Calloway embraces No. 1 role on defense
FAYETTEVILLE — It is fitting that Arkansas sophomore cornerback Chevin Calloway wears No. 1 on defense.
Calloway returns opposite shutdown senior corner Ryan Pulley and knows he will be the No. 1 target of every quarterback facing the Razorbacks this season until he can prove otherwise.
“I’m glad he has the reputation because it gives me an opportunity to put my name on the map and show people what I am capable of doing under the pressure and attention of people coming at me,” Calloway said.
Knowing what’s coming has had Calloway prepping since the spring under the direction of veteran secondary coach Ron Cooper, assisted by Mark Smith doubling as recruiting coordinator.
“It’s all a mental state having to keep your confidence up and competing and going hard and learning and getting better each and every day and perfecting my craft,” Calloway said after the Razorbacks’ second August preseason practice. “These last couple of days have been good. I’ve had a pick every day so far in skelly. That’s a good step for me.”
While a rookie starter, it’s not like Calloway is a complete rookie.
With torn pectoral muscles sidelining Pulley for the 2017 season’s duration from the second quarter of the first game, Calloway became the battlefield-promoted true freshman backup behind true freshman starting cornerback Kamren Curl.
Calloway lettered playing some backup corner and special teams every game and capped the season in the finale against Missouri logging a career-high 63 snaps, including recording his two pass breakups for the season and making five tackles, half of his total 10 tackles for the season.
Film of that Missouri game and the spring that Calloway displayed sufficed for new head coach Chad Morris, new defensive coordinator John Chavis and new secondary coaches Cooper and Smith. They concurred in Calloway stepping up to the corner opposite a now healthy Pulley freed Curl to fill the vacated safety position beside returning senior starter Santos Ramirez.
“Chevin had a great spring and ended up the spring opposite Pulley,” Smith said.
Calloway said the defense will be better prepared and better conditioned against the uptempo spread offenses, which bedeviled Arkansas during last season’s 4-8 campaign. The defense now daily defends an uptempo, spread offense in practice.
“It’s very beneficial as far as our conditioning,” Calloway said. “When we go against other teams, we won’t ever be caught by surprise. Whereas last year we would go (in practice, other than against scout team impersonators) against an offense where they huddled up, and then, game day, they would go uptempo. We weren’t used to that.”
Other than their comeback in their lone Southeastern Conference success over Ole Miss, it seemed the Hogs defensively wore out in last year’s 3-4 defense. They have now switched back to the 4-3 as Chavis’ base.
“The biggest adjustment to this defense compared to the other one is we are putting more pressure on the quarterback and just getting after the ball and the conditioning,” Calloway said. “We all are in good shape. Better shape than last year and I’m excited about that.”
Apparently, a Calloway vote would support the 4-3.
“I definitely feel better with it,” Calloway said. “Especially with the pressure that we’re putting on the quarterback and the opportunities that I have to get a couple of picks and pass breakups and getting to the quarterback. I think everyone loves it. I think anything new compared to last year when it was pretty much no good is a good change.”
Not that he knocks former Arkansas coach Bret Bielema and his staff. All but two coaches departed. For it wasn’t old Pine Bluff ties that caused the Dallas Bishop Dunne High School graduate to return to his birth state to play college ball.
“I know I was born there (Pine Bluff) for sure and grew up a little bit there,” Calloway said. “I was probably about two or three years old when we moved to Texas. I have a couple of cousins in (Pine Bluff) and an uncle that stays down there and my grandmother stays down there sometimes.”
But was his home state birth a factor coming back to his birth home state?
“No,” Calloway said. “That wasn’t a factor at all. It was more my experience when I came here and the coaches.”
Those coaches are gone, but Calloway enthusiastically plays on.
“It’s definitely a different coach and different atmosphere and environment around here and a new staff and buying into their process,” Calloway said. “It’s kind of like I went to another school or something. Just another opportunity to give myself an identity and get better with these coaches.”