Still no separation between Arkansas QBs after scrimmage

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas alumni and guests have now seen two different quarterbacks open with the first-team offense.

Fourth-year junior Ty Storey, of Charleston, quarterbacked the first team during the first scrimmage on Aug. 11. Third-year sophomore Cole Kelley led the offense in their second scrimmage, again closed to media, on Saturday at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

“We went ahead and started Cole today because Ty went last week,” said new Arkansas offensive coordinator Joe Craddock, who is also the team’s quarterback coach. “I think before the scrimmage we really set it out where it would be exactly equal. Cole would have an equal amount of reps with the ones as well as Ty. Each would have an equal number of reps with the twos. We’ll go back and grade the film and see exactly where we were.”

Head coach Chad Morris said the staff will look deeper on film for what he indicated he did not detect as a separating factor during Saturday’s scrimmage, the final full-scale scrimmage of the preseason. Fall semester classes at the university begin Monday and the season-opener is Sept. 1 against Eastern Illinois in Fayetteville.

“I don’t think coming straight out of the scrimmage you just say one guy stood out or didn’t do as well as we thought,” Morris said. “I mean, there wasn’t anything in there to say he had a great day or a bad day. I think they were pretty consistent today and I was pleased to see that with all of them today.”

Morris said Storey and Kelley both could play against Eastern Illinois, but he does want to name a starter with time to spare before Sept. 1.

“If it’s not the end of the week, it’ll be the first of next week,” Morris said. “Obviously, we want to be able to get in there and get things going for our game week preparation, so everybody can know.”

Scrimmage statistics Saturday were again not made available to media. Morris said senior receiver Jonathan Nance caught a touchdown from redshirt freshman Daulton Hyatt. He also cited sophomore receiver Jordan Jones, of Smackover.

“Jordan Jones had a couple of really nice catches and a touchdown,” Morris said.

Sophomore receiver Jarrod Barnes, of Cabot, caught Craddock’s eye with a difficult catch.

“I think Jarrod Barnes made a heck of a play,” Craddock said. “I think we hit him on the middle. He took it and broke a couple of tackles and took it down the sideline about to the 30 to 35 yard-line.

“I know Jared Cornelius yesterday (Friday) made a good play to open up practice. And those are the guys just the past few days that have really made some good plays down the field.”

Cornelius pronounced himself recovered from the torn Achilles that ended his 2017 season in the third game, enabling his 2018 return as a fifth-year senior.

“I feel great,” Cornelius said. “I would say I’m 100 percent physically.”

Unlike the previous Saturday, Saturday’s scrimmage was pass-oriented exposing some pass protection flaws among the running backs, Morris said, the offensive position group he most praised in preseason.

“I think I bragged on them enough that they might have started feeling a little bit better about themselves than we probably should at this point in camp,” Morris said, noting running backs coach Jeff Traylor popped their balloon. “I know coach Traylor and the running backs had to have a little heartto-heart and kind of get things back right on the sideline and get their focus back right.”

Running backs did get some good news. Junior T.J. Hammonds, whose ankle injury earlier in the week initially appeared potentially serious when helped off the practice field, practiced Friday and scrimmaged Saturday, Morris said.

Defensively, Morris said senior starting safety Santos Ramirez, freshman backup safety Joe Foucha and nickel back D’Vone McClure all posted interceptions Saturday.

Veteran defensive coordinator John Chavis praised true freshmen safeties Foucha and Myles Mason, as well as backup true freshman weak side linebacker Bumper Pool. Chavis otherwise mostly spared the praise and took tacklers to task.

“I’m not satisfied nearly with the way we tackled,” Chavis said. “We tackled much better in the first scrimmage. Much better. That’s my responsibility to make sure we tackle well, and I will assure you we will, but we did not today. I’m glad we didn’t have a real game today because we didn’t tackle well enough to win.”

Junior defensive end Gabe Richardson said fatigue was a factor the Razorbacks must overcome,

“When guys get tired, the technique goes out the door,” Richardson said. “We’ve got to do a better job at that. All the guys recruited here, there’s a reason they are here, because they can tackle. You have to do it when you’re tired, too.”