FAYETTEVILLE -- Following Thursday's first preseason scrimmage, Sam Pittman was pleased with the results and that fact no serious injuries.
Pittman estimated the closed scrimmage likely lasted about 150 plays. Pittman talked about how it started.
"Scrimmage format is just like it always is, which I don’t know if you’ve ever been to one, I think you have," Pittman said. "So, we had six kick offs, ones, twos and threes, two apiece. We had seven punts, the ones went three, two and one, or ones, two and threes. That way we had nine field goals, five and four, one and two.
"We start the scrimmage one-O versus two-D and then one-D versus two-O then the threes and threes. The next series is one versus one, two versus two, three versus three. Then we had a third down, eight-rep third down situational scrimmage where it’s good on good, ones and twos. Then we went to red area and that’s good on good ones, twos and threes. Then we went to low red good on good ones, twos and threes. Then we had a two-minute situation with 42 seconds, one timeout, minus 44 and that was with the ones and twos. Ones did not convert that, the twos did and I think Kyle just told you about (Matthew) Shipley’s 51-yard field goal to win the game at the end for the offense."
Pittman felt Bobby Petrino's offense got the scrimmage started well and then Travis Williams' defense came on as it went along.
"So, I thought the offense started extremely fast, ones and twos offense started extremely fast," Pittman said. "Defense won a lot of situations, felt like they came back a lot in the second half. I talked to the team after the game, we got to figure out on offense how to finish the game. On defense, we got to figure out how to start the game, because we weren’t very good defensively at the beginning and we were a lot better — thought our run defense was a lot better after the beginning of the first two series by the ones and the twos. But I thought Taylen Green was on point, I’m very, very pleased with (Malachi) Singleton, he’s playing very well there with the twos. Quarterback-wise, I thought we had a really good day. They’ve got great leadership of the team, of the offense."
A problem last year much of the season was penalties. That was a positive note from Thursday according to Pittman.
"To be honest with you, there were very few penalties," Pittman said. "I don’t think the offense had but an illegal procedure until late in the scrimmage. I think the first one there was with the threes, very clean there. We had about three PIs defensively, which in this I don’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill. We’ll have to get better, but you’re talking about first team, second team and third team playing. So, overall I thought our penalties were good. We had SEC officials, ones that have done four of our games with their entire crew here. So, that really, really is going to help us. You know, we’re three weeks out from today and that’s really going to help up with those officials.
"I told them to call it just like they see it, and of course the hardest part is figuring out if they sacked the quarterback because the quarterback in his mind never gets sacked and the defensive line, if they're five yards away from him, would have automatically sacked him. So, that’s the worst thing about the scrimmage to have to deal with as the head coach, but I thought we got a lot done and I was very, very pleased and I think we pretty much came out injury-free. From what I know right now guys, I didn’t see anybody going over the sidelines with an injury, so I thought it was a great day."
A few players including wide receiver Isaiah Sategna drew praise from Pittman afterward.
"I thought Sategna, he made some big plays out there," Pittman said. "Yeah, I thought he made some big plays out there. As soon as you ask me the question, I'll tell you who didn't play today. But, Gumms made some plays. Braylen Russell's a load. Rodney Hill, really proud of him. Again, at the beginning of the scrimmage, you could say the offensive line was really doing well and the situationals towards the end, you could say the defensive line, linebackers were. When we tried to run the ball later in the scrimmage, couldn't. Defense really did a nice job when we're trying to run it early.
"But if you're just talking about people, Jayden Johnson stuck out to me, and our linebackers of course stuck out to me. Obviously, Landon Jackson. Cam's a little beat up in the hip, Cam Ball. But Landon Jackson's a really, really good player. And Keivie Rose made a lot of plays today, just off the top of my head."
A lot of key players were held out of the scrimmage though none are believed to be serious.
"Pat Kutas has got a back so we’re resting it," Pittman said. "We’ve rested it for a few days. We feel like we’ll get him back. I’m not positive but it may be another week, it may be another week and a half. But we feel good we’re going to get him back. Khafre Brown, we held him today. That was us. He’s had some knee surgeries and things. We’ve been holding him some in practice as well. So that was a knee deal. Luke Brown is gonna have to have a trim on his cartilage that he had worked on before. So that’ll be … that was two days ago.
"Jon Hill, Luke Hasz, Anton Juncaj and Marquise Robinson are out with concussions and they’ve all been out different times. I think Anton was the first one so I anticipate him being back this coming week. Cuddy would be or Marquise would be the next one. Then Luke’s was just recent and Jon Hill’s was just recent. Rashod Dubinion didn’t play because of a knee, swelling on his knee. Ja’Quinden Jackson has a mild ankle sprain. Tyrone Broden, we didn’t play him today from turf toe. I would imagine he’ll be … some of these guys will be back tomorrow but we just held him today. Dylan Hasz has a back and he’ll probably be back tomorrow as well. Jaheim Singletary has a hamstring (that’s apparently acting up) and Vito (Calvauruso) has a pulled groin muscle and obviously we know he’s a kicker so we held him.
"The longest one that I think is going to be out is Luke Brown because he’s going to have to be out a couple of weeks. But the rest of these guys will be back. I think if we forced half of that group to play today I think they could have. Did I miss (Andrew) Armstrong? Armstrong’s got a slight hamstring too."
Following the list, Pittman went into a little more detail on the group.
"I think they could have played if we pushed them," Pittman said. "You know when I was in high school I had a hamstring and a groin and I don’t know, if I’d have gotten out of the way of that damn guy who hit me in front of my knee or not. But we didn’t play anybody today, we’re trying to get better today and we felt like as a staff that it would be better to hold these kids and get them back healthy because we still have another scrimmage and some other live reps going on. So we decided to do that."
Pittman was asked if any of the injuries would likely result in someone missing extensive time?
"No, none of these guys are long term," Pittman said. "I’m not worried about any of those guys. I’ll be honest with you, sometimes in these first scrimmages you can hold guys if they’re a little … not bumped, but if there’s some ligament problems that could magnify because of the portal you’ve got to look at guys. It’s really good because you don’t want to put a guy in that’s a two that you’re looking at the first time against the ones in a live situation. So we looked at it as much as we could as a positive and I felt like we came out of the scrimmage that way."
Scrimmage Stats:
Runs
Taylen Green had a 37-yard touchdow run.
Braylen Russell had a 15-yard run.
In red zone, Russell had an 8-yard touchdown and Tyrell Reed had an 8-yard touchdown.
Passing
Isaiah Sategna had a 45-yard catch from Green on first play of scrimmage.
Sategna had a 65-yard touchdown catch from Green.
Davion Dozier had a 35-yard touchdown from Malachi Singleton.
Rodney Hill had a 45-yard catch from Singleton on a wheel route.
Davion Dozier had 12-yard touchdown from Singleton.
Kamron Bibby had 60-yard touchdown from KJ with the threes.
Andreas Paaske had a 6-yard touchdown catch from Blake Boda with the threes.
Sategna had 20-yard catch late from Green.
Singleton threw a 55-yard touchdown to Monte Harrison on a busted play.
Defense
Jabrae Shaw had a pick.
Jayden Johnson had a pick.
Brad Spence had a sack.
Danny Saili had a sack and tackle for loss.
Stephen Dix had a sack.
Jaylon Braxton had a TFL in red zone.
Landon Jackson had a sack in two minute.
Quincy Rhodes had a sack in two minute.
Field Goals
Made all but one.
Matthew Shipley was good from 43, 48, missed from 42, then made a 51-yarder in two minute.
Kyle Ramsey was good from 38 and 46.
Charlie Von Der Meden was good from 42.