FAYETTEVILLE -- Eric Mateos is in his first season with the Razorbacks coaching the offensive line and he has what he feels is a good group.
The line has some key returning players from last season such as Joshua Braun, Ty'Kieast Crawford, Patrick Kutas, E'Marion Harris, Amaury Wiggins and some others. They have been mixed in with transfers Keyshawn Blackstock, Fernando Carmona, Addison Nichols and Joe More. The first scrimmage was this past Thursday and the next one will be the same day this week. Mateos talked about where the unit needs to make the most strides before this Thursday.
"So, I think that we need to get in game shape," Mateos said. "I think there's a difference between running all summer and doing those short burst conditioning styles or you're running gassers 100 at that time. Where I would like to see us improve is our game conditioning, which is everywhere I’ve ever been. Usually you get to that first scrimmage, you expose them to 12-play racks and that’s their first time getting exposed to that and it’s a shock to their system.
"And so what I’d really like to see in the next scrimmage that I don’t think we saw in the first scrimmage was an ability to play at a high level on play 9, 10, 11, 12, finish drives. We saw that in the spring game a little bit too, where I think that first drive with the offense or the second drive was like a 12-13-14 player. I thought by that time we had worked our way into playing shape and we were able to finish the drive. I felt like in this last scrimmage we didn’t do a good enough job of staying at a high level throughout the course of the drive when they’re playing consecutive snaps in a row. So I’d really like to see us improve in that area and finish blocks a lot better when we’re tired in the next scrimmage."
Kutas, who was moved to guard this season after playing mostly tackle last season has been out with an injury. Mateos was asked what kind of problems that has presented?
"Well, I wouldn’t say it’s caused issues," Mateos said. "It’s given other guys opportunities to rep and it’s never a problem to have too many centers to play. What you’re doing is, you want to give different centers reps working with the one quarterback. Because the worst situation is when the starting center might go down in a game, and you’re looking and what does the TV camera always pan to, right?
"The backup center getting snaps with the first team quarterback. We’re trying to make that a non-issue if it ever did happen. So, it’s been really fun watching those guys with different styles, different leadership styles. We all have to get better at being more loud with our communication and understand that we’re going to be in some hostile environments. So, that’s got to improve but I’ve been really happy with all the guys repping at center. TJ Dawn, Josh Street, Brooks Edmonson, we’ve been repping a lot of guys there and you can just never have too many guys ready to play that position."
With both Nichols and Wiggins seeing action at both center and guard, Mateos talked about how it went in Thursday's first scrimmage.
"Most of the scrimmage, Addison played center," Mateos said. "He played about, I want to say 38-something, 40 plays as a center and Amaury really only played 12 or so at center, but that’s probably what we’d do just because Addison has so many more banked reps in this offense as a center. So, if I had to play tomorrow, that’s probably what we would do is have Amaury play guard.
"I’m not scared to mix it up, I think guys have to be ready to play. I told the guys that I’m going to play the guys that deserve to play. I think there’s a notion that you can only play five o-linemen. I’ve had a couple times in my career where I’ve had six starters, seven starters in my brain where guys are rotating because you want to play the guys that deserve to play, especially in the day and age where a guy could transfer just like that. I don't want to ruin my own o-line depth that we’ve worked really hard to get just because I never play a guy on a Saturday. So, we have seven, eight, nine guys that are playing at a really high level and it’s been really fun to watch."
Redshirt sophomore Harris is emerging as someone who may be in position to see extensive action according to Mateos.
"By far the most improved player on this team, or really in my room I should say," Mateos said. "I mean, his level of play right now is extremely high. I mean, he had the best scrimmage probably of anybody in our room. Probably him and Keyshawn Blackstock had their best scrimmages since I’ve been here. And that was really fun to see. Really proud of him. You see it in how he moves. He’s got shoulders back, chest up, chin up. He’s got confidence. He’s gotten his weight back where he wants it. He’s feeling strong. You’re just seeing the maturity of him being a third-year guy. And that’s an under-rated thing. It’s usually that third year where guys, you know, I’m not going to say the phrase, but you know what or get off the pot, right? You can tell he’s taken that step. So I’m really proud of him."
Is he likely to play guard or tackle?
"He can do either," Mateos said. "I mean he’s been awesome at both. Today he took probably 10 reps as the One left guard and and he looked great. He’s doing the two reps at left tackle and looks great. It’s just hard to find a bad play of the guy, you know? And I’m really proud of him. So he belongs. He deserves to play. He’s one of the guys I’m talking about. I’m not going to just not play somebody, you know, if you’re number six. If you deserve to play, you’re going to play."
Arkansas' offensive line struggled last season, but Carmona at left tackle was called a dawg by Ja'Quinden Jackson on Friday. Jackson praised both Carmona and Blackstock as dawgs.
"Well, he’s ain’t book-end yet," Mateos said. "He’s still got work to do and he’s got to stay hungry and he’s on his way, but he’s just a good dude. He comes from a great dad who was a longtime football coach, so he’s the son of a coach. I say I think we got him because I’m Cuban, and he’s Cuban. We both got Cuban daddies. I think that his personality is just one of a guy that just loves football.
"When you see a guy who is so unaffected by the outside world and what people think of him, and so authentic, but is also talented, I think it’s just fun to play with, coach, I mean all the above, right? I think he just kind of showed, you can be a great player and a good leader, but also a normal fun guy to hang out. I love talking him up, but he also needs to freaking block Landon (Jackson) better, too."
Arkansas has 13 scholarship offensive linemen and Mateos wants more. He said they currently have two walk-on linemen who are scholarship-type players.
"Obviously not, obviously we’d like to be at minimum three deep on scholarship-wise," Mateos said. "We’re lucky that we’ve got two kids that are playing like scholarship guys. TJ Dawn, who was a scholarship player for me at Baylor, and Brooks Edmonson. Those guys are playing at a higher level so we’re probably a little lucky this year. Obviously, we’d like that number to be somewhere around 17, 16 or 17.
"Just the way it shook out, guys leaving. Maybe guys that didn't fit into the room or the new culture. When you go get three transfers, it’s not like three more are excited to come in. There’s only five spots so when you’re talking to number five or number six or seven, guys that would come in and play as a transfer or a JUCO signee. They are not going to be chomping at the bit. They’re going to read your article that says we already have our starters, which we don’t, but it’s ok, you’ve got to write it.
"They’re going to read that article and they’re going to be like I ain’t going there.I think that’s kind of where we are at. We’re a little under the number, we’d like to be higher in the future."
Arkansas will open the season on Thursday, Aug. 29, in Little Rock's War Memorial Stadium against UAPB with kickoff set for 6:30 on ESPNU.
Photos Courtesy of Craven Whitlow CW3 Sports Action
