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FAYETTEVILLE – Ask the national pundits why Arkansas is a darkhorse SEC title contender and you’ll hear more or less the same responses.
Experienced quarterback.
Physical style.
Near-elite running backs.
What doesn’t get mentioned is the team’s defense. In fact, ask those same pundits why they’re wary, or why they’re using the ‘darkhorse’ caveat and they’ll point to unknowns in several areas.
Those unknowns aren’t thought of that way around campus. It could probably even be claimed the Razorbacks have fewer question marks than any other team in the SEC, actually. Perennial contender Alabama still hasn’t settled on a quarterback, for the second consecutive year, mind you. Auburn’s starting running back job is up for grabs. Ole Miss has questions at both.
It’s a lack of name recognition, the coaches and players will tell you. To a man, to themselves and to local media, the question isn’t, ‘Will they be good?’ It’s, ‘How good will they be?’
There aren’t many spots on the whole roster where is there’s any significant wondering about who start. But there are a couple.
We’ll take a look at the less than handful of jobs still left in the air as the first full week of practice continues in earnest.
DEFENSIVE END
One job is all but locked: JaMichael Winston will start one on side. The other side will be figured out. And, honestly, it might not matter. Coach Bret Bielema, defensive coordinator Robb Smith and defensive line coach Rory Segrest have said countless times through the spring and into the fall the Razorbacks will roll deep and often along the front.
But someone has to start. And it will likely be either Deatrich Wise Jr. (6-foot-5, 272 pounds) or Tevin Beanum (6-4, 280 pounds).
Wise is oozing with potential. He looks like a pass-rush specialist, long and strong, but not too thick. Wise didn’t make the jump the coaches hoped to see from his redshirt freshman season to his sophomore season, though, putting up the same totals – three tackles for-loss and two sacks. Handed the starting spot entering spring practice, he subsequently lost it to Beanum within a few weeks. Bielema said part of it was because of Wise’s lack of dedication – he’s in a fraternity and into track-and-field.
Beanum had established himself as the guy by the time camp ended, even moving Wise back to the other side as a reserve for Winston. Jeremiah Ledbetter ended spring as Beanum’s back-up, but Segrest said Wise could move back and compete for the role again with a strong enough fall.
That’s high praise for Beanum considering his February arrest for DUI. Bielema doesn’t mess around with work ethic and Beanum was required to follow a strict set of guidelines just to stay on the team. He went above and beyond, according to his coach.
“He stressed to me I wasn’t in his doghouse,” Beanum said of Bielema. “He said ‘I know you made a mistake.’ He sympathized with me and told me that he just wanted me to continue on the path that I was on because this spring has been, I think, my biggest period of growth since I have been here.”
Cornerback-Cornerback-Nickel
There is no doubt as to the identity of Arkansas’ best three cornerbacks. Jared Collins, Henre’ Toliver and D.J. Dean take that honor. And it’s not close.
Determining which of the three is best is a different bag of snakes. Collins is the most fundamental. Toliver is the most athletic. Dean is the hardest worker. Those are secondary coach Clay Jennings’ descriptions, anyway. It’s pretty easy to figure out he’s not lying, too, when watching them.
Last year Collins and Dean played the traditional field and boundary cornerback spots. Toliver worked in the slot as the nickel. That meant Dean and Collins generally saw more snaps per game than Toliver, but Arkansas also went into the nickel more often than most teams because Toliver, as the No. 3 cornerback, was better than whomever slid into the No. 3 linebacker spot last year.
That’s likely to be the case again this year. The third cornerback will see a lot of time. But there’s no guarantee they’ll occupy the same spots as last year, Jennings said.
“I think those three guys, they complement one another very well,” Jennings said. “The guy that’s real steady out of that group is JC. The one that embodies everything you want out of a corner is Henre’. Then the guy that’s just blue-collar and busts his tail every day is D.J. Dean. We’re very fortunate to have those three guys.”
Wide Receiver
No job on the entire roster in 2015 is under more scrutiny than the spot opposite Keon Hatcher.
The dreadlocked senior from Oklahoma is the No. 1 wide receiver. Neither coaches, media, nor fans question it. But Hatcher isn’t a game-breaker. He isn’t a threat to run a straight fly route and take a pass to the end zone at the drop of a hat.
Nobody on the team is. Rather, nobody on the team was. That’s where Dominique Reed enters.
Many viewed Reed as a runner-up prize in recruiting in the spring. He’s an Arkansas native, a junior-college transfer with blazing speed and limited route-running technique. At least, that was the book.
Most didn’t believe Bielema at his signing-day press conference when he said Reed was the prize, the top-of-the-list wide receiver on his board. Ohio State-bound and North Little Rock product K.J. Hill probably was, or should have been.
But Bielema has done the hard sell with Reed. So much so, in fact, the expectation – fair or not – is at least 40 catches and six touchdowns. Reed runs a sub-4.4 40-yard-dash and at about 6-foot-3, has the size to win jump balls.
He’s also not going to be handed the job. Jared Cornelius, who held it at the end of spring, isn’t likely to simply relinquish the position.
Cornelius is a different receiver than Reed. He’s stockier. While Reed is 6-3, he’s only 180 pounds. Cornelius is 5-foot-11, 195. Quickness is his forte. Cornelius can be a terror dancing around defenders. It’s why he’s the most likely punt returner, too.
But Reed is the hope. And, really, he’s the biggest reason those around the program think an eight-win season isn’t just a pipe dream.
Eric Bolin is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers SEC football and Arkansas.
