Arkansas defensive coordinator John Chavis asked for a little more time before making any predictions on who would play among the newcomers soon to arrive on campus.
The question is relevant. Most will show up in the next month or so, in time for the start of summer school and the beginning of offseason workouts.
While not making any comments about the help that’s clearly on the way, Chavis said he’s not afraid of playing first-year players in the SEC and neither is coach Chad Morris.
It comes with risks. Freshmen sometimes make mistakes.
There was an old saying about playing sophomores back in the day when freshmen were not eligible. For every sophomore you played, chalk up one loss.
Chavis doesn’t buy into that theory. His Texas A&M defense — because of injuries — started six freshmen against Florida last season. Of course, the Aggies slipped a little on defense last year. Youth will do that; so will losing three players to the first three rounds of the NFL Draft, as Chavis’ unit did after the 2016 season.
There are 10 defensive players in Arkansas’ new class, including two midterm arrivals — linebacker Bumper Pool and defensive tackle Isaiah Nichols.
Both performed well in the spring.
Chavis had good things to say about both Pool and Nichols, but really wanted to hold back on saying too much until all 10 go through summer workouts.
There is help on the way in the defensive line with Dorian Gerald, the nation’s top junior college pass rusher, along with Courtre Alexander and Nick Fulwider. Billy Ferrell is listed as a tackle, but has the speed to play on the outside.
Along with Pool, the linebackers, coached by Chavis, will also add Andrew Parker, a speedster from New Orleans.
The safety group adds Myles Mason and Joseph Foucha. LaDarrius Bishop, a true speedster, arrives to help at cornerback.
“We’ve got some who will help but I tend to wait until we get them here and they do something,” Chavis said. “What I will tell you is that we recruit players that we believe will help us and that have potential to play at the next level.”
In other words, come with the mindset that you are going to play and be here for just three years.
“You probably will say, ‘How can you tell at this age?’” Chavis said. “They have to continue to develop, but you want to recruit guys who hopefully are making a decision after three years, are they going to come back?
“You go and do the research — I don’t mean this in a wrong way but it’s just facts — the guy who stays around for five years, he may help you win, and that’s good, but the ones who are going to have the biggest impact on your program are going to be the ones who are going to be around here for three years.
“You want to recruit those guys. Of course, that’s everybody else doing that, too. No one wants to talk about that, but it’s what you want to do.”
If they can play, don’t wait around with a redshirt season. It might cost you a year later.
“I learned a lesson at LSU that I guess I always knew,” Chavis said. “We had a defensive lineman that came in as a freshman who was not ready to play. He came in during the summer, worked and worked, and five or six games into the season was ready to play. He would have helped us. He was good enough.
“So we talked to him about getting on the field. He said, ‘Coach, I’ll do it if it’s meaningful snaps, not just clean up at the end of the game. Otherwise, I wish you’d redshirt me.’ So we redshirted him. He came back and played just two years and was gone. He was the 15th overall player taken in the draft.
“We got two years out of him. Again, what it tells me is this: if you have freshmen that are talented, find a way to get them on the field. Find a way to get them on the field.”
There was no doubt Cha-vis said it twice for emphasis. He also pushed the fact that they will be better the second year after playing as a freshman.
“There’s no doubt,” Cha-vis said. “We are not going to be afraid to play freshmen. If they are talented, we will get them on the field.
“You get to a certain point when you practice, practice, practice that you have to get to the next step to advance. It’s automatic, you only get better with playing time. You are going to see the true guy, the true athleticism when it’s in a game.
“If all you do is practice what do you have to look forward to? In a game, they can look forward to going into a game and then being called out when we watch the film together. It’s just human nature that is sometimes forgotten.
“Sometimes that player has the motor that’s going and they are the same regardless of whether they play or not. But most of the time, the player will tell you, ‘Hey coach, I want to see myself on the big screen.’ There is nothing wrong with that. They come here to play in the games.
“Our philosophy is that we are going to create chances for them to have success. When that happens, they become more confident. When they become confident, that’s when they become a great player. I’ve never seen a great player who was not confident in what he was doing. That’s a big part of coaching.”
That doesn’t mean all play as true freshmen. You still have to evaluate when a player is fully ready.
“I’ve also seen situations where if you are not careful, you can hamper a player’s development by putting him in situations he wasn’t ready for, and then the way you respond when he’s not ready,” Chavis said. “All of a sudden you are all over him. I always evaluate myself as a coach before I evaluate a player in terms of what is he seeing and why are we getting a certain response.
“What you find out, you have not repped him enough. Yeah, we told him, but that’s the worst thing you can hear from a coach: we told him what to do. Are you kidding me? You told him?
“If all you had to do was tell them, why would you ever practice? Just tell them and let them go play. It doesn’t work that way.”
The key is to be careful about saying never.
“It takes patience and you can’t give up on players,” Cha-vis said. “You help them and find a way to develop.”
There are lots of resources available to help that development. Part of it is the massive resource in the academic facility.
“Football has really changed,” Chavis said. “We are even getting feedback from our academic staff. Tell me how Johnny learns the best. Tell me what makes more sense to him. It makes more sense. It’s all a part of coaching, too. Not everyone learns the same.
“Academics are a big, important thing we do here. Yes, we want to win a national championship, but we want our players to leave here with a degree and to be better fathers, husbands and better citizens.
“Our academic facility — in combination with the dining hall — is an awesome place. Our kids are comfortable there. There are good setups around the country, but what we have could not be more convenient for our players. The coaches’ offices, the dressing room, the dining hall and that academic facility are all next to each other.”
It’s all a part of what Cha-vis thinks makes this the right time to get something built at Arkansas in the Morris era. Just the thought of building brought about a neat Chavis story that dates to his time on the Johnny Majors staff at Tennessee with Phil Fulmer, then an assistant.
“We built a playground together at Phillip’s house,” Chavis said. “We were assistants at Tennessee together in 1991. Our kids were the same age. He mentioned that he wanted to buy a playground for his yard. I said, ‘Phillip, why buy one? Let’s build one.’ He asked if I could do that and I said sure I could.
“We had a great time. The great time was us being together. I have been building things all my life. It was fun. It took six or seven afternoons really grinding. It was pretty nice.
“It’s got a playhouse, swings, slides. We built it before you could buy anything like that commercial.
“You got two men and you have a common goal. There is nothing better than that to bring you together. It brought us together. It wasn’t hard work, but we worked to a common goal and had a lot of fun. It’s great memories.”
Chavis thinks there are going to be great memories made at Arkansas now. Some of it may be that youth is about to be served.
Clay Henry can be reached at [email protected] .