FAYETTEVILLE -- Some weigh 315 pounds differently than others, Bret Bielema asserts.
Alas, says the Arkansas Razorbacks football coach, he's an authority on the subject.
Well, not entirely alas. Junior center Frank Ragnow's contrasting 315 weighs in Arkansas' favor.
"He's 315 but looks good," Bielema said. "I wish my 315 looked like that."
The Arkansas coach and former Iowa Hawkeyes defensive lineman (1989-92) is "trying" and succeeding shedding pounds but acknowledges he's got some to go.
Ragnow, 6-5, looks long and lean at 315.
"When we do offseason conditioning, he runs with the wideouts and DBs and doesn't look out [out] of place other than he weighs 315," Bielema said. "As far as speed, tempo, durability work he's very, very gifted."
And very, very versatile. An All-State high school offensive tackle-defensive tackle in Chanhassen, Minn., Ragnow as a Razorbacks true freshman in 2014 practiced at guard and center. Though snapping zero snaps at Chanhassen, Ragnow lettered in 2014 as the Arkansas backup to center Mitch Smothers.
In 2015, with tackle Brey Cook's graduation restructuring the line moving Dan Skipper from left tackle to right tackle and Denver Kirkland from right guard to left tackle, Ragnow asserted himself as the starting right guard.
Since Arkansas defeated Kansas State in the Liberty Bowl, Smothers and All-American left guard Sebastian Tretola finished his eligibility while Kirkland a year early joined them aspiring to be chosen in this month's NFL Draft.
Meanwhile, Bielema stares both at his best center and best guard and wishes he could be cloned.
But he can't. So whether Ragnow in the Razorbacks' Sept. 3 season opener against Louisiana Tech starts at center, where he has worked Arkansas' first three spring practices including last Saturday's scrimmage, or guard, isn't so much up to him as to the others competing at center at guard. Ragnow will play "whatever allows us to play our best five," Bielema said of starting linemen.
"Whether our best combination is Frank at center and somebody else at guard, we will work that out as the next couple of weeks unfold," Bielema said.
Either way, Bielema knows Ragnow knows center and knows guard.
"I think he can go back and forth between center and guard really easily," Bielema said. "That's just reps. He never played center in high school or anything. It was such a different thing for him his freshman year."
Not anymore. Because while last year Smothers snapped every significant snap, starting right guard Ragnow took practice backup center reps, too. Ragnow started this spring not just ready to start at center but excel at center, Bielema said.
"I'm not shocked," Bielema said. "I knew it was going to be this way.
As a center, he has a lot of physical tools to some of those guys that were high, high draft picks of mine (from 2006-2012 when Bielema coached Wisconsin and at Arkansas including coaching Detroit Lions center Travis Swanson). I think he can fit right into that mold over the next two years."
Sports on 04/04/2016