FAYETTEVILLE - If Meiycaireon Solondrio Tavarres rises to the forefront in the Arkansas linebacking corps this fall, fans are in for a treat from the easy-going, fast-talking Oregon native.
Can’t find Meiycaireonon the Razorbacks’ football roster?
That’s because years ago the junior college transfer shortened his name to Myke,which is a story unto itself. Tavarres is full of stories, like the one from this spring when he told reporters he “screamed like a girl” when he heard Bret Bielema had hired Randy Shannon to coach the team’s linebackers.
Tavarres isn’t just an average West Coast guy from Oregon and The College of Siskiyous in Weed, Calif., who fixates on football. He’s a 20-year-old who has jumped head first into his relocation to the South. He’s pumped up about southern living and SEC football, and he loves to talk about it.
Does the South live up to its reputation for being friendly?
“Yes,” Tavarres said. “Southern hospitality is real. You don’t see that as much on the West Coast.”
How about his adjustments to living in Arkansas?
“It’s been different, but it’s been a blessing and it’s been such a pleasure,” Tavarres said. “The food here is amazing. It’s top-notch. Back on the West Coast we have good food, but here, the flavors are so great. And the sweet tea! And just the people.”
Tavarres signed with Arkansas over multiple offers from schools such as Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Arizona, Oregon State, Boise State and Rutgers, and he enrolled in January to get a head start on 2013 by participating in spring drills.
Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema gave the media a heads up about Tavarres’ personality on national signing day.
“You’re going to see as you get to know Myke, you guys are going to love him,” Bielema said. “He’ll give you commentary, more than you’ll ever want. He is not afraid to talk, but the good thing is, I think he’s going to be able to back it up.”
Tavarres has to make the two-deep to be in position to back it up.
The Razorbacks coaches were so taken with the 6-2, 221-pounder’s athleticism that they quickly thrust him into a starter’s slot at outside linebacker to open spring practice.
Tavarres said he didn’t have the playbook down at that time and the speed of practice took him by surprise.
“Everything was happening so fast,” he said. “The plays were coming at you so fast, and they expected you to know it just like that. I was so used to taking my time learning the playbook and then going through it.”
Charlie Roche, his coach at College of the Siskiyous, where Tavarres twice earned all-conference honors, said the linebacker is raw and still has a lot to learn.
“We keep stuff pretty simple around here as we only get them for 18 months,” Roche said.
Tavarres was held back in one scrimmage this spring to observe the execution of defensive play calls, and he bounced back to have a strong Red-White game. He resorted to any means possible to learn the defense.
“I put out water bottles in my room and used them to show the gaps I’m supposed to run through,” Tavarres said. “Just enough [bottles] to make an offensive line, then I’d go from there. … It’s so important for me to learn my gaps.”
Defensive coordinator Chris Ash said the coaches might have overloaded Tavarres with trying to learn multiple linebacker spots.
“We probably put too much on him early, just trying to find the best fit and where he can help us the most as we get ready to go into fall camp,” Ash said. “Myke is a kid that can run. He’s a physical kid. It was good for us to find out what he could handle and what he couldn’t handle mentally in the spring, so when we come back in the fall we can really focus on some smaller responsibilities to give him a chance to excel.”
Tavarres is targeted for the mix at weak-side linebacker after a stellar junior college career.
“He’s one of the most talented kids we’ve ever had come through here,” said Roche, who played at College of the Siskiyous and has been its head coach for five seasons. “Just a raw talent.The more he played, the better he got.”
Tavarres has instincts at getting to the ball and ball-hawking that led to his play-making prowess. He had two interception returns for touchdowns last season, and his real forced-fumble count was well beyond the two he was credited with on the stat sheets, Roche said.
“The amount of fumbles that kid caused the last two years, it’s astronomical,” he said. “It was amazing. He was always around the ball with just his ability to run and be in the right place.”
Bielema called Tavarres “by far the most athletic linebacker” on the roster.
“He’s just raw,” Bielema said during spring drills. “He hasn’t sat down and learned the fundamentals. Randy Shannon has done a great job bringing him along.”
Tavarres’ athletic ability included his first-place showing in the Northern California Junior College decathlon last year, which included clearing 6 feet, 6 inches in the high jump. As a teenager, Tavarres participated in long-boarding.
“Since I lived in Oregon, there are a lot of hills,” he said. “So that’s all we would do, just go up and down hills … pretty much all day long.”
Now Tavarres will open camp trying to prove he’s absorbed the playbook and is ready to contribute in his first season.
“When I got my chance in the spring game, I really got to show how much I’d learned and what I actually knew,” he said. “I think the coaches were fairly impressed.”
Myke Tavarres glance
CLASS Junior HEIGHT/WEIGHT 6-2, 221 pounds POSITION Linebacker HOMETOWN Lake Oswego, Ore.
HIGH SCHOOL Lakeridge AGE 20 (birthdate Nov. 18, 1992)
NOTEWORTHY Two-time All-Mid-Empire Conference selection at College of the Siskiyous. … Had 85 tackles, 12 ½ tackles for loss, 2 interceptions, 2 fumble recoveries and 5 pass breakups last season. … Ranked as No. 7 junior college outside linebacker by 247Sports.com and rated No. 63 in ESPN’s junior college 100 rankings. … Posted 135 tackles and five sacks as a high school senior. … Chose Arkansas over multiple offers and finalists Arizona and Boise State.
Sports, Pages 19 on 07/31/2013