Arkansas held its final practice open to the public in Razorback Stadium this morning. It wrapped up a two-week stretch in the preseason in which fans and media alike got to sit outside and get a close look at Arkansas as it prepares for the Sept. 4 season opener against Tennessee Tech.
Three words to describe the final open practice.
Hot, hot, hot.
I won’t exactly miss the daily dose of sun and sweat that comes with open practices. But I will miss the chance to watch and evaluate everything going on in practice. So, for the final time, here’s what happened and what we learned by watching today’s practice:
• Maybe this Anthony Leon at linebacker experiment will work. Leon made a couple of impressive plays during team drills. First, he nearly picked off a pass thrown by Ryan Mallett to Joe Adams. In fact, he probably should’ve intercepted the pass but couldn’t hold onto it. A little later, he got his 6-foot-4 frame in the air and batted down another pass attempt from Mallett at the line of scrimmage. Arkansas really believes Leon can help them at linebacker against the pass. We got an indication that if he continues to learn and grow at the position, it just might happen.
• Mallett looked pretty sharp throwing the football this morning, drawing some oohs and ahhs from the crowd for a few passes. One of the prettiest came when he put some nice touch on a touchdown pass to Adams (which happened right in front of the crowd that attended the workout). He also found tight end D.J. Williams for a score in 11-on-11 drills.
• The kicking competition continues to heat up. Eddie Camara was 3-for-3 on his attempts today with a long of 44 yards. Alex Tejada was 5-for-7, with a long of 42 (he missed from 41 and 42). Zach Hocker had a tougher day, going 2-for-6 with a long of 44. His final two misses came from 50.
• Couldn’t help but notice another pair of botched quarterback-center exchanges. The first came from Mallett and first-team center Travis Swanson and Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino wasn’t happy about it. The second looked like it was QB Tyler Wilson’s fault, because he was replaced by Brandon Mitchell for a couple of snaps. Not sure why, but it feels like there were more snap troubles this preseason.
• Two players were absent by my count. DT Patrick Jones missed another practice with an apparent knee injury. WR Marquel Wade was not in attendance either. We learned yesterday (thanks to Facebook) that he is back home in Jacksonville. No coaches or players were available today (or yesterday for that matter) so we haven’t been able to dig deeper into the reason for his absence.
• A couple of players were banged up during the practice. LB Freddy Burton had to leave the field for a few minutes after a collision. So did tight end Austin Tate, who looked like he got tangled in a pile-up at the line of scrimmage. But both players returned after a few minutes.
• After the veterans left the field, the newcomers got a chance to scrimmage in front of the fans. A couple of highlights: Tight end Garrett Uekman drew a big applause after pulling in a one-handed catch on a pass from QB Brian Beuhner. Receiver Julian Horton also earned some applause with a nice catch on a pass from QB Brandon Mitchell.
