Hogs look at next year's receivers
FAYETTEVILLE - When they dined after Tuesday’s Arkansas spring football practice, chances are Razorbacks third-year sophomore receiver Deon Stewart was presented a heftier meal than senior receiver Jared Cornelius.
Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema wants Stewart of Hardy heartier and Cornelius of Shreveport Evangel faster in the wake of the various voids left by 2016 senior receivers Drew Morgan, Keon Hatcher, Dominique Reed and Keon Hatcher all moving on trying to audition for NFL scouts.
“I was weighing 159 at the beginning of this offseason and Coach B said something to me and I gained 10, actually 11 pounds,” Stewart, 5-11, said. “Last season I went up but that was the laziness of me in the offseason because I went back down. I’ve got my weight back and I’m trying to keep it up.”
Stewart said he realizes being buried behind all those seniors as a redshirt freshman had him cruising instead of accelerating like he does now.
“I’m playing a lot faster because I know last spring it was kind of my first time with the offense so I didn’t really know anything,” Stewart said. “I was slow out there. It was really just laziness
of me because I wouldn’t come in and watch film but this year I am trying to get it all down.”
Stewart said he’s never been so prepared for a spring scrimmage like Saturday’s upcoming.
“I’m really excited,” Stewart said. “This is my first time getting out and going when I really know my stuff.”
The leading returning receiver with 32 catches for 515 yards and four touchdowns last year, Cornelius, 5-11, needs to be faster this season, Bielema maintains with so much receivers’ speed gone from last season and secondaries’ bound to key on him.
“I'm coming down,” Cornelius said. “I’m kind of between 215 and 212 every now and then, but I was 220 at the beginning of this winter. I’m trying to be 210 to 205.”
Cornelius was asked about Stewart’s spring progress running with him on the first team.
“Deon Stewart’s playing well,” Cornelius said. “He's quick. He knows what he's doing. He's kind of the second guy that I would say knows the offense best on the receiving team. He just knows what he's doing. When you know what you're doing you're able to play fast and get open quick. He's been doing that.”
Listed at 6-4, 301, football senior eligibility/second-year graduate student from the University of Texas transfer right offensive guard Jake Raulerson already seems like a big guy but Bielema wants him to keep getting bigger.
“I’ve tried as hard as I can to gain some good weight so I don’t look sloppy,” Raulerson said after Tuesday’s closed practice. “I think it’s good weight. I’ve gained probably 20 pounds since last season. I feel good and feel like I’m moving better and hopefully that’s showing. I’m just trying to work as hard as I can in the weight room and on the field and whatever happens, happens. It’s my last year and I have to make the best of it.”
Raulerson was never close to this big as a Longhorn.
“Back at Texas I weighed about 235, 240, and it has been a real struggle to gain that weight.” Raulerson said. “In my high school, I was 220, 225, my senior year when I was playing. It was real struggle to begin with to get 240 to 275. Then struggled to get to 295. Just doing it in increments and it has been a real struggle getting over that 300-pound mark and keeping it. So the best thing about this offseason is I have been able to maintain that weight.”
Michael Taylor, redshirted last season as a late-arriving junior college transfer defensive end but now running first-team outside linebacker in the Razorbacks’ new 3-4 defensive scheme, met media for the first time this spring.
“It’s going well so far, trying to adjust to a new position,” Taylor said. “The drop is new to me. On the D-line I didn’t drop as much. Dropping to the flats, reading run and pass. Sometimes I have to go to the wheel routes You’re running down the field and me weighing 260 running down the field it’s not as easy as for some other guys. But I think I’m adjusting so far.”
The 3-4 isn’t a new scheme to Taylor, just his position.
“In junior college we played the same defense but except I was was on the D-line so it was kind of different,” Taylor said.
Allotted 15 spring practice dates, the Razorbacks now have used four. They next practice Thursday and scrimmage Saturday and continue the Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday practice through capping spring drills with the annual Red-White intrasquad game April 29 at Reynolds Razorback Stadium.