Really Simple Way Pittman Will Determine Razorbacks' No. 1 Receiver

In typical fashion, Hogs' coach uses straight-forward common sense to determine who will be the top target for Taylen Green

Arkansas Razorbacks wide receiver Raylen Sharpe during spring practice drills indoors to beat the rain in Fayetteville, Ark.. / Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — If you've paid attention to the way Arkansas coach Sam Pittman approaches determining players, his comments Thursday about a No. 1 receiver wasn't that surprising.

A lot of folks aren't used to hearing the most obvious answer being the choice.

"Well, the ones that get open and catch it would be number one criteria," Pittman said with a grin because he knew exactly how it sounded. "Know what they're doing. It's a good question. I got that in me sometimes. No, it was a good question."

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman watching spring practice drills indoors in Fayetteville, Ark. / Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Images

Pittman doesn't rank players (for the media anyway), but he said in one of his verbal cul-de-sac answers that Raylen Sharpe and Kam Shanks may be the top two. That also presents a unique problem for offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino to figure out.

"You have two of our better receivers, in my opinion, play the same position," Pittman said. "So you're looking at how are we going to get Sharpe and Shanks on the, you know, how are we going to get them on the field at the same time."

Just to give you an idea of how to sort it out, here's the straight Pittmanese:

"We just put in our five wides, as y'all saw Tuesday," he said. "But you have to have — I don't think you can throw out five not tall guys, as we talked about last time. You also can't put somebody on the field that's not as good as somebody on the bench. So that's part of what we're trying to figure out.

"There's some guys emerging, like a [O'Mega] Blake, like [Ismael] Cisse, like a CJ Brown, I think some of those guys are starting to make plays out there on the outside.

"I'm sure I've missed somebody, but that's where you're looking at it. How do you get your best three, four at times, on the field? If you go four out there, you could put Sharpe and Shanks on the field at the same time and not have any problem with it.

"But once you go down to three, you start to go, 'OK, who's my 12 personnel wide receivers? Who are they? Who's my 11 personnel wide receiver? Who’s my 10? And who’s my empty guys?

"We’re still trying to figure that out right now, but I could — I’m not going to — but I could probably tell you five that I — maybe six — that I’d go, ‘OK, those are the guys that we’re going to put on the field if we played a true game on Saturday."

Arkansas Razorbacks wide receiver Courtney Crutchfield running a route in spring practice drills indoors in Fayetteville, Ark. / Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Image

Got all that? The bottom line to it is Sharpe and Shanks just over halfway through spring practice Sharpe and Shanks are looking good, but he's not ready to anoint anyone to anything.

To add to all those names mentioned is one guy that apparently is doing things that wouldn't just stand out to a casual person watching.

"A guy who's not catching a lot of balls bit is doing a lot of good things, is Rohan Jones," Pittman said. "You know, he caught one the other day in our kill the clock two minute drill. I anticipate him catching a lot of balls. He's very, very talented.

"Those guys would be — you have CJ adding into that mix, Cross Johnson's done some nice things — but I think probably those first four that I talked about, I'm thinking that they're going to, somebody will emerge."

To summarize the whole thing he's still waiting to find somebody to break out of the pack. He knows it may not happen until September when they play games with a scoreboard.

"It's just like Andrew Armstrong," Pittman said. "You didn't know what you really had. You didn't know. He had a pretty good junior year. We thought he was going to be a good player in the time that his junior year and his senior year, to me, he mentally changed.

"He got hell knocked at him a few games, got back up, came back in as soon as he was cleared and had a 1000-yard season. We're looking for somebody like that, and I believe they're on our team. We'll have to find them on a Saturday afternoon."

Practices will continue Saturday inside Razorback Stadium in a closed practice like all the others. Practices will continue primarily on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

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