FAYETTEVILLE — A handful of people found places in Reynolds Razorback Stadium to watch practice.
Bobby Petrino doesn’t appear to be fond of the practice fields, choosing to practice where his teams will play, which makes sense, especially with the artificial turf.
The fans are respectful, following the rules such as no pets or cell phones, although one media guy took a call from his daughter, but only those around him noticed.
Daniel Kleine, a junior accounting major, was there with some friends. His dad, Joe, played basketball at the UA in the 1980s and then spent 15 years in the NBA before becoming an assistant coach at UALR
Later Joe’s personalized license plate was seen at the Courtyard, but the thought he might be interviewing for the assistant’s job at Arkansas was dispelled when he said he was recruiting the area and would be taking Daniel and Courtney, a freshman majoring in pre-nursing at the UA, to dinner.
As it turned out, John Pelphrey was in Dallas recruiting.
Anyway, at practice there was an occasional shout of support from the fans, but the fans were mostly curious with a strong dose of excited expectations.
Willy Robinson, the defensive coordinator, and John L. Smith, the special teams coach with a strong background in defense, were working hard with the defensive line and linebackers and to make sure there was a strong learning curve. Petrino was working the scout team offense, calling plays.
Joe Adams was back after several days of unexplained absence, which will be a mystery for a while, but eventually the answer will come out. It almost always does.
Adams was not rusty, and 10 minutes into practice he caught a perfect strike from Tyler Wilson and sprinted 40 yards into the end zone.
Adams looks a little bigger, but his speed is still there.
Brandon Mitchell, the freshman quarterback, was back, too, but the four days he was gone for a funeral put him a little further behind Wilson.
Mitchell, though, will catch up. He’s a competitor who isgoing to find a way to push Wilson for the backup job behind Ryan Mallett.
Mallet was on the field again. He puts the boot on when he makes a few throws and then takes it off when he is just walking around, but that has to be progress.
His enthusiasm was obvious.
They spent some time running the pistol offense, which has most of the players and coaches excited.
In layman’s terms, it is an offense where the running back lines up behind the quarterback. In the old flexbone option, the back was to the side.
Running out of the shotgun,the quarterback can read the secondary and check off to a pass, or read the middle linebacker and defensive line and make it a dive play, or he can read the outside linebacker and end and make it an option run where he keeps or pitches to a receiver who has faded back.
Granted, boot or no boot, don’t expect to see Mallett running a lot of option down the line. His strength is his arm; his weakness is his speed.
Yet, with a new offense, Mallett on the mend, Wilson improving, the defense on the upswing and with more depth, there was a reason for the fans to enjoy the open practice, and it appeared they did.
Sports, Pages 19 on 04/22/2010