FAYETTEVILLE -- Each time Arkansas senior defensive tackle Jeremiah Ledbetter bests Arkansas novice left offensive guard Hjalte Froholdt in spring practice and next August the better the chances for Froholdt to best a SEC defensive tackle next fall.
Because it's better to be bested by your own team's best before you take on the best of the rest in the SEC, says Arkansas senior offensive tackle Dan Skipper.
Skipper should know. At an even younger stage, Skipper stood in the rookie lineman shoes that Froholdt stands in now.
Though growing up in Denmark foreign to American football that he first learned as an exchange student in Ohio, Froholdt lettered as a Razorbacks reserve true freshman defensive lineman last fall.
Coach Bret Bielema this spring switched Froholdt to first-team left offensive guard.
Skipper had a lifetime of American football as an offensive lineman at Arvada, Colo., behind him but no collegiate experience when he tried to block his first Razorbacks senior first-team defensive lineman as a freshman during a 2013 August practice.
"My freshman year going against Chris Smith [now prepping for his third year with the Jacksonville Jaguars] he picked me up and threw me," Skipper said. "That was a welcome to the SEC moment. And from then it was OK."
Rather than panic from it, Skipper learned from it. Eventually, he began holding his own vs. Smith and two-time All-SEC defensive end Trey Flowers and current fifth-year senior star Deatrich Wise while starting as a true freshman guard in 2013 and at tackle since 2014.
"Every time you beat a guy like that whether it was Trey or Deatrich it's a meaningful rep," Skipper said. "It helped me practice that much harder and I think it's helping Hjalte practice that much harder as well."
Does confidence shatter from taking all those lumps along the way?
"I think that helps his confidence because even if you are getting beat, one rep when you beat him you have won a quality rep," Skipper said. "It's not like you are sitting there against a slug."
Indeed, Froholdt says, the times he merits a standoff with Ledbetter, an offensive guard's nightmare as a defensive tackle with a defensive end's range and quickness, he feels improved. Especially considering it's an achievement blocking Arkansas' D-line backups.
"It's difficult," Froholdt said. " We have some great defensive linemen and a lot of depth on the D-line. So no matter if it's the twos or threes coming up you still have a big challenge ahead. It's going to prepare me really well for SEC D-linemen. I think it's helping me a lot."
Bielema, offensive coordinator Dan Enos and new line coach Kurt Anderson agree that Froholdt has improved remarkably at a position requiring patience.
"It's a microwave world, everybody wants it now," Bielema said. "Football ain't that easy. You don't create an All-SEC player overnight. Hjalte has made a huge step."
Sports on 04/23/2016