Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman was not content with his team’s pass protection following Saturday’s preseason scrimmage. But he feels it is something that can be rectified by the time the Razorbacks open the season against Western Carolina on Sept. 2.
He gave credit to the defensive line for showing its renewed prowess, but voiced concern for their offensive counterparts, who were without 6-foot-9 redshirt sophomore Devon Manuel, the slated starter at left tackle. He was out with an undisclosed injury, but it doesn’t appear to be too serious.
“Our protection has to get better,” Pittman said. “We have to give (quarterback KJ Jefferson) more time. Devon Manuel did not play today. He’s out for maybe another two, three, four days. Something like that. Our pass protection — obviously (Andrew) Chamblee stepped in and did a nice job — but they have some pretty good pass rushers over there. We have to get better there.”
It was the Razorbacks’ first scrimmage of fall camp, which was closed to the public and media.
Although Jefferson looked sharp with his passes, he wasn’t given a lot of time to throw the ball, according to Pittman.
“Friday, he threw the ball as well as I’d ever seen him throw,” Pittman said of his senior team captain. “Crazy accuracy. And when he had time to throw (Saturday), he did one heck of a job.”
Jefferson also admitted that the lack of pass protection caused the Arkansas offense to start slowly Saturday. He did end up completing 9 of his 18 attempts, for 131 yards and 2 TDs.
“Going into the next week, that’s going to be a big emphasis for us, is starting fast,” he said. “Being able to get out on the field and move the ball and get some momentum going early. That’s the main thing.”
The running game proved effective, as the four primary ball-carriers — Rocket Sanders, AJ Green, Rashod Dubinion and Dominique Johnson — averaged over 50 yards each on the ground.
With an SEC officiating crew on the field to officiate the scrimmage, the Razorbacks also had far more penalties than what Pittman would have liked to have seen. Yet, having those mistakes early, allows the players and staff to identify what went wrong and fix them, moving forward.
“There’s some pass interference and things like that are going to happen at times,” Pittman said. “But the pre-snap penalties, most of them were with the younger guys. But we had some pre-snap penalties with the offensive line and things of that nature. Several secondary penalties with holding.
“We made mistakes as coaches. We had 12 on the field coming out of the huddle a couple times. Some of those things we have to get better at, but that’s why you scrimmage. And we will.”
Arkansas took Sunday off and will return to the practice field Monday.