BIELEMA able to pay Broyles one last visit.
FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas Razorbacks Coach Bret Bielema said he was able to go by and visit with Frank Broyles one final time last weekend.
Broyles, the long-time Arkansas football coach and Athletic Director, died Monday at age 92 from complications related to Alzheimer’s disease.
“I got a phone call the latter part of last week just to have an opportunity to go over,” Bielema said. “I had a chance to stop by Saturday night and see him and his family.
“I’m forever grateful for everything he did before I got here, and then one of my only regrets I would say is getting here at a time where it wasn’t at the best part of his lifetime, where I could get a chance to sit down with him.”
Bielema said he has a fond memory of getting a call from Sean Rochelle, the then-executive director of the Razorback Foundation, to have lunch with Broyles on one of his better days a couple of years ago.
“I took him his Wendy’s,” Bielema said. “He liked the Wendy’s chicken nuggets if I’m not mistaken. We sat down and had a great lunch and he shared some thoughts and some ideas with me at the time.”
Bielema said the football administration is in discussion with the Broyles family about a proper way to memorialize Broyles this season.
“We won’t do anything that they aren’t comfortable with or not in favor of,” Bielema said. “But I think all the ideas I’ve seen … are all very well thought out. Of course I’ve heard from about 20,000 people through social media and email that have ideas as well.
“I think certain things that held true to Coach Broyles, whether it be a mascot or a saying are things in play.”
Tutt tout
Junior cornerback Britto Tutt, who is a year removed from knee surgery, has shown his skills when he’s healthy and his knee isn’t sore.
“I told the defensive staff this morning that if we were to line the entire defensive staff up and pedal them all 5 yards and break them, Britto is going to be the second guy to come back,” defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads said. “He’s got that type of speed and talent, and when he’s fresh, it really shows.”
The first guy to return after a backpedal and break?
“Probably Pulley,” Rhoads said, referencing junior cornerback Ryan Pulley.
Tutt is working as a backup on the left side behind Pulley.
“We’ve brought him back gradually,” Rhoads said. “He had some swelling, so once we brought him back we didn’t give him a full allotment of reps. I think that’s helped him. As he’s caught up, his legs are a little bit heavier or tired where the other guys have already moved past that point in training camp.
“We’ve got to get him full strength so he can display his speed and agility and quickness that we need from him to get on the field. He’s ahead of where he was last August when he went down and we certainly need him to be there, because we need him to be part of our twodeep.”
Freshmen Kamren Curl and Chevin Calloway are working at second-team right cornerback behind senior Henre Toliver and doing well, Rhoads said.
The top three nickel backs are seniors Kevin Richardson and Josh Liddell and redshirt freshman Micahh Smith.
Shadow time
About 40 Razorbacks arrived early at the Jerry and Gene Jones Family Student-Athlete Success Center on Wednesday, but it wasn’t for a group meal or the prelude to a workout.
“We actually had a Razor ‘Back’ to Work” day, so we had probably about 40 of our players around NWA this morning with different people in different lines of work, from high schools to grade schools to middle schools, to bankers to insurance to media to everything from A to Z,” Coach Bret Bielema said. “And our guys job shadowed with someone this morning. They met up at the Jones Center this morning at 7:30 and went and job shadowed until noon today.”
Hot kicker
Bret Bielema said junior Cole Hedlund was 12 of 12 on field goals last Saturday. During the portion of practice open to the media, Hedlund hit from 48, 43, 38 and 36 yards.
“Cole has been en fuego,” Bielema said. “He’s been really off the charts. Not saying I want to kick 12 field goals in a day, but if we do, he did it.”
Bielema said Hedlund has made 97 percent of his kicks from 40 yards and closer in camp.
“I think he would handle the kicking job if we played tomorrow,” Bielema said. “He would be our field goal guy … kicking it as well as he’s kicked it.”
Bielema said sophomore Connor Limpert will probably handle kickoffs, as he did last season, and junior Blake Johnson will be the punter.
Right, left
Defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads said the team will play cornerbacks on the right or left side rather than have them work at boundary or field positions, which are based on the hash mark from where the ball is snapped.
“We’d like to recruit that way so the versatility of the kids is such that all techniques we’re asking them to play, they can play,” Rhoads said. “I think we’ve seen too many times in the past against tempo teams that trying to flip and playing a field and boundary corner … it gets you into trouble.
“And two, I think it unnecessarily tires out those guys. Guys that you don’t want to be tired on the field. So we’ll be left and right.”
Martin update
Wide receiver Brandon Martin, the top-rated junior college transfer at the position, is working at full speed after missing about a week due to a back injury.
“Saturday he didn’t go, Monday he was a little bit limited, Tuesday he was full go and looked good,” Bret Bielema said. “That’s a key thing, too.”
Bielema said Martin is competing to be one of the top seven or eight receivers for the travel squad.
Enos likes defense
Offensive coordinator Dan Enos said he likes what he’s seen from the 3-4 defense his unit is going against in training camp.
“It’s been very competitive, I can say that,” Enos said. “The defense is playing extremely hard. They’re playing fast. You can see from practice to practice the tweaks they make in their alignments and their coverages. … I think they’re going to cause people problems.”
Return guys
Receiver Jared Cornelius, who has been the Razorbacks’ top punt returner the last two seasons, will resume practicing Monday after sitting out to rest a back injury, but he might not be the top deep man on punts.
“J-Red will want to do it,” Bret Bielema said. “Whether he’s at that point or not we’ll make a decision.”
Bielema said cornerback Henre Toliver is probably the next punt returner.
The top candidates to return kickoffs are running back Chase Hayden and receivers Jordan Jones, Koilan Jackson, Maleek Barkley and De’Vion Warren.
Brown update
Bret Bielema said he’s hopeful freshman safety Montaric Brown will be academically cleared to practice when fall semester classes begin Monday and the roster can be expanded from 105 to 120 players.
“I would love to have him here on Monday,” Bielema said. “I think that’s probably a very real possibility, but I’m not going to say it’s 100 percent going to happen yet. But every indication is we should have him here by Monday.”