't think it'll be a lengthy injury either way,
00:24 but, you know, we wanted some different guys to look at him,
00:31 so that's what we're doing.
00:32 And so we should find --
00:34 We'll know something definitely by this afternoon,
00:40 what is going on.
00:42 I'm sorry. I thought we might know something now,
00:44 but we don't.
00:46 I just -- Last second, I checked my phone
00:48 to see if I got any calls on it.
00:51 So I wish we would know a little bit more,
00:54 but he hadn't practiced this week.
00:56 I don't think it's a lengthy injury at all,
00:59 but I can't be 100% sure about that
01:02 until I find out what he's been told here today.
01:07 Dominic still wearing the brace on his knee,
01:10 but I believe he's been obviously cleared
01:12 to play without it.
01:13 Is that just something for him for a precaution,
01:15 and how much does that limit him, a brace like that?
01:18 I don't think he feels like it limits him too much.
01:22 Really, it's up to him whether he wants to wear it
01:25 or whether he doesn't.
01:28 You know, I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't wear it,
01:30 you know, assuming this weekend
01:33 he would probably have a much bigger role.
01:38 But he had some success with it on in scrimmages,
01:41 you know, and ran long runs and things of that nature,
01:43 so that really at this point is just left up to him.
01:48 And should we expect to see Antonio Greer this week?
01:52 Yes, I mean, he's practiced, you know,
01:55 he practiced partially, you know,
01:57 in the things of that before the Western Carolina game,
02:01 but he's practiced all week,
02:02 so they've cleared him to do everything,
02:05 and he's been good over the last two days,
02:09 and he's practicing today, so I expect him to be available.
02:13 Thanks, Coach.
02:15 Otis.
02:17 Coach, is there anything in particular
02:19 that Marquis Gomes needs to improve on
02:22 to get maybe more action in the passing game?
02:29 Well, I think he's got to understand
02:31 the offense a little bit better, you know,
02:33 and he's getting better at that thing, at those things.
02:36 Understanding what he's doing is going to let him play faster.
02:41 But we think he is a threat.
02:44 Obviously, we didn't throw the ball a whole lot
02:46 to the tight ends last week,
02:49 but that certainly isn't a plan
02:52 because he's talented as well as Luke and a lot of guys.
02:55 You know, a lot of guys we have, we --
02:57 Tyrus Washington, we feel like we can throw the ball, too.
03:00 But I think his overall --
03:03 and he's had a good week this week,
03:04 so, you know, I would anticipate his play
03:08 amping up a little bit.
03:10 Coach, I'll go.
03:11 My bulldog must have liked your answer or not liked it one.
03:13 I'm not sure which.
03:14 Who's that? Your bulldog?
03:16 My bulldog, yeah.
03:18 I don't know if he liked it or didn't like your answer,
03:20 but he's letting you know about it.
03:22 Oh, he is? Okay.
03:24 My Lucy. I'm sorry.
03:25 I thought you'd been hearing barking.
03:26 He can't hear, though.
03:29 Jackson.
03:33 Coach, when Isaac spoke with us yesterday,
03:36 he talked about playing quarterback in high school
03:39 and not really being --
03:41 taking really any receiver reps
03:43 until he got to the college ranks.
03:45 I'm curious, does he have any, you know, traits,
03:48 intangibles that, you know, can't make it kind of obvious
03:51 that he's a former quarterback?
03:54 Well, I'm assuming quarterbacks have to have good hands,
03:57 you know, and he does now.
04:01 I mean, he's -- of course, Andrew Armstrong
04:03 made a catch yesterday at practice
04:05 that was pretty incredible as well.
04:07 But, you know, I talked to him the other day about how --
04:12 yesterday, actually, about how proud I was for,
04:15 you know, for him coming from D2
04:16 and performing at a high level.
04:19 And obviously, we love him and all those type things.
04:24 I said, "Who offered you out of high school?"
04:27 And he said, "Basically nobody, Coach," you know.
04:30 And really a cool story
04:32 because what a wonderful kid as well.
04:34 But he's just a big athlete that works extremely hard.
04:41 So I would assume if he went to linebacker
04:44 and he wanted to get his body linebacker-ish
04:48 that he would be able to play that as well.
04:50 He's just a talented guy that earns everything he gets
04:53 because he's a hard worker.
04:55 Bob?
05:01 Hey, Sam.
05:02 I mean, obviously, you don't want Rocket
05:04 to ever miss any time,
05:05 but how good do you feel about the depth you have there
05:07 if he is out for a little while?
05:10 Well, I love our depth.
05:12 You know, I think our depth is really good and,
05:15 you know, all of them.
05:17 You know, AJ and Damo, you know, I keep going back to,
05:21 you know, two years ago, we had the same guys on the team,
05:24 and Damo was the starter, you know, later in the season.
05:28 We kept trying to get him more and more carry.
05:31 Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn't.
05:33 But when we did, he was very successful.
05:36 And so I feel really good.
05:38 You never want to lose a player for a game or two
05:43 or whatever it may be.
05:46 But that room is loaded with really good players,
05:50 and we like Isaiah as well.
05:53 So he got some carries last week,
05:56 looked pretty good to me, and very physical runner.
05:59 So Jimmy's done a nice job recruiting that room,
06:02 so we feel very confident in that room.
06:06 If Rocker wasn't able to play, that would be fine.
06:10 I wanted to ask a couple things about Hudson.
06:12 I guess he's played corner, safety, and now nickel for you.
06:15 So unless you want to move him to something else,
06:18 I don't think he's run out of places to play.
06:20 But just what do you think about his versatility
06:23 and willingness to do that and adapt and all that?
06:26 Well, you know, it's hard.
06:28 I mean, even though you're playing secondary,
06:31 they're all different.
06:32 They're different techniques, obviously different
06:35 assignments.
06:37 To be able to do that says a lot about him.
06:40 To be able to do that willingly says more about him.
06:45 And a quick story, we had told him
06:50 that he was going to go in on the third series,
06:52 and the defense went two, three and outs.
06:55 And Hud goes to Coach Woodson and says, hey,
07:00 you know, they've only been out there six plays.
07:02 I don't know if they've really had enough plays
07:04 to be getting in the groove of the game
07:07 and all this kind of stuff.
07:08 So that's just kind of who he is.
07:11 And he's the ultimate team guy and as valuable as anybody
07:15 we've had to the team.
07:18 I'm not smart enough to remember or, I guess, follow it.
07:22 Which series did Hudson go on?
07:24 The fourth series or the third series?
07:25 Fourth series then?
07:27 I believe they just put him in on the third series.
07:29 I think they said, no, no, no, that's what we told you.
07:31 If I'm correct, I think he did go in on third series.
07:34 That was the plan in our morning staff or our evening staff
07:38 meeting on Friday night.
07:40 So I don't know.
07:41 I can't remember.
07:42 But he was just being unselfish.
07:44 He was.
07:45 I mean, nobody does that.
07:46 I mean, not many.
07:48 I wouldn't.
07:49 They told me third series.
07:50 I don't care if it was two plays them guys got out there.
07:53 It's the third series.
07:54 Put me in.
07:54 But he did have that conversation.
07:57 I love the kid.
07:58 Love a lot of them.
07:59 But he's a very unselfish guy.
08:03 Could have went in the tank when we told him that, hey,
08:06 we're not going to send you out there.
08:07 You are a starter in our mind.
08:09 But we're not going to send you out there first.
08:11 He could have-- a lot of kids go in the tank on you.
08:14 This guy's going, I don't think they've
08:16 had enough reps to get acclimated to the game quite yet.
08:22 I guess just how--
08:24 what does that say about him?
08:25 Attitude, mental, all that stuff.
08:27 Everything.
08:29 I mean, now it also tells you that he's
08:31 a mature guy that understands, but everything.
08:37 Alyssa.
08:38 Rear it.
08:43 You act like I haven't done this before.
08:47 OK, so here we go.
08:49 Can you comment a little bit about what you guys are going
08:51 to do for Alex and Ryan and Chris?
08:53 I know Chris and Alex are here, and the first time
08:56 he goes around, but you're going to put the 3 and the 15
08:58 and have their initials down on the field this season.
09:01 And just that was the way that you guys are going
09:03 to honor them this year.
09:06 Yeah, and then I think we're going
09:08 to have Chris's family as honorary captains and things
09:13 of that nature.
09:14 And I think you said what we're going to do with the numbers
09:21 and things of that nature.
09:25 But certainly, it's great to get older,
09:28 but as you get older, things happen in life that you go
09:35 through and obviously not near what the folks, the parents
09:39 have gone through.
09:40 But it was just our way of saying,
09:45 hey, we respected your son and just our way
09:51 of letting them live through their legacy on the field
09:56 a little bit.
09:58 Thank you.
10:00 Thank you.
10:02 Hey, Sam, looking at your linebacker room,
10:04 you came out of spring and looked
10:06 like Pooh and Greer were kind of with the ones the most.
10:09 And then now Pooh had the camp injury,
10:11 Greer had the camp injury.
10:14 And with the ones, it was Spence and Thomas
10:17 yesterday during fastballs.
10:18 I just wondered maybe kind of what that room has
10:21 been looking like for you.
10:22 Yeah, I think Jaheim Thomas has been the most consistent player
10:27 for us there in the linebacker room.
10:29 Obviously, you mentioned the injuries that we've had.
10:35 Obviously, Pooh was the guy that we--
10:38 and he still is, but he's been beat up.
10:41 He's been hurt.
10:42 And of course, unfortunately, he won't be able to play
10:44 in the first half Saturday.
10:47 So it's a little bit--
10:49 linebacker, honestly, has been a little bit
10:51 like the old line room where, man,
10:53 you wish you could find guys that just put them in a spot
10:57 and put them next to somebody that they played
11:00 with the majority of the time.
11:01 But just injuries hasn't quite let us do that.
11:05 And the other part of that is that we found Spence.
11:11 Crook's gotten a lot of reps.
11:13 And with Greer coming back now, that should help us
11:18 know that we'd feel good every bit about five guys.
11:21 And I think in the long run, it'll all help us.
11:24 I would like to have two guys sitting out there side
11:27 by side that's played together.
11:30 But I don't know if we'll be able to do that until maybe
11:34 week three when Pooh gets off his maybe the second half
11:39 of Saturday's game.
11:42 But I think it has helped us overall.
11:45 Is one guy in particular or one spot
11:47 call defense for you, like Pooh when he's out there and then--
11:52 Well, the mic backer, a lot of times we'll do that.
11:55 But not necessarily in our defense.
11:57 We'll have both of them reiterate the call.
12:01 And of course, you get it to the front, get it to the back end.
12:04 And then we're actually working on a little bit
12:08 our home crowd noise for defense a little bit today
12:12 and all day tomorrow for that communication.
12:15 OK, my last thing, you mentioned Monday
12:17 that you were sending in a number of plays
12:19 regarding penalties.
12:20 I wonder if you got any clarifications on some things
12:22 that maybe we didn't see that got called that would help.
12:27 Yeah, and a couple of them, to be honest with you,
12:29 we showed to the team because they
12:31 need to know the interpretation of the officiating
12:35 crew from the SEC.
12:37 So you don't necessarily send in the penalties to say,
12:43 well, I'm right and you're wrong.
12:45 You find out the explanation of why the call was made.
12:49 There was a few of them that they
12:52 felt like that maybe shouldn't have been called
12:55 and things of that nature.
12:56 And I guess if you did every single play,
12:58 you'd find some that they should have called too.
13:00 You know what I mean.
13:03 But the one, let's say, when John Morgan got
13:10 the personal foul for hitting the quarterback low,
13:16 mine was I felt like he was held and thrown
13:20 into the quarterback.
13:21 And the interpretation was when you take that edge,
13:23 when you turn that edge, it's really your responsibility
13:27 to stay high on the quarterback.
13:29 And then we showed this Clemson quarterback sliding.
13:34 Obviously, we showed that to KJ because he was short.
13:37 And we showed it to the team because that's
13:40 a dead ball at that point.
13:41 And even though the personal foul came after that,
13:45 Duke still retained the football.
13:47 We had in our first scrimmage, we had kind of an identical deal.
13:51 It was a late hit out of bounds on fourth down.
13:56 The penalty was put in force, but the offense--
14:01 or excuse me, it was on the offense
14:03 that the second team offense came back out on the field.
14:07 We talked about the slide because basically when
14:10 a quarterback starts to slide, you've
14:12 got to avoid him at all costs.
14:15 And even if you're airborne at that point trying to tackle him,
14:19 you've got to take your head out of it.
14:21 You've got to throw your arms out.
14:22 You've got to avoid him at all costs.
14:25 And if your helmet hits him at all,
14:27 that's going to be a personal foul.
14:29 So we did show the team that.
14:30 And they were just learning moments from us.
14:32 I thought our game was well-officiated on Saturday,
14:35 but we did learn some things about rule interpretation
14:38 and just exactly how they see it on those two circumstances.
14:45 Got it.
14:47 Sam, you mentioned earlier this week
14:49 wanting to get Tyrone Brodin going a little bit.
14:51 I'm curious how his week's been and maybe what do you
14:54 want to see more of with him?
14:56 Well, we played him more.
14:58 We played him more with the ones this week.
15:00 I think he's had a heck of a two days.
15:04 He did such a nice job as a gunner on the punt team.
15:08 I mean, just a fantastic job Saturday.
15:12 We need to get him involved because the separation
15:18 of the wide receivers is not like this.
15:21 It's close.
15:21 And he's a guy who's played Division I football
15:25 and done a nice job there.
15:29 So we need to amp him up.
15:31 And the only way you can do that is put him with the guys
15:33 and see if you can feel good about it.
15:36 And that's what we've done.
15:37 And he's had a good week.
15:39 I know we talked a lot about Jaden Johnson
15:42 since it feels like late in camp.
15:43 But when you have a guy that plays like he did in an opener,
15:46 kind of takes his camp to a game setting,
15:48 what do you think that does for his confidence?
15:50 I think a lot.
15:51 I hope it does.
15:54 What you're always concerned about is it happens
15:58 and then you become content with,
16:01 well, I showed you I could do it.
16:03 We've obviously talked to Jaden about some of those things,
16:05 too.
16:06 And I don't think there's any--
16:08 I think he likes where he's at.
16:09 I think he knows that he can improve a lot.
16:12 But with the pick in the past, had a lot of open field
16:15 tackles, obviously the fumble that he caused.
16:22 And he went into camp maybe a 1, maybe a 1B, whatever it is,
16:28 and came out as good a safety as we have.
16:32 So a lot of good things happened with him.
16:35 He's always had the talent.
16:36 His mind just allowed him here recently,
16:39 here in the last six months, seven months,
16:43 to go ahead and let that body go do what it always could do.
16:49 Greg.
16:52 Coach, Kent State's got five new first-year starters
16:55 on the offensive line.
16:56 I was just curious, you've been--
16:59 you were an offensive line coach for 25 years on the FBS level.
17:02 Have you ever had an instance like that
17:04 where you had to break in five brand new guys?
17:06 And if so, what are some of the challenges
17:08 that you run into in a situation like that?
17:10 I have not.
17:11 Now, I've had a lot of jobs where
17:13 they were five new starters for me,
17:16 but not necessarily for the team.
17:19 Well, there's a lot of challenges
17:21 because it takes you a little while
17:23 to figure out who's tough, who you can depend on,
17:27 things of that nature.
17:29 As offensive line, that's key.
17:31 Who's your communicator?
17:33 Who's your leader?
17:34 Where you want to put him?
17:37 Do you have a center that can play?
17:40 Can you protect the edge?
17:41 All those type things go into it,
17:43 and you just start piecing it in.
17:45 And obviously, it takes a little while.
17:48 And I look for them to--
17:50 their whole line to become better and better.
17:52 They do have some skill and some talent.
17:55 And then those guys haven't played--
17:57 because you said it, but then with them being transfers
18:01 and things of that nature.
18:02 So it's a lot easier to bring one, maybe two in on O-line.
18:06 But bringing in a lot that are starters becomes difficult,
18:10 and then they don't know their coach
18:12 and all that kind of stuff.
18:13 But I thought they did a nice job last week.
18:16 I look for them to play much better than they did last week.
18:19 But there's a lot of challenges there.
18:22 And to me, they've done a nice job of coaching them.
18:26 On your end, with the week one game,
18:28 obviously, you'd expect everybody to be amped up
18:30 and excited and everything.
18:32 But with the way the score came out,
18:34 and then looking at Kent State's score against UCF,
18:36 is there anything extra you feel like you need to say?
18:39 I mean, you got a pretty mature bunch,
18:40 but is there anything extra you need
18:42 to say to make sure that the focus is right?
18:44 Well, I talked to them about yesterday after practice.
18:48 I mean, are we going to be a team that
18:50 needs to be surprised?
18:51 I mean, if you just look at college football the first week
18:55 and what happened, I mean, are we
18:57 going to have to learn a lesson from us not playing our best
19:01 ball, or are we just going to go play our best ball
19:03 and play against ourselves and not worry
19:06 about who the opponent?
19:07 I obviously know you're going to get amped up more
19:10 against a name, whoever the name may be, school, somebody
19:15 in the SEC, than possibly you would
19:18 against Western Carolina.
19:19 I mean, I understand that.
19:20 But at the same time, if you don't get ready to play,
19:24 if you don't prepare, you're going to get beat.
19:27 And we're going to be one of those teams
19:29 everybody in the country is talking about.
19:31 And I just kept asking them, do we need to be surprised?
19:34 Do we need to be taught a lesson?
19:36 Or are we just going to go practice hard?
19:39 I wasn't particularly happy with the way
19:41 that the complete practice went yesterday.
19:44 And I talked to them about that after practice.
19:47 Thank you.
19:48 [INAUDIBLE]
19:50 Coach, a lot of the--
19:52 you just mentioned a lot of the challenges
19:55 with the O-line communications leaders.
19:57 I'm wondering how your O-line is looking this week in terms
20:01 of in practice with those things.
20:02 Yeah, I thought the ones looked really good yesterday.
20:06 The problem, it's not--
20:08 depends on how you look at it.
20:10 But I'd like to find five guys that this is our left tackle,
20:15 this is our right tackle, this is this.
20:16 I would like to find that.
20:18 And then be able to play right now up to around eight guys.
20:23 I would like to do that.
20:24 We haven't been able to do that just simply
20:27 because we've been beat up here, beat up there,
20:30 things of that nature.
20:31 Now, are the five guys that started last Saturday
20:35 our five best?
20:36 Heck, I don't know.
20:37 It is nice to have Brady back this week.
20:41 But consistency of those guys, you
20:44 want to find your five best and let them go play.
20:47 And then hopefully you've got up to eight.
20:50 We're still not there yet.
20:51 We're not healthy enough to be there at this point.
20:55 And it's frustrating a little bit.
20:58 However, I do think it'll help us down the road.
21:01 But it is a little frustrating.
21:04 And we're not going to have ones and twos in a game.
21:07 So I think part of my frustration
21:08 is we have some guys on the twos that
21:12 don't have any experience.
21:19 And so at times in practice, it doesn't look quite as good.
21:23 And I get frustrated with that because our experienced guy
21:28 might be beat up a little bit.
21:29 So I think we're going to be fine.
21:32 I think in the long run, it's going to help us.
21:34 But that has been a little somewhat frustrating.
21:38 And then last one, you had a lot of freshmen
21:40 that contributed late and played their first game last week.
21:43 Just how are they looking and responding in practice
21:45 this week?
21:46 Yeah, I was proud of them.
21:47 I think any time you can get more guys in a game, which
21:50 we all know who's followed us since I've been here,
21:53 we haven't had an opportunity to do that much.
21:55 Maybe twice.
21:57 I think Auburn last year and maybe Pine Bluff before that.
22:02 And the rest of it is we're holding on
22:04 to everything we have.
22:07 So it is fun.
22:08 I think it's good for team morale, those things.
22:11 It's good to get somebody out there on a Saturday.
22:13 And is he as good as what you thought in practice?
22:16 Or is he better?
22:18 Whatever the case may be.
22:19 So I thought it was exciting to get that.
22:23 We had guys like John Hill and some guys
22:24 who've been around here a while.
22:26 Kyle Thompson that hadn't played.
22:29 And really was excited to get them in there.
22:32 And they all played pretty darn good.
22:34 They played extremely hard.