I arrived at practice today and signed in at 4:35 using an alias and a fake address while joking with "big brother" at the sign-in desk. (Just kidding.) At a quarter to six o'clock I saw my first running play, a reverse, and at 12 minutes after six I saw my first handoff to a back in the backfield.
I'd say things have changed.Houston Dale is keeping busy -- it appears he is taking a personal interest in coaching the punt returners. Gus and Alex Wood appear to be a good team. The offensive practice was tightly scripted. The coaches weren't all dressed alike as they were last year.
The defense is in full bore mode while the offense is in learning mode. Repetitions for the offense come fast and furious with Gus in charge. As the practice closed with 11 on 11, sloppy was the order of the day for the offense. It was obvious we had some tired fellas out there. They were kept busy all the time.
Things that I noticed on offense (besides the pace of practice) that foreshadow what we will see at times next season include: numerous pattern with five receivers; Hillis, McFadden, Felix Jones, Marcus Monk, and Cedric Washington on the field at the same time; double tight end sets where both tight ends might run streak routes right up the field; Cedric Logan, Felix Jones, Reggie Fish in the slot or split wide; pass plays that will cause the corners and safeties in cover 2 to have to make either/or decisions; an extensive package of screens and a healthy dose of speedy Michael Smith all over the field. Obviously Gus is going to put speed on the field and use it deceptively and aggressively.
Casey Dick still looks the best to me at quarterback. Mortensen can't throw long outs and corners very well, but throws good short and over the middle and appears to make good decisions. Robert Johnson's play was erratic, with the coaches being heard calling out, "don't be lazy" before his reps. He has a gun for an arm, but I still saw him struggling with footwork. At least now I get the feeling he knows he's struggling with footwork, as I saw him practicing his steps while not in the drill.
Receivers are being pushed for precision and exactness on their patterns. The number of steps and angles taken within the parts of a pass pattern is obviously very important to Gus. It will be interesting to see which receivers "step up."
We have enough offensive lineman to have three lines. Oh yeah, you can tell Markuson feels the pressure. He was coaching his butt off. Bobby Allen already has the corners looking good. Those guys are serious workers.
The coaches were using their public voice today. Lots of "freak" and "frickin" in their language. Herring was low key today - heard he was a wild man yesterday. Gus was the same Gus that we saw on the Springdale sidelines, still yelling out "Utah" occasionally but mostly seeming low key and extremely organized and focused.
Other than seeing the sets and watching the pass patterns, it will be hard to tell much about the offense for a while other than it has some vast differences from the Razorback offense of the last few years. They won't get good at this overnight.
The big question will be how long Houston Dale can keep his hands off the wheel on offense. In fact,
I think he has the biggest learning curve of anyone out there.
