FAYETTEVILLE -- Former Conway quarterback Grayson Wilson caught the eye of observers and Sam Pittman during Arkansas' first preseason practice.
Wilson threaded the needle on some passes hitting wide receivers who were blanketed by defensive backs. Pittman praised Wilson following the practice.
"Yeah, he got most of the three reps today," Pittman said. "We two-spotted most of the practice in the team settings. I thought that he did a nice job. He’s one that has really improved as you stated. I agree with you."
Wilson and the other quarterbacks have a new group of wide receivers for the most part, but some impressed on the initial day of practice.
"There were several of them," Pittman said. "Antonio Jordan made some really good catches. I mean he’s hard to cover because he’s so tall and he can run. You look at him and you’re going ‘He’s a big target that we hope you can run and all that. We knew he could run and he showed that today. Was good in one on ones as well when they were playing man coverage on him. He showed out. We have some guys that can run. Andy Jean did a nice job there. And Jalen Brown can run as well. We’re a little rusty throwing and catching so that’s why you practice."
Friday's practice started at 6:20 a.m. Pittman talked about the very early start.
"Felt like it was early," Pittman said. "You know, I don’t know how you guys are, but if you got to be somewhere by 5:15, you know you, you feel like you need to wake up at 2 a.m. and you set 19,201 alarms. You know, you have your wife set her alarm, which didn't go too good. You know, Saturday, what's today, buddy? Tomorrow, Jamie and I will be married 39 years, and so you guys that haven't been married that long, you still get chewed out if you ask the wrong questions. But you know, we got lucky this morning.
"I just did not want to go in the afternoon and have slow recovery time whenever we go five in-a-row, you know, days straight, and we are doing some two-spot things. I don't know how we find out who we really have unless we do that. It's no more reps on guys. It's opportunity for guys to get reps, especially the threes and fours. And as we learned a long time ago, everybody, when they get to college, there are three or a four or a five. Eventually they'll work their way up. I don't know how to do it any better than giving them the reps to actually see them do it. We did catch a break this morning, and that's why we're doing it. We'll have two full weeks when school starts to practice in the afternoon, so I think we'll acclimate to the climate well, but that’s why we’re going in the mornings."
Pittman was also asked about the total time of practice?
"What do you think, maybe 2:10 after the specialist walk through and the walk through, so maybe two and a half hours I’d say," Pittman said.
Pittman also addressed the various things he wants to get done in the camp leading up to the Aug. 30 season opener against Alabama A&M.
"First thing, you can't do anything if you don't have toughness and effort," Pittman said. "We've got that on the team. We have to be in shape. We also have that. So now you're, instead of coaching all that kind of stuff and worried about, are we in shape? Are we this? Are we that? Do we do what we're asked to do? Now you start honing in on the stuff that you can beat people with, or if we're doing it wrong, we get beat.
"Today, though, really the only thing today was, we didn't handle snap count well offensively or defensively. It wasn't like a fest of mistakes, mistakes, but one, two or three will get you beat. And that will help you win close games as well: you don't jump off sides either side of the ball, you go score seven. Or you jump off on defense, they score seven instead of three. Now you're talking about a one-score game, which almost every game is — almost — in the SEC. So that's really it. I thought we handled the football, snapping it ... Obviously, the other thing is we gotta be better with the football. And some of those were tipped and all that kind of stuff. But they're still turnovers. We've got to be better there. and we will, I'm not not one bit worried about it. We'll get better about that tomorrow."
Pittman announced on Friday he has split a scholarship among three former walk-on players including former Conway offensive lineman Aaron Smith. The others are defensive lineman Donovan Whitten, from Arkadelphia, and long snapper Zach Haber, who is from Durango, Colo., and Butler County (Kan.) Community College.
Arkansas will return to the practice fields at 9:15 a.m. on Saturday.