Arkansas Football Spring Practice Report: March 14

The Arkansas Razorbacks were inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium for their fifth practice of the spring, the first that has taken place on their home field.

TEAM 11-on-11 PERIOD

It was a cloudy and wet morning, which led to some sloppiness on both sides of the ball early on, but the rain stopped about 20 minutes into practice. After a couple periods of individual drills, the team hopped right into a 12-minute period of 11-on-11 with the first, second and third team offenses and defense. Below are some notes that stood out from the action:

• The first big highlight of the day came when Taylen Green found Isaiah Sategna in stride on an out-and-up about 35 yards downfield. The ball was snapped from the opposite 40, so it resulted in a 60-yard touchdown pass with Snaxx Johnson being the closest in coverage.

• The offense still had the upper hand, which has been a trend throughout all of the practices, but they had plenty of solid moments against the run. The first play from scrimmage saw Nico Davillier and Landon Jackson get into the backfield and blow up a handoff to Rashod Dubinion.

• The top two running backs seem to be Dubinion and Utah transfer Ja’Quinden Jackson, who alternated with the first-team offense while also popping in for some plays with the second unit. The second and third-team offenses features a steady rotation of Braylen Russell, Dominique Johnson and Isaiah Augustave. As you’d expect, Russell and Johnson had a lot of success near the goal-line when the team did red zone work, and Dubinion made the biggest play from the group when he took a screen pass from Malachi Singleton and ran about 30 yards while making a few defenders miss.

• Davion Dozier made the best catch of the day, hauling in a post from Singleton with one hand and somehow sticking it and bringing it in right at the goal line for a touchdown during the red zone section of 11-on-11. Var’Keyes Gumms also caught a touchdown from Taylen Green with the first-team offense after a rollout, and he also earned praise from Bobby Petrino for his route-running during 7-on-7. Isaac TeSlaa didn’t catch a touchdown but provided one of the better highlights of the day after catching a pass from Singleton over the middle and driving right over Carson Dean before fighting forward for about 6-7 extra yards.

• On the defensive side, Jaylon Braxton provided a big highlight with an interception in the end zone against Taylen Green, who tried to throw back toward the middle of the field after rolling left. Braxton’s energy is always on display at practice, and he has no problem letting the opposing receivers know when he has their number.

QB UPDATE/7-on-7 Results

Taylen Green continues to take all of the first-team reps at quarterback, as expected. Malachi Singleton starts each practice with the second team, but both Jacolby Criswell and KJ Jackson run with the second unit at different points.

In 7-on-7, Criswell seems to always get the second-most reps and goes right after Green, and nobody has really separated themselves from that second group, so it’s anyone’s guess as to what the current hierarchy is right now. It’s worth noting that Criswell threw the ball pretty well today but was hurt by a couple drops while working with the third-team offense early in practice.

Below are the completion numbers for each quarterback during the 7-on-7 period, which included some work near the red zone:

Taylen Green – 8/10 (1 drop)

Jacolby Criswell – 4/5

Malachi Singleton – 1/5

KJ Jackson – 1/3 (1 pass interference)

Austin Ledbetter – 1/2

Other Notes & Observations

• Freshman wide receiver CJ Brown made several plays throughout the team and 7-on-7 periods (more on that later), though he did have one drop on a nice throw from Jacolby Criswell. He’s clearly got the skill set to help the team right away, it’ll just be a matter of getting him in the right spot and making sure he knows the offense.

• A couple of freshmen defensive backs, Selman Bridges and Tevis Metcalf, worked in with the second-team defense and looked the part while doing so. The Hogs have no shortage of veteran options in the secondary, but both Bridges and Metcalf seem to be on track to contribute sooner than later.

• Based on the very limited sample size of special teams action we got to watch, I’d say Hawaii transfer Matthew Shipley has the upper hand in the battle for Arkansas’ placekicker. Vito Calvaruso may have the stronger leg, but Shipley appears to be the most accurate of the options.

• Bobby Petrino was a lot more active and engaged vocally at today’s practice. When asked why after practice, head coach Sam Pittman said it was because at this point, they are going over stuff they have already learned, meaning they should know what to do by now.