Fall practices give coaches true picture

FAYETTEVILLE — Thursday’s start of preseason drills will begin revealing the answers to big questions besetting these Arkansas Razorbacks.

You know the questions: Can Coach John L. Smith replicate or better the 10-3 and 11-2 seasons that former coach Bobby Petrino posted in 2010 and 2011?

Can Tyler Wilson, Knile Davis or both post seasons that will keep them in the Heisman hunt?

Can the defense combine with the offense and special teams to get Arkansas to the SEC Championship Game for the first time since 2006?

Now add another little question: Can a plant blossom in the spring and still withstand the fall?

Arkansas’ secondary depth sure would grow if it could.

For even in Arkansas’ cataclysmic spring, Kaelon Kelleybrew’s progress did not go undetected. The walk-on cornerback and Little Rock Central graduate redshirted last fall as a senior transfer from Mississippi Valley State, then surprised new defensive coordinator Paul Haynes last spring.

“He was the surprise for me because I didn’t know he was as talented as he showed,” Haynes said after spring drills. “He is a kid that is very productive.”

Kelleybrew closed the Red-White game with a 44-yard interception return, two pass breakups and five tackles.

“When the ball came his way, there were a lot of times he made the play or it was a catch and a tackle, which is huge at that position,” Haynes said, mentioning Kelleybrew in the same breath with sophomore incumbent starting cornerback Tevin Mitchell. “I think if you asked the receivers who was the hardest guy to go against, it would have been him and Tevin.”

The question now: Will they reply the same in September?

AN ARKANSAS FAREWELL

Today, for the first time since he was too young to drive the tractor on the farm in DeWitt, Harold Horton won’t officially work on something in Arkansas.

The retiring Razorback Foundation president completed his last day at the UA on Tuesday. Harold’s 72 years have been all Arkansas all the time, whether farming or as a Razorback player, first under Jack Mitchell and then lettering for Frank Broyles’ 1959, 1960 and 1961 Southwest Conference championship teams.

Then came coaching: Six years of high school football at Bald Knob and Forrest City, coaching Razorbacks linebackers for Broyles from 1968-76 and coaching the Razorbacks defensive line for Lou Holtz from 1977-80, and then going 74-12-5 with two national championships as head coach at the University of Central Arkansas from 1982-89.

There’s more.

From 1990 through Tuesday, Horton was a Razorback again, first as recruiting coordinator, then football operations director, Razorback Foundation vice president and finally as the Razorback Foundation president who achieved unprecedented fundraising despite tough economic times nationally.

Like the late Wilson Matthews, whom he succeeded first as linebackers coach and down the line as the Razorbacks’ chief fund-raiser, Harold Horton succeeded boundlessly in Arkansas because he’s all about Arkansas all the time.

Great for Harold now to be able to fully to enjoy his family and his hunting and fishing.

Unfortunately for Arkansas, there is far less Arkansas to the Razorbacks without him.