Pittman Using Saturday's Scrimmage for One More Step to Sort Things Out

New faces all over the field, including coaches, another evaluation in process

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman during practice Thursday morning at the indoor field at the football practice facility in Fayetteville, Ark. / Andy Hodges-allHOGS Images

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Don't expect anything like a game situation Saturday morning. Arkansas Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman is using it as another step in gaining the invaluable film needed to evaluate a roster full of new faces.

Decades ago there were as many practices as possible because filming wasn't as common. Coaches had to go with the eye test more than the film, which sometimes gets lost in today's world where everything is digital.

"I just want to see how much we improve," Pittman said Thursday afternoon. "We tackled. We’ve actually tacked to the ground two times already. Our tackling has been decent. I’d like to see us improve in that. I’d like to see us break some tackles. I’d like to see us throw and catch consistently and I like what we’re doing secondary-wise. In the intermediate pass game, I would like for us to be a little bit better on the crossing underneath routes."

This can also be attributed to new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino, just as much as Pittman. A big part of what he utilizes in his offense is getting mismatches on defenders and wide receivers sprinting across the middle or a running back coming out of the backfield on a wheel route. Everybody knows what's coming with his offense.

"I just want it to function well," Pittman said about Saturday morning's practice. "I want good snaps. We had a few today that weren’t good and they weren’t terrible. We’re not snapping it on the ground, over the head, all that kind of stuff. I want that consistent inside the frame snap and we’re rolling on offense and defense and just improve off the last two times we’ve done. I can’t really say that we’ve done anything terrible, where I’m going, ‘Oh man, oh man, oh man.’ I would just like to be a little bit more consistent and a little bit better this scrimmage than we were last scrimmage."

There have been snaps at various times a little off-center at thigh level for the quarterbacks. That's often enough in a critical situation to throw off the timing, which is the most crucial thing, especially near the goal. Everything goes haywire when that happens.

The Hogs are also putting in a new defensive look. They are going with more of an odd front, which will ignite the whole debate between three and four defensive linemen. Championships have been won both ways so it depends on how many players are capable of being up there. It's interesting, though, because more depth is needed at linebacker. The Razorbacks have new faces you may not immediately recognize. There have been days in the spring where each side has looked better.

"We put a new defensive front in, which obviously affects the back end as well," Pittman said. "Offense is still adding some plays, too. We won’t add anything coming to Saturday’s practice. It was probably the opposite on Tuesday, that it was (Thursday). The defense played extremely fast today. Some tweaks they did with some of their line movements, some of their twist movements I thought affected the offense a little bit (Thursday).

"As far as the week goes, I don’t know win or lose, but I felt Tuesday the offense had a little bit better day and (Thursday) the defense did. They’re playing really hard. The one thing we’re not doing, we’re not having wide open guys. You see that each ball has been very well contested. Obviously the lower you get down on the depth chart there might be a wide open guy here or there, but I think the foundation, the consistency of our defense is way ahead of where it was a year ago."

Don't expect a lot of glamorous situations Saturday morning. There are some new faces, but exactly what will be known after seeing it probably won't reveal a whole lot. Remember, it's practice and how good anyone looks depends on the quality of the players they are scrimmaging against. What exact questions to be asked will still need to be determined heading into next season.

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