Arkansas lineman adjusting to new staff
Senior noseguard adjusting to Hogs' staff
FAYETTEVILLE - Only two coaches under new Arkansas Coach Chad Morris returned from Bret Bielema’s 2017 Razorbacks.
Austin Capps relishes that he’s coached by one of them.
John Scott coached the defensive line last year on which now junior Capps of Star City lettered as the backup nose guard.
While other Razorbacks acclimated to the new staff during practices last spring, Capps could only watch.
“I had hernia surgery the week before spring ball,” Capps said. “That was pretty tough.”
So Capps missed the spring actively adjusting to Morris and new defensive coordinator John Chavis.
“It was kind of weird thinking about it,” Capps said. “A new staff and being out all spring.”
Scott, now coaching the defensive tackles in Chavis’ 4-3 defense, assured Capps not to fret.
“One thing that helped is Coach Scott was back and saw what I could do last year,” Capps said. “He told me just pay attention to the meetings and take as many mental reps as you can. It was nice to have him. Somebody I knew instead of an entirely new coaching staff. I was fortunate he was my position coach.”
A Morris preseason statement vouches that Scott told the new staff there’s proof in Capps’ pudding.
“I’m excited about seeing what he
(Capps) is able to bring,” Morris said. “I know Coach Scott’s very high on him.”
Rory Segrest, Arkansas’ defensive line coach in 2016, could have joined Scott assuring Morris and Chavis that if recovered from the hernia, Capps would be just fine.
The 6-4, 310-pound Dumas native who moved to Star City in the eighth grade arrived strong at the UA in Fayetteville and has just gotten stronger.
His play improved accordingly upping from 12 tackles as a true freshman reserve in 2016 to 22 tackles last season in a 3-4 defense where the nose guard tying up blockers for the linebackers to make the tackle often was an objective.
The 4-3, Capps said, makes him technically a tackle but actually in multiple roles.
“Instead of true nose I play a little bit of a 3-technique and a 2-high and play a little zero (true nose guard) and just about everything inside,” Capps said. “I enjoy it a lot.”
Coming off last year’s 4-8, Capps said there wasn’t much salesmanship required by Morris and Chavis on re-selling the 4-3 scheme that Arkansas had played the previous Bielema years prior to last season’s switch to the 3-4.
“It is what it is,” Capps said. “After last year why not try something new?”
Nobody doubts his mental acumen for
either defense. Capps’ football smarts reflects in the classroom. The agricultural business major has been on the SEC Academic Honor Roll two years running.
“Capps is a smart player,” McTelvin “Sosa” Agim, the Razorbacks’ junior defensive end from Hope, said. “You know he’ll be in the right spot.”
If he’s healthy to get there. And he is, he insists.
“I’m 100 percent,” Capps said. “I’ve been working out since June. I’m getting plenty of reps and over the summer I did all the conditioning and weightlifting.”
Agim believes he’s fit.
“He’s making it now,” Agim said. “He’s clogging it up and making plays.”
Capps started preseason drills in the thick of the defensive plans as the backup tackle to senior Armon Watts who had the spring practices that Capps obviously did not.
“He (Capps) had an issue where we missed out on him in the spring,” Scott said. “But he had a good summer recovering and fighting back. I’m looking forward to working with him in the fall. He’ll be full speed.”
Certainly that’s Capps’ intent, his condition aided, he said, by the accelerated practice pace playing defense against Morris’ hurry-up no-huddle offense.
“I think we’re getting in a lot better shape,” Capps said. “I feel like I’m fine mentally and physically getting back into it. I just have to get reps and get more.”