As always, Thursday’s practice was in shorts and shoulder pads and was primarily a workout to make sure each player has a complete understanding of the gameplan and their individual assignments.
With the personnel changes made to the special teams units, they spent a lot time working on that aspect of things. They’re well aware of how dangerous Arkansas’ return men are, particularly Felix Jones on kick returns, so special teams are going to be key tomorrow night. On the other side of the coin, USC has been close to having a breakout game on special teams themselves on both kick and punt returns, so they spent time there as well.
Defense continued to work on gap assignments, tackling and run defense in general. Containing their backs is obviously priority one in tomorrow’s game, but they also know they can’t overlook Marcus Monk and their passing game.
Offensively, the receivers haven been challenged all week to get open and provide Blake Mitchell the targets he needs to be effective against the aggressive Arkansas defense. Another key is for the entire offense to know pre-snap whether the Razorbacks are in man or zone coverage, as that hurt them on the final drive of last year’s game between these two teams. They know Kenny McKinley is going to be doubled for much of the game, so the burden falls on the other receivers to get open and make plays. One receiver who has made some noise this week in practice is Larry Freeman, but we’ll see if it carries over into the game.
The general feeling is they’ve finally found five players that can start the rest of the season on the offensive line, but this game will be a bigger test for them than last week’s.
Overall, I hear the team is excited and looking forward to the game and the rest of the season. A win here could really give them the momentum they need heading into the Florida and Clemson games.
With the personnel changes made to the special teams units, they spent a lot time working on that aspect of things. They’re well aware of how dangerous Arkansas’ return men are, particularly Felix Jones on kick returns, so special teams are going to be key tomorrow night. On the other side of the coin, USC has been close to having a breakout game on special teams themselves on both kick and punt returns, so they spent time there as well.
Defense continued to work on gap assignments, tackling and run defense in general. Containing their backs is obviously priority one in tomorrow’s game, but they also know they can’t overlook Marcus Monk and their passing game.
Offensively, the receivers haven been challenged all week to get open and provide Blake Mitchell the targets he needs to be effective against the aggressive Arkansas defense. Another key is for the entire offense to know pre-snap whether the Razorbacks are in man or zone coverage, as that hurt them on the final drive of last year’s game between these two teams. They know Kenny McKinley is going to be doubled for much of the game, so the burden falls on the other receivers to get open and make plays. One receiver who has made some noise this week in practice is Larry Freeman, but we’ll see if it carries over into the game.
The general feeling is they’ve finally found five players that can start the rest of the season on the offensive line, but this game will be a bigger test for them than last week’s.
Overall, I hear the team is excited and looking forward to the game and the rest of the season. A win here could really give them the momentum they need heading into the Florida and Clemson games.
