FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas’ new football center made a splashy debut last weekend, entertaining returning players who took pictures lounging in the spacious lockers and impressing prospects visiting the campus.
“In college football, this day and age, it’s an arms race,” Arkansas defensive coordinator Chris Ash said.
“Right, wrong or indifferent, when an 18-year-old kid walks into a complex, first impressions are a lasting impression. They want that ‘wow’ factor, whatever it may be. If there’s not a wow factor in your complex, you’re probably going to be behind a little bit in recruiting.
“I’m not going to lie about it or mislead you, our old complex did not have any wow factor to it.”
Coach Bret Bielema called the weekend exciting.
“I’ve never had a recruiting weekend like that, especially because there were a few officials but a lot of unofficial visits,” he said. “We had some huge momentum, and I think a lot of it was out of what they saw Friday night from our own players because that’s real, that’s genuine, it’s sincere.”
Said linebackers coach Randy Shannon: “It’s a great facility. On a lot of things we’re trying to get done, it’ll make it a lot better.”
In addition to the flashy locker room and players’ lounge, an added benefit of the operations center is its centralized location connected to the Walker Pavilion. When players dressed in the Broyles Athletic Center locker room, they had to walk through Reynolds Razorback Stadium to get to the Walker Pavilion for weight lifting and through Walker Pavilion to reach the practice fields.
Who’s not here
Bret Bielema said two freshman signees had not yet reported to campus: receiver Melvinson Hartfield and punter Sam Irwin-Hill.
Bielema indicated last week at SEC media days in Hoover, Ala., that Irwin-Hill, whom he expects to reach Fayetteville before the end of the month, was the only signee not yet on campus.
Hartfield posted on his Twitter account late Thursday that he would report to Arkansas on Aug. 4.
Asked about the potential for former Arkansas receiver Marquel Wade to rejoin the team, Bielema said it would not happen.
Wade, arrested last year for felony residential burglary along with receiver Maudrecus Humphrey and tight end Andrew Peterson, was recently released after serving a six-month jail term. All three players were dismissed from the team last summer by interim coach John L. Smith.
Picked us where?
Arkansas offensive coordinator Jim Chaney doesn’t give a rip that the SEC media picked the Razorbacks last in the SEC West.
“People point out, ‘Well, they picked you here, they picked you there.’ Well, I don’t pay attention to all that crap,” Chaney said. “I’m motivated because we have a bunch of kids that are hungry to play football.
“That’s the key, so we’ll be just fine.”
On scholarship
The Razorbacks put deep snapper Alan D’Appollonio and tight end Mitchell Loewen on scholarship this summer, and there might be opportunities for more walk ons to earn scholarships before the season starts.
“Obviously, you know Bret was a walk-on,” special teams coordinator and defensive line coach Charlie Partridge said. “Those guys are going to be treated equally in our program. If you earn a scholarship and there’s one available, you’re going to get one.”
Loewen exited spring atop the depth chart at tight end despite losing time to an ankle injury.
“[Loewen] can bend and move and is very aggressive and exactly what we are looking for to be our in-line tight end,” tight ends coach Barry Lunney said. “We are excited about him, but we feel we have a room full of guys that can help us.”
Drop in
Bret Bielema’s appetite for attending fundraisers and charity functions hasn’t abated.
Bielema was in Rogers on Monday at Lost Springs Golf and Athletic Club to lend support to the Arkansas Baptist Children’s Homes golf tournament.
“It’s not what you have, but what you give,” Bielema told attendees at the event.
Mike Akin of Monticello, the former chairman of the UA Board of Trustees, and Sean Rochelle, executive director of the Razorback Foundation, also participated in the event.
Join the club
Sophomore offensive tackle Grady Ollison (Malvern) has officially joined the 300-pound club, Bret Bielema said. Ollison exited spring as the starting right tackle opposite senior left tackle David Hurd.
Sports, Pages 24 on 07/26/2013