ARKANSAS SPRING FOOTBAL

Top QBs to get reps rest of way

Arkansas quarterback Brandon Mitchell is dragged down by Alabama linebacker Adrian Hubbard during the third quarter of play Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012, at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
Arkansas quarterback Brandon Mitchell is dragged down by Alabama linebacker Adrian Hubbard during the third quarter of play Saturday, Sept. 15, 2012, at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE - The snaps for quarterbacks at Arkansas, which were split among a big group during the the first three days of spring drills, will undergo a big adjustment when the Razorbacks resume practices this afternoon.

Senior Brandon Mitchell and sophomore Brandon Allen have shown separation in the early work, and transfer A.J. Derby has shown enough game-management skills to open eyes.

“It’s not going to be evenly distributed as we move forward,” Coach Bret Bielema said of playing time at quarterback. “It kind of has through day 3, but now we have to start getting into who our top three guys are and let them work.

“The ones are always going to get the primary rep and you can split that between the quarterbacks until we get it right. … I think it’s easy to let two quarterbacks get equal reps in the spring and let the third get a fair share, but it is very difficult to get more after that.”

The Arkansas quarterback position is sure to be one of the more heavily scrutinized this spring after Tyler Wilson and Ryan Mallett put up numbers over the past four seasons that left them imprinted in the Arkansas football record book.

Based on Bielema’s track record and his comments since taking the Arkansas job, the quarterbacks should not expect to rival the big passing numbers of the Bobby Petrino era, but the position will be critical to the Razorbacks’ success.

Bielema lined out three key facets for quarterbacks in the offense he and coordinator Jim Chaney have put in place: How to manage the game, ability to execute the play, and a final trait that Bielema said is the most important.

“You’re not going to find this in practice3, 4, 5,” he said. “Hopefully over the course of 15 we’ll get an indicator. But a quarterback needs to be triumphant in the most difficult times.

“If you want a championship-level team, he’s got to be at his best when everybody else is at their worst. And that truly defines a quarterback.”

Allen and Mitchell split playing time at quarterback in a 52-0 loss to No. 1 Alabama last season, though Mitchell returned to receiver the following week when Wilson returned from a concussion to start the remaining nine games of a 4-8 season.

Now, with the starter’s role up for grabs, the performance level at the position must be improved from the days when Allen and Mitchell served as backups.

“Both of them are a little different,” Bielema said on March 15. “Brandon Allen has thrown the deep ball very nice. He’s engaged, he understands it, he’s a football kid. Obviously his dad is a coach and all that goes into it. That part is very evident.

“Brandon Mitchell is a tremendous competitor. The kids really respond to him.He’s got a live arm at certain throws. He’s reverted back and called a play by the old system and everyone looks like he’s got three heads.”

Bielema said he understands the level of play necessary at quarterback to give Arkansas a chance to win games next fall.

“If there is one thing that I would get across to our quarterbacks in general is that I need to have an urgency out of them to become great,” he said. “If the quarterback position is not a junkie, if he’s not a guy who is begging on your door every day to be learning, we are not going to get where we need to be. At that particular position in general, we need a whole lot of urgency.”

Sports, Pages 22 on 03/26/2013

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