Arkansas coach Sam Pittman talks start of fall camp

Had good practice today. Um You'll ask me about who flash, I'll try to get ahead of that. Um You know, obviously we're in spiders, but thought Rodney Hill did a good job of running the ball. Tyrell Reed did a good job of running the ball. Larry Werth flashed. Uh Je Singleton picked to pass in a two minute drill. Um, um, Patty, uh, showed Larry, we showed, um, Switzer, I'm talking about the new guys that we were really looking forward to seeing if they could, you know, the April kids coming in. Um, so I think we, we, I feel like we hit on, on those guys. I tell Monte Harrison got a nice slant route for a touchdown in a, in either a two minute drill or, or in, uh, in, uh, team period. Uh, so I think the competition part of it is gonna be he hopefully we'll be a little bit deeper than what we thought. Uh, I thought both sides of the ball line ways were line wise, uh, played very, extremely hard and, uh, we stayed up, um, the more athletic you are, the more you're gonna stay on your feet and I couldn't tell you maybe a handful of plays where there was somebody on the ground. So I thought we, I thought it's, the practice started a little slow early. Um, through, um, fastball starts. Indy. I thought, uh, inside run was a little slow. I don't think we were chasing a ball like we want to chase the ball. Uh, but after that, I thought after the first break that it picked up for us and, uh, we continue to get better as the day went on. Coach, he touched on this a little bit, but Werth was more linebacker at his previous stop. Switcher was more d back safety. Why go the other way? Those guys, well, part of it, Trey is a need, you know, part of it is, uh, where we need guys. The other part of it is, is that, um, uh, we has so much speed that, you know, he could play inside, he could play outside. Um, we're trying to see and we probably will switch that maybe after two or three days to see, but Switzer looked really good inside today. I mean, really good. Look, you know, unafraid, very aggressive. Obviously, we don't have pads on but still, uh, in pads or out of pads, you're gonna find out a little bit about the guy's aggressiveness and his ability, his, uh, his physicality. Um, so I kind of like where he's at in there now. Um, and it's basically about needs about what, what we're trying to find, obviously, you need them all over the place. But, uh you want, you want your bigger, faster, stronger guys as close to the ball as you can get. So that's what we're trying to do right now. You're just day one impressions on Taylor and how he led and, and just his performance, his leadership was good. Um I don't know that he threw the ball as well as is what he would like to today. Um A lot of times we were offensively, we're going against whatever breeze there was out there. Um But, uh I thought Malachi had a good day. I thought Taylin had a good day. You know, you get a guy like that, you want him to throw every, every time of completion, you know, but as a head coach, you also want D BS to be all over him too, you know. So, um, overall, I thought they had a good day. I, I really, I was impressed with how Malachi played today. You ran through some of the individual plays by some of the new spring transfers, but did anything that any of them did surprise you versus what you saw from tape from them. No, the only really thing that was a, wow, wow. Was Broden caught a heck of a pass from one hand to grab, uh, early in practice. Um But as far as, you know, you didn't see a lot of wide open runs, a lot of wide open, um, pass plays. We had one on the, in the two minute that we, we busted a back coming out of the backfield that the second team went down and scored on that. But, um, so I think, I think, um, not a whole lot of wows, but then again, not a whole lot of wows the other way where you're going, man. We, we don't know what we're doing out here and, and, uh, I just thought it was a pretty sound practice. You know, we have been, we have walked through that twice already, you know, so they should be ready to go. But, you know, obviously when it speeds up, the game speeds up, you'll find out who, who plays a little bit better and sometimes who plays a little bit worse. Where do you feel like Anton Jina is in his development? And what do you want to see him do before the season? I think he's, uh, every bit our third end, you know. So I think he can rotate either side. And Quincy Rhodes, obviously he is, uh, coming on, but I've liked Anton. I, I liked him on tape because he's kind of fits us. He's a hard playing, tough nosed kid. Um, but I really like his progression and how he's done and he's gotten a lot stronger and he's just got that mentality. He plays hard every rep I've been doing with the heat today. Um, I think doin was supposed to come in here and he got, he got slowed or something. Now, we had a few guys that had cramps and he was one of those guys, we didn't have any heat exhaustion or anything like that. But, uh, we had some guys that, that, that cramped up. Um, again, I, I think the beginning of practice popped us pretty hard. Um, when we went out there, um, we, we went in the last, um, let's see, 45 and 19. So that's, um, 34 minutes. We went inside the last 34 minutes and tomorrow we may decide to go the last 50 minutes, you know, just depending. Uh, but, um, all we had is we had, we had probably four or five cramps Brodins catch. It seemed like his teammates were really impressed. We, we were on the sideline. What, what do you think? I thought it was pretty special, you know. Um, uh, again, you know, I think we've all been to price. Somebody makes a play like that and not a whole lot, you know, it's just, they don't like the guy or they just like, when are we going to get out of practice? And there's a whole bunch of guys right there including Taylor, you know, we went down there and patted him on the back. So it was a heck of a play and I, we, I, I look forward to many more of those, uh, first impressions today from the, the freshman linebackers, uh, Bradley and Wyatt, I saw both of them flash. Um, Bradley moved up, uh, to the one field. Some, especially when, you know, the offense goes into 12 where penny, when the offense goes into 12 personnel, he played a little bit more down on the field that it was, I, I was on, I got a bad hip so I didn't, I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the other field. Um, but, um, I th I thought he flashed and, and, uh, why I'll have to wait and watch the tape to see that. And, uh, what did you see from the, the kickers today? Not much. Um, you know, we didn't do a whole lot of kicking today. That's, uh, you've spent a lot of individual drills working with the offensive line. Kind of, personally, I was just wondering how that's kind of working for you getting back in the trenches with those guys and what that kind of relationship with you pay us for. Well, I just feel like, you know, different coaches do it different ways. In other words, uh, you know, when I was at Georgia we watched, uh, not during this time. Well, yeah, during camp, but we watched both offense and defense together, you know, um, everybody was in the same room and you watched it and then the coaches would say whatever they need to say. And I felt like that was always a good way for, for the, the head coach to learn offense and defensive football as well. You know, learn how the coaches are teaching and the techniques and all that. Um, a way for me to learn how the offense is to set in the offensive line meetings. And I can, you know, I can, I know it, but then I can learn details of everything, uh, how we're teaching it and what I should say, uh good or bad. Um So I've really enjoyed uh setting in with coach mates' meetings and, you know, now everybody can coach. So, um Sean Fogarty obviously is another, another helper. Uh We got him, we moved him to O line from a G A spot to analyst because we've, I was under the impression that they would be able to coach two years ago or a year and a half ago, I guess. And it just didn't, it didn't, the rule didn't pass. And, uh, so now we really have three of us and, uh today, uh Eric uh was coaching. Uh he had like I used to do the first period or two and then he split up the centers with me later in the practice, but I've, I've enjoyed it a lot. I've enjoyed sitting in the meetings and I'll throw a few comments in every now and then. Well, that's good. You talk a little bit about how that group has developed and what you thought of them today. I just like them. I mean, they play really hard. They're, they're, they're, they're athletic. Um, we've got to improve our pass protection. I think we had some break, not breakdowns, but we, in our day lines, I feel like they've, they, they've got some good players over there and, and, uh, um, so we have to, we, we've got to probably, um, that's usually the slowest thing that comes in fall camp is your protection. Um, so we, we got certainly continue to work there, but they're willing and I think they're athletic enough to do what, um, Bobby and Eric are asking her to do, staying with the offensive line. I know what you liked, what you saw from Carmona during the spring. I'm curious what maybe strides he made over the summer and what your first impressions were. I just think he's better technique than what he was. Um, you know, they worked on it all summer as well. Um, but I also think he has a lot more confidence, you know, I think you're coming in, you're having all this to prove and your mind's going, uh, who's my teammate? How's Tus playing, you know, all these different things and now he can kind of calm down a little bit and, and get a little bit more detail oriented, which I feel like that's what he's doing and, uh, he's going against one of the best in the league against Landon Jackson every day. So if you ask Landon about him, I think Landon thinks he's one of the better tackles in the sec. And, and certainly we know Landon is, is that way at the end. So that competition is really good, but I just feel like he's confident, his, his confidence is coming and comes to the weight room as well because he's gotten a lot stronger. I know yesterday you kind of focused on how Tyke's moving him to guard, getting him to look at guard. But then I also Joe Moore, uh coming in just kind of what you thought of him. I can answer this one without coach speaking. You. Um I saw Ty Keys do some really good things today and I, uh I would have to watch the tape to tell you really, uh, more about Joe. Um I didn't feel a lot of flashing in the past game or the run game with penetration or, or, uh, edge pressure and all that from him. Uh, but to answer that question without just b sing it, I have to watch the tape coach you touched on some of the younger linebackers already. I'm curious if the guys have experience like Alex Sanford, Brad Spence and Xavian story. What have you seen so far out of those guys that you can build upon with that group? Yeah, I think there's gonna be a great battle there and Trey alluded to Schwitzer and, and we um, you know, we like Sanford and Dean, uh, coming out of camp. Uh, so is coming into his own. He, you know, he's really can run and, uh, um, he got a smile on his face all the time. I think again, I think he knows what he's doing so he can play a little bit faster. He really shot some gaps today and looked, looked really good doing that. Um, I don't know who else you asked about. Uh, Spence. Uh, Brad. Um, you know, we were moving him up on the ball as a Sam anytime they go bigger than 11 personnel, um, we're keeping him in a box right now. Uh, so we'll see, see how that works for us. But again, I think he's the same way you go from a freshman to a sophomore. Uh, you should get better in your confidence, your body and all that and, and I, I feel like he has, it's hard to tell you a lot, you know, without putting pads on, but, but, uh, he was in the right place today. Hello? Uh, same. Uh, I think it's your girlfriend called Scott Scott Fountain. He's, he's the one guy from, with you the whole time assistant. Kind of what, what, what, what's the key to that with, from your standpoint and perspective. And, um, he's, you obviously have some tough decisions to make there, you know, getting a new punter, new kicker. I, how do you think that's gonna go with Scott. You know, if you look at old Scotty, you know, and you're right, he's the guy that's been with me, you know. And inside you got Amanda Gilpin, he got Pat Doty. I think that might be, I don't know, maybe have somebody else too that's been with me the whole time. But if you look at Scott and his evaluations on guys, you know, we had an all conference punter, we had an all conference kicker, you know, and, and I'm real confident, Devin, I didn't see anything out of him today, but I'm real confident in him and I'm in, I'm confident in whoever will win the kicking job. Now, he likes to have a guy to kick off, got to kick to a short snapper, a deep snapper, you know, he likes to do all that kind of stuff. I'm just wondering, you know, when we played, you used to kick and punt and play defense, play offense, you know, right now we, we got a specialist everywhere. Specialists are really special here. Um, but I think we're gonna be really fine with all those. I appreciate Scott as low as it can be. And he's, he's a very, very underrated recruiter. He's a good recruiter. I mean, really good recruiter. So I'm really happy that he's, he stayed with, with us and, and, uh, he seemed to be very happy. He got a nice home over there. Nice family. They're all going to school here, his kids. So I'm glad to have him and he's, and he's made really good decisions, um, on, on, on talent.