Redshirting Razorbacks receiving extra attention

— They were largely forgotten from September to December,but Arkansas’ redshirting freshmen never stopped working, never stopped their scout team duties, never stopped lifting weights and adding strength.

Now, with the Razorbacks in the midst of Liberty Bowl practices, the redshirts and other young and seldom-used players are more in the spotlight, with devoted work time at the end of practices.

Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino says the extra work is key for the young players.

“It’s really good work for them,” he said. “We’re videoing it, and will put it in the computer, so in the off-season they’ll be able to come in and watch themselves try to execute the offense or the defense or special teams.”

Nine of Arkansas’ scholarship freshmen - offensive linemen Alvin Bailey, Cody Berna and Travis Swanson, quarterback Brandon Mitchell, tight end Austin Tate, receivers Neal Barlow and Lance Ray, defensive back Jerry Mitchell and linebacker Ryan Calendar - took redshirts in 2009, while 12 of their scholarship classmates played for varying amounts of time.

The year on the shelf can be frustrating.

“I was a little mad about it at first,” Brandon Mitchell said, before adding, “I had to learn more, because when I first got here I didn’t know about defensive coverages or things like that.”

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Bailey said, “It’s hard coming out of high school, where you’re the star or the man at your school, and then you come up here and you aren’t playing or you aren’t dressing out.”

Bailey’s redshirt decision was not an easy one, Petrino said, as Bailey came in with great strength and probably would have contributed in the guard rotation.

Calendar said the transition was difficult from his small high school in Caddo Mills, Texas, to the notorious work pace of Petrino’s program.

“It’s pretty hard, and nobody really understands the whole redshirt thing,” Calendar said. “It’s a little aggravating sometimes because you want to be out there, think you can do better than this guy, then you look at the bigger picture and you realize it’s better to be redshirted and put on weight.”

Strength and conditioning coach Jason Veltkamp and his staff put together a pair of strength-training plans for the freshmen: a four-day (per week) program for the no doubt redshirts who need to add weight or reshape their bodies in some manner, and a three-day program for guys who might wind up playing and need strength gains but not weight gains.

“All of them have made big changes to their body,” Veltkamp said, adding injured young players Chris Gragg and Mitchell Bailey to that mix.

As a four-day freshman, Tate added 25 pounds after reporting at 217.

“He doesn’t even look like the same player running around out there now,” Veltkamp said. “I won’t even mention what he bench pressed when he first got here, but he’s already added 60 pounds. Tate and Calendar, both have added 60 pounds to their bench since June, which is an amount of gain in a short period that you don’t see.”

Some redshirts, like Brandon Mitchell and Ray, spent time on both strength-training programs, as they made some road trips, or, in Mitchell’s case, joined the basketball team for a short while.

Bailey was in the three day group, even though he was targeted to redshirt pretty early, for several reasons.

“No. 1, because he’s ridiculously strong already,” Veltkamp said. “He was the strongest, by far, in that class. Secondly, he traveled [for road games], so that consumes a couple of days. Third, that allowed us to put him and Anthony Oden and Colton Nash in a lift group. Those guys really battled in the weight room.”

Oden and Nash were among the freshmen who played, but most of Oden’ssnaps came very early when a start at Alabama didn’t work out as envisioned. Oden, a 6-8, 328-pounder with a massive upside, might have benefited from a redshirt.

“You get to the end of the year and you look back on a few of them and say, hey, maybe we should have [redshirted him], he didn’t play as much as I thought he would,” Petrino said. “But that’s the call you have to make.

“You can always look back. Hindsight is a lot easier than making the call prior to the season.”

Brandon Mitchell called the redshirt season a humbling experience, yet he said, “It helped me more with the playbook and just being better as a player.”

Bailey has heard the expectations the coaches have for him, and added, “I have great expectations in myself. That’s something my parents instilled in me, was high standards.

“I want to be the best, and to do that you’ve got to work hard and do all those things that come along.”

Calendar said his best scout-team job this season came the week of the South Carolina game, when he played Eric Norwood.

“It was 40; I just know the numbers,” Calendar said. “He was my favorite one because he kind of played end, linebacker, just kind of bounced around.”

Calendar, who was ordered to eat at least two plates of food at meals to gain weight, has also heard the coaches are high on his potential.

“I’m excited about that, looking forward to getting out on the field and letting everybody see what I have,” Calendar said.

The same could be said for every one of the emerging redshirts.

Sports, Pages 17 on 12/22/2009

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