Arkansas strength coach Ben Sowders recaps summer workouts

Intro uh B I guess just kind of what what was your overall impressions of the summer are there any maybe standouts guys that maybe made a particular impression on you this summer I think we had a really good summer um I think it was imperative that we we made it really U competition emphasis right we got a lot of spots that uh of guys coming back but we added a lot of lot of good talent from the portal and with a good recruiting class um so competition was was was huge and then I think our leadership really took a big stride I really do I think that's kind of where we lacked a little bit in in the past um but I think those are that with the consistent effort that our guys poured in all summer uh I I couldn't be more thankful uh for them uh had a really really great summer really pleased where we're at and now we're going to roll the ball out and see what happens um to name certain guys it would be would be hard um I'm very impressed with our older older guys you know um some of them got mileage on them and uh but you know your guys like Landon Jackson uh Fernando Carmona Jane Johnson Hudson Clark Andrew Armstrong um you know Taylin green I mean I can go down the list I mean we I'll say this this is one of the best Summers I've ever been a part of in my 16 years of coaching and that's just because uh our young men came to work every single day we never had a bad day um I can think of two incidents you know over 40 workouts and if you can only think of two and that's being pretty pretty uh um picky then then we're doing pretty good but uh a lot of like I said it's hard to name just a few right I mean um but our older guys really really stepped up I mean our whole D line I can't wait to see them play you know I know they got some Pub last year on the front end um but you know cam ball uh Eric Gregory unbelievable um Ki Rose I mean I can go on and on or o old line I mean just uh really pleased where we're at now we now we got to go play some ball I want to ask you about one of those younger guys on the dline Ian jaffard uh the roster has him listed at 391 is that accurate and just kind of have you ever had anybody that big how do he move kind of what strides did he make in the in the weight room cuz I know sometimes weight doesn't tell the whole story um Ian was 391 uh he's down to about 382 right now uh so he he's lost the weight especially in the last uh two weeks um he's been great um there's been about six or seven guys we won't mention but basically had two of a day all summer long and he's one of them um you know he's a big guy but he's not fat I mean you're looking at a dude that's like I said 380 PBS and he's got 25% body fat you know or 26 what whatever whatever it is so you're saying 75% of his body's muscle that's that's a lot of muscle right um so he's strong he's powerful um and I look for him to really make some strides here in Camp and uh excited to see see what he does who's the biggest freak on this team white um I mean to be honest uh Lena Jackson's had a really really good summer I mean you talk about a dude that broad jumps over 10 feet I think he's a 102 or 103 broad jump at 280 lbs uh clean 345 squatted 515 he six almost 67 um so uh verticals mid-30s I mean as you're talking about a d lineman you know he does he does those numbers and puts up uh success on the field and he gonna get invited to the combine and he gonna do really gonna make himself a lot of money um one day ask you about Jin and Jackson coach Pitman was talking about how he's kind of the F perfect fit for what they're wanting to do in a you know very physical rushing attack I felt like he was also talking very mentally what can you tell us about I guess how he approaches every day he has been very steady uh I know what we do and what he did at Utah is is different you know um and he's he's told me that um but I I I'm really excited for him because I'll be honest he he elevates the level of play you know for most of y'all that were here in Spring you kind of you saw a glimpse but him on the field man he he's a catalyst for us I mean guys respond to him he's he's got that confidence that's um that that confidence that that just uh that just shows and it elevates everybody around him so we're going to definitely need that uh this is this is the toughest league in football right we all know SEC is grown man football it's the NFL college football and um you always going to be at your best so guys like that when when you're right there and it's uh crutch time it's guys like that going to help you help you get over it but uh been very excited to have him part of our our program uh he's been nothing but great phenomenal effort got faster you're looking at a guy that ended up hitting 21 with his miles per hour he's like 235 so he's gonna be a Bruiser um as well as got some speed to him so we're we're really excited I want to ask Offensive line you about the offensive front um Sam kind of identified that as a position that needed to get bigger and stronger after late last year your thoughts about that group yeah I think we made tremendous strides with o line um we're definitely stronger as as a as a whole unit and as a football team um you know we got numbers to prove it but you guys know end of the day the weight room only gets you so far right you got to take what you did and what you made and you got to put it on the field and uh the biggest thing I I could say is we challenged them both physically and mentally we got them I'm stronger but I tell them all the time if it doesn't challenge you it won't change you so my job is to put them in adverse situations and see can you can you accomplish what we're asking you to accomplish and so we made it very tough on them this Summer was tougher than what we did last summer offseason was tougher than what it was last uh last off season and uh we're stronger so now we got to take what we've done and apply it to the field um but I mean all our numbers are up you know coach coach Pitman and um coach Matos up front phenomenal job I mean to have those those guys in our program and Coach these guys every single day only makes us better um did a great job getting out of the portal you're talking about uh Blackstock Carmona Nicholls um who else out of the portal o line wise Joe Moore right it's Gott a lot better I mean so they're strong they're powerful and to be honest they're good athletes and if you're strong and powerful and you're a good athlete up front you should have success so your thoughts on Tashawn Green ton green and his leadership that you maybe saw in in the weight room unbelievable I have the utmost respect for for taen his ability to come in and just lead by example without being too vocal and trying to get grab guys Respect by just working the first couple weeks when we were here um tell me everything I need to know about the guy he didn't come in barking orders he was coming in to show the guy guys I'm here to work and I'm just going to do everything just like you are um but what he does is he elevates everybody around him and that's what leaders do they they bring mediocre people and Elevate them and make them good people he takes the good and he makes him great and that's that's a true sign of a leader and he's been phenomenal I've never seen him had a have a bad day I've never seen him ask for us to do something different for him in the weight room he's just I mean he's first class last excited to see what what he does and Coach patrino does with with our offense moving forward along with other quarterbacks you know quarterbacks have had a great summer as well Catapults so man I'm always curious about those cat catapult vs whatever you call them who who are the fastest mile mile per hour guys on the team well I think last year we had four guys that I told y'all that ran 22 I believe I think we're up to 11 some of that's obviously recruiting right um some of that is development as well uh we like said we brought really good guys in from the portal um but I think we have 11 guys that can run 22 so we doubled that number from last year um but um I mean you're talking about bro BR can run I mean Andrew Armstrong can run um let's see TJ metf I know coach mentioned that to you guys uh some other guys hitting 22 uh Deno Slaughter at 22 multiple times uh this this summer uh let's see who else [Music] 22 uh you got dasmond James another white out 2249 Tyrone Broden 2256 Jordan Anthony 22 he's starting to now finally get healthy going into Camp so we're looking forward to having him you know he's he's a world class spe guy um tailing green hit 22 um so uh we got we got several several can that's that's just to mention some that I have right here in front of me but uh all in all just some quick numbers that from our GPS I think 23 of 59 guys that we have catapults on can run 21 uh so that's roughly close to 40% uh 40 the biggest jump that we've had 40 of the 59 guys uh can run 20 or higher so the tight ends can now run in the 20s the linebackers can run in the 20s we got some that can run in Sor Sorry's a 216 217 miles per hour at linebacker at 200 almost 30 pounds uh so 68% of our team can run 20 or higher so that's close to 70 so three quarters of your team that's that's that's doing something but once again all this is good and great information's awesome but we got to roll out and got to roll the ball and play play some ball Green uh you already talked about him as a leader what what was kind of the focus in the wait room for for ton green I mean I imagine he's going to be a part of the Run game you know a little bit with his athleticism were there any like big focuses for him in his offseason development I think number one we haded to we had to add a little bit of weight on him uh he's a dual threat quarterback and as you guys know in this league he best of the best so defenses are going to come at you so you got to be durable um so I think adding a little bit of weight add a little bit of size and then obviously continue to get him stronger um not that he wasn't I just think in this league you got to put a premium on on on those things as well as continue to to make him explosive and fast of which is more in his willhouse naturally um but I think obviously flexibility Mobility taking care of his arm right throwing a lot we've thrown we've thrown more this year than we have in the past um guys have spent more time together um doing seven on sevens offense thrown on their own so obviously just taking care of the body um you know obviously rotational power all that type of stuff so that would probably be the main focus with him and just any freshmen who just freshmen have wowed right away since they've walked on campus well of course I think everybody knows all the the the ones from the spring right but I think uh uh you know this cycle for summer Bradley Shaw is uh he's a different Beast I mean he's he's everything that we thought he was and more he can run he can freaking uh he's explosive he's powerful he loves to compete Wyatt Simmons another guy white Simmons has put on I think 14 or 15 pounds this summer you know Arkansas kid um done a fantastic job cross Johnson Zack Taylor receivers they've done a really really nice job of getting stronger and they'll continue to get stronger as the season goes on uh CU you know we got eight eight and a half weeks with them so it's a taste but you still need more right from a development standpoint but I think they've done a good good job um I think Jonas Nance local kid here he's put on 10 or 12 pounds this summer uh I think he'll have a chance on Down the Line he's done a really nice job but um you know just really really fortunate we we got a really great group of guys we really do I mean it's fun to go to work every day really Fernando Carmona is going back to the offensive line F Fernando Carmona making the jump from the Mountain West when he walked on campus did he maybe did he look the part of an SEC offensive lineman already and just kind of how has he evolved since you've you know worked with him the last several months I'll tell you one story this will sum everything up yes he looked he looked apart um do I think he could get a little bit bigger yeah I think he needed to add a little bit of size on which he had has uh but I think it was the third week of offseason in February we were running Sprints skill guys were having trouble making his time and he challenged him and one of them challenged him to come down there and run and he ran and made their time the rest of the time so that tells you all you need to know about about him he's G he's gonna Le from the front and also EA Sports this is a little bit of an off-the-wall question with the the EA Sports video game that came out this summer did did you notice any of the guys may talking about their C you know speed ratings or something like that maybe kind of a you know source of inspiration or something to to drive them this Summer is that something you ever caught on to during your workouts or anything like that to be honest not really I mean I hear them chatter because they they they they chat about everything um and they're competitive which I love like that you got to be competitive to play at this level more or less them just playing on the game not I wouldn't say overall their own profile um just more or less who's who's smashing who and you know from from uh one-on-one matchups and that type of stuff Larry Worth so um Larry worth had a over 40inch vertical 10 nine broad jump put up big numbers in the bench hand squat what are your thoughts about the summer that he had he's a freak got to find a spot for him um he can he can run um excited to see his opportunity uh during camp but uh he you know he's a very versatile player in my opinion I think he could do a lot of different things he move he moves well uh he's explosive he's powerful on his film you know when we watched him as a coaching staff he'd strike and hit you so um I think it's still to be determined right because I he wasn't here with us during the spring so seeing all the stuff that he's gotten better at and taking it to the field and see okay where where where can we find a spot for him but uh very very competitive um like I said you know kudos to to coach to coach Pitman our uh whole coaching staff I mean we did not miss on one player in the portal and I I I'll say it again we did not miss with one kid in the portal from uh adding to our program making our program better making it competitive guys that play with passion guys that hold each other accountable that's what we missed last year you know and I ain't gonna talk about last year because it's a whole whole new year but it's different you walk in the building you can tell it's different you talk to our coaches you can tell it's different our offensive guys are excited to play for coach patrino and the offensive staff our defensive guys are excited to see the the difference that they made last year with coach Williams and his staff and obviously year two should be better than year one right so I mean there's so much energy in the buzz and Buzz around that you just you can feel it in the air Anthony Switzer uh I'll ask you about another portal guy um coach Pitman was saying that Anthony Switzer could line up a linebacker he'd be the nickel he could be a safety obviously you got to check a lot of boxes to fill all those kind of roles what did what did you see from him this off season I think I think the biggest thing for him is his consistency um I think he he he came in and just worked every day once again change is hard right I mean when you go from a program that you spend a couple years in then you come here uh to play it changes hard uh but I thought he did a great job of um merging the Gap when he got here and just was very very consistent once again another very very competitive guy and and you're right he can he can play multiple multiple positions he's versatile as well and he can move man he he moves deceivingly well and that's one thing I would say that he shot me with he moves better than what I thought he did uh from a lateral standpoint uh and excited to see him go out there and compete and and help us win games yeah Sam said that Toughest summer um he feels like you've made this the toughest summer you said that it's been the toughest summer what have you done differently a lot of things a lot of things um I've challenged him you know the I'll tell you the biggest thing is I've tried to love on them more to be honest you know um it's an honor to serve serve these guys um you spend so much time on them and we're all so focused about wins and losses but we don't realize what it takes to actually get it you know um everybody hears the process or you know whatever it may be I tell our guys all the time if we're GNA win at a high level we have to win off the field at a high level you have to become a better person and I know we're going in that direction and the are going to come they're going to I'm very confident it's a different group you can just you can feel it but we got guys that are fathers now you know what I mean we got guys that are getting engaged guys that are getting married guys that are going to church guys getting baptized guys leading Bible studies that's the measure of the program I want to be known by you know what I mean like all these numbers that's good and great but I'm confident in what our staff our strength staff can do and what we're going to do to develop them but at end of the day my number one job is to make them better people and if I make them better people we're going to become better players better athletes but going back to your question everything we made the tough we made we ran more we lifted more we lifted heavier we did more explosive stuff we did it more consistently um we did things that probably redlined them at times but we we got to see who we can go to war with that's what I that's what I used a lot in offseason like yeah it's going to be tough your body's going to be broke down but who who's going to who's not going to surrender and those are the guys we got to lean on that can pull the other guys that have been in that gray area and so to answer that I think everything we running run three or four days a week in the heat 3:30 four o'clock every day you know I think a lot of people run but some of them run in the morning we don't we run in the heat every day why cuz it's tough why then we run on Turf why don't we run on Turf it's an EXT 8 to 10 degrees 12 degrees hotter depending on the day so like just little things like that to me is the mental Edge that you have to build all right to get through hard stuff and if if if I don't make it hard when we get through hard stuff we're gonna fold we're gonna fold so I would say Monty Harrison everything yall added one of the more unique pieces in college football with Monty Harrison you know these I think 28 year old freshman uh what does he bring to the table what has he added you maybe off the field that maybe could help y'all being a guy that's you know played at the professional level in a different sport mty brings it calmness you know what I mean when when all things seem chaotic or all things seem hard he he has this quiet calmness and it rubs off and it rubs off into the the younger guys as you guys know imagine being an 18yearold kid and you're coming out to play in an SEC program how much anxiety you have right what he's done this summer is he's bring that he's bring a calmness confidence um he's also brought a maturity you know um I think his experience in the professional level even though another sport is really rubbed off on some of our younger guys that is going to help expediate the process for them instead of growing pains earlier on we kind of get through those Growing Pains a little earlier but he's done a phenomenal job uh no excuses come into work you know our training is a little different than Major League Baseball you know but uh he's done a phenomenal job excited that he's part of our program coach S6 media picked you Media pick guys 14th has that created any more buzz in the weight room in the last couple weeks I mean we're gonna have a chip on our shoulder you know um that's that's that's who I am that's how I coach and you are who you surround yourself with so we're going to have a little chip on our shoulder but to be honest we can't really worry about that you know the only way to change it is to win you know um I think we used a little bit of that last year um it' be the last time I talk about last year but to be honest high in sight all we got to do is worry about us if we worry about us we'll we'll we'll take care of the rest um but we got a we got a hungry we got a hungry group they want to win they want to win at a high level and um they've challenged each other they've held each other accountable which um we've done a much better job this year of doing it not just from the from the coaches but from the Coach Patrino players coach you you mentioned coach trino and the excitement that you've seen in the players just could elaborate on that and then the feeling that you get from working with coach patrino and and uh any significance to how the players are when he's in the room number one uh it's probably one of the I've been fortunate been around a lot of lot of good coaches in my career I really have but you could tell when he walked in the room from day one there was instant um respect our guys had Instant Respect as you guys know you can get on your phone you can get on the computer Google whatever some of these guys you know were very very young when he when he was coaching and had success here but it don't take but 15 seconds pull him up look at his track record right so number one I think the instant uh the Instant Respect that each person had for him not just offensively but defensively too now um but there's a calmness and confidence to him he's organized he's detailed he's demanding but not Dem meaningful um sense of urgency very very detailed um and I would say the the biggest thing is he is a great teacher and he has developed every player he's ever coached he's developed and I think other than maybe one year at Lille he's always won wherever he's been and uh I know he's excited to get back and show you know razor back Nation he's excited to be back and he's he's ready to get a bad taste out of his mouth um but coach patrino has been phenomenal to me been very very respectful um you know he asked me questions I asked him questions we have great feedback um but you can just tell when when when the guys hit the field it is is different and I I don't know how to really explain it other than the few things that I mentioned but it's different and you can tell that and the sense of urgency is different and uh excited to see what what he does for our program this year coach appreciate you thank you thank you