The Razorbacks have one of the more difficult schedules in the nation and the schedule gets brutal once the opener is out of the way. One area of hope for Arkansas is the play of quarterback Taylen Green. In his first season at Arkansas after transferring in from Boise State Green completed 230 of 381 passes for 3,154 yards, 15 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. He also was second on the team in rushing with 156 carries for 602 yards and 8 touchdowns. Bobby Petrino praised Green's performance in this past Saturday's scrimmage.
"The best thing I saw from Taylor was his technique on his release," Petrino said. "It was the best days had on getting up and over the top, and his accuracy was way up. He threw the ball a couple times before the receiver broke on their route, so his timing was really good. I thought it was a huge step forward for him. Didn't have the same yards, same touchdowns he had in the first scrimmage, but his performance was much more consistent in throwing the ball and accuracy."
A reporter asked Petrino if Green is where he wants him to be heading into the season?
"Getting closer," Petrino said. "No one's ever where you want him to be, but he's certainly getting closer. And that's the thing that was most exciting for me, watching the tape after the scrimmage and grading it with him was seeing how much he improved from one week to the next on the consistency. It's not like he doesn't have good technique. It's just at times he's not consistent enough with it. But his release in the scrimmage on Saturday was closer to where we want."
Petrino has KJ Jackson behind Green and is working on having him prepared like he did Malachi Singleton last season.
"Yeah, getting a lot more comfortable with him, and really starting to understand, you know, what the package will be for him," Petrino said. "And not only in the pass game, but the run game. I think KJ's took huge steps forward since spring ball. He's a really, really intelligent young man, so he knows the offense. He's the one that wants to answer the question first in every meeting. It's just continue to learn what he does well, what he doesn't do well. We'll keep working on what he doesn't do well, but we've got to have the package ready and know exactly what we would go to if he had to jump in the game."
In a 70-0 win over UAPB to open last season, Singleton played enough to complete 8 of 10 passes. That experience seemed to help him when he went against Tennessee later in season. Would it be good if Jackson could get some extended time against Alabama A&M?
"Yeah, the way I've always looked at these games is that we have to be mature enough to understand that we need to go out and execute, score points and work to score every single time we have the ball and allow our depth to get into the game," Petrino said. "That's how you develop. Like you said with Malachi last year, he got on the field, and I knew exactly what we were going to do with them, and he executed and did a good job, and it certainly gave him confidence the next time that he jogged out on the field. But that's up to our players to be mature enough and prepare themselves well enough and really approach the game like, it doesn’t matter who we're playing, it matters how we play, and we have to take care of ourselves."
One issue with the offense last year was too many turnovers. Is that something Petrino feels they can limit this season?
"We need to, there’s no question about that," Petrino said. "One of the things that helps you take care of the ball better is your pass protection, so we can secure the ball in the pocket, get the ball out of your hand and don’t take those blind hits in the pocket. We’ve had a good emphasis on carrying the ball correctly at each position when we get in traffic, chinning it and locking it, and I’m seeing those show up on video, so our coaches are doing a really good job of it."
As offensive coordinator, Petrino explained how much say he has in the positions other than quarterback.
"A lot," Petrino said. "We talk a lot. When you come in and have a meeting on the depth, coach (Sam) Pittman’s in there, I’m in there and the position coaches are in there, and sometimes we agree, sometimes we don’t agree, and coach Pitt’s the boss, so he makes the final decision. Then you figure out how to work guys in to using what their skills are, because there’s a lot of starters on offense, when you look at receivers, tight ends, running backs, fullbacks. It just happens to be what you trot out there in the first play of the game on who really starts. But we see it as a lot of starters on offense.
"Now, the offensive line’s a little bit different. That’s the five guys you want to get together and get to know each other and stay together and work and rely on each other. You don’t rotate as much on the offensive line, although there’s times throughout my career that you’ve rotated a guard and each one of them plays about 50% of the game, and then they make each other better because they’re not out there the entire game. They’re fresh and never get worn down."
