Introducing Mr. Mallett

6-7 QB with 70-yard arm accepts spotlight

Arkansas redshirt sophomore quarterback Ryan Mallett is ready to lead the Razorbacks after sitting out a season as a transfer from Michigan.
Arkansas redshirt sophomore quarterback Ryan Mallett is ready to lead the Razorbacks after sitting out a season as a transfer from Michigan.

— Ryan Mallett had just driven nearly 900 miles one cold winter day early in 2008 when he pulled into a broad, sloping parking lot in Northwest Arkansas and called his father.

"He's right above the Broyles Center, and he says, 'I'm looking down at the greatest sight I've ever seen,' " Jim Mallett said, recalling the conversation with his son. "He said, 'Dad, I'm looking down on this football field. I'm back at home.'"

Ryan Mallett, an All-America quarterback out of Texarkana who chose to play at Michigan in 2007 rather than join the carnival atmosphere going on at that time for the Razorbacks, was back on his home turf.

He was looking into Razorback Stadium, his own field of dreams, after making that 14-hour drive from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Fayetteville.

Now, after spending a mandatory year in residence following his transfer, Mallett is ready to be unleashed again on the college football landscape wearing the cardinal and white of his Razorbacks.

"I'm in this jersey, which is exactly where I wanted to be," said Mallett, a 21-year-old, who at 6 feet, 7 inches, looks the part of big man on campus. "I'm excited more than anything because I know we have a special team."

Mallett's presence, often augmented by a broad, infectious smile that sweeps the sharply lined features of his face, has captivated Arkansas fans who are eager to embrace a native son who has returned home.

Fans view this confluence of circumstances - Mallett returning home just after widely recognized offensive guru Bobby Petrino took the Razorbacks' reins - as the dawning of a grand era for Arkansas football.

"I think he gives us a chance to win a lot of games," quarterbacks coach Garrick McGee said, "because he really does believe thathe's one of the best players in the nation, and he can bring us where we need to go."

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Mallett has yet to take his first official snap for Arkansas, and he's already viewed as a key leader, a star in the making, and in many ways the face of the new program.

He was voted one of three offensive team captains - along with tailback Michael Smith and tackle DeMarcus Love - by his teammates. Many football teams mandate that seniors, or at least veteran upperclassmen, be chosen as captains. Mallett is a sophomore.

In Petrino's system, captains "are demonstrated, not announced," and Mallett got the nod from his teammates even after being involved in a March incident on Dickson Street that led to his arrest on charges of public intoxication.

"If Ryan just settles down and plays, what he can achieve is endless," said Smith, a 1,000-yard rusher in 2008.

Mallett will share star billing with Smith and tight end D.J. Williams on an Arkansas offense fast filling up with quality talent, but as a towering 240-pound quarterback with arm strength to match, much of the focus will fixate on Mallett.

The big guy is comfortable with that spotlight.

"You put yourself in that position when you play quarterback, so it's something you learn how to handle," Mallett said. "It's not bad."

Mallett's leadership acumen is apparent, from his commanding presence in the huddle to his easygoing rapport with the media, from his towel-waving enthusiasm on Arkansas' sideline last fall to his approach to the crowds who flock to the him in meet-and-greet sessions.

"Ryan does not meet a stranger," said Jim Mallett, a long-time assistant football coach in high school who always had Ryan tag-ging along at his practices.

Some of Ryan Mallett's arm strength might have been handed down from Jim Mallett, who was a collegiate pitcher at Central Arkansas. Ryan Mallett's physical skills have been on display for parts of two spring practices, all last fall during his transfer year, and he has made quite an impression.

"I think Ryan Mallett has every tool you'd want in a quarterback," senior defensive tackle Malcolm Sheppard said. "He's tall, he's athletic, he has a powerful arm, he's a leader.

"He has great confidence, and he wants to be the best player in the country. He wants this offense to be the best offense in the country. He wants this team to be the best team in the country."

Those who know him best don't believe Mallett will cower from the great expectations placed on Arkansas quarterbacks.

"You couldn't find anybody more up to the challenge," said his mother, Debbie. "He has confidence in his ability and in his teammates' abilities. He wants to be the guy in that last-shot, lastplay situation."

RAZOR BACKGROUND

Ryan Mallett told his parents he would be a star quarterback for the Hogs when he was a toddler, albeit a taller than average toddler, already tooling around in Razorbacks gear.

"I grew up telling my parents, 'I'm going to play football, basketball and baseball there,' and they're like, 'Whatever,' " Mallett said. "I guess they knew it would be harder than I did to play all three."

Mallett's first 10 years were spent as an Arkansan. He was born in Batesville to a footballcoaching father and an educator mother. The Malletts moved to Lincoln, 20 miles west of Fayetteville, when Ryan was 4.

"Even before then, I always had Hog gear on in all my old pictures and everything," Mallett said.

Moving to Lincoln put the Malletts closer to the Razorback action, and they took advantage. Ryan helped his father wave cars into parking lots on Sixth Street on Arkansas game days for four seasons, giving the youngster access to the stadium.

"That [south] end of the stadium wasn't closed in at the time," Mallett said. "The grassy knoll was there and we used to sit down there."

Mallett has a particularly fond memory as a 10-year-old, watching the Razorbacks obliterate a proud Alabama team 42-6 in 1998 during former coach Houston Nutt's first season.

"Any kid who has lived in Arkansas for a while, they're probably going to be Hog fans," Mallett said.

The Malletts moved to Texarkana when Ryan was in the fifth grade, but his parents enrolled him in school in Hooks, Texas, where they were teaching, then he advanced to Texas High in Texarkana. Because of height restrictions, Mallett started his pee wee career as an offensive guard and defensive end - "He loved it," Jim Mallett said - but his quarterbacking talent was obvious.

Mallett toughened his game by always competing against older boys on the playgrounds.He'd practice with the junior high team as an eighth-grader, then he'd jump a creek and go practice with the high school team, where he came under the tutelage of quarterbacks coach Scott Surratt.

"He got his great fundamentals from Scott," Jim Mallett said.

It was apparent Mallett was headed toward being a blue-chip prospect, and suitors began lining up. Mallett had attended Razorback camps as early as the fifth grade and was well-known to Nutt, Arkansas' head coach.

But Michigan, led by Wolverines quarterbacks coach Scott Loeffler, was hot on Mallett's trail. Loeffler, now at Florida, befriended Surratt, Mallett and his family and was becoming a favorite.

Arkansas, meawhile, signed Springdale High star Mitch Mustain and had a few other quarterbacks on the roster in 2006. Mustain played as a freshman that year, but the soap opera that ensued between himself, Nutt and offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn didn't play well with Mallett.

"It was a circus, and I didn't want to be one of the acts," Mallett said. "I just didn't want to get mixed up in all the stuff that was going on.

"You know, it broke my heart not to be able to come here."

FROM WOLVERINE TO HOG

Mallett wound up at Michigan and went 3-0 as a starter filling in for injured Chad Henne early in the season. Mallett threw for 892 yards, with 7 touchdowns and 5 interceptions, as a true freshman in 2007.

But when Michigan hired West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez, with his belief in having a running quarterback to operate his version of the Spread offense, to replace Lloyd Carr, Mallett said he felt his days a Wolverine were numbered.

"I called my dad and it was like, 'You saw what he did at West Virginia,' and I didn't know if he was going to change," Mallett said of Rodriguez. "I went to talk to him and it wasn't there between us. We didn't see it would work out either way, so I decided to leave."

The coaching changes at Michigan and Arkansas revived Mallett's interest in the Razorbacks and prompted Ryan's phone call to Arkansas running backs coach Tim Horton, whose father, Harold, coached Mallett's uncle, David Burnette, duringUCA's NAIA national championship seasons in 1984 and 1985.

Tim Horton arranged a meeting between Petrino and the Malletts. During the meeting, Debbie Mallett asked Petrino if he cared if they talked to the parents of Brian Brohm, Petrino's star quarterback at Louisville from 2004-2006. Petrino passed along the phone number on the spot.

"Bobby Petrino was getting a lot of negative publicity, and in our first meeting with him he was all business, business, business," Debbie Mallett recalled. "I was very leery."

So the Malletts called Oscar Brohm.

"The first thing [Oscar] said was Brian would not change a thing," Jim Mallett said. "He said they wished Petrino had stayed in Atlanta and drafted Brian so he could keep playing for him. That sold us, when you have parents telling you that."

So, Ryan Mallett officially became a Razorback.

He and his family asked Arkansas to petition the NCAA to waive its one-year residency requirement for transfers, but the NCAA ruled against him. That decision allowed Mallett to trim down from 268 pounds to 240 pounds for greater mobility and adapt to Petrino's offense while sitting out the 2008 season.

"I felt like it went in my favor as far as being able physically to get better and mentally as far as the offense," Mallett said. "So, it wasn't a bad thing."

TROUBLE ON DICKSON

What was a bad thing, however, occurred during the early morning hours of March 1, when Mallett had too much to drink on Dickson Street and was charged with public intoxication when officers noticed he was slurring his speech and having trouble calling someone to come pick him up.

"It was a lack of judgment, a poor decision," Mallett said. "I put myself in a bad situation."

Jim Mallett said he had stressed to Ryan for years that he would be in the public glare more than his peers because of his football skills.

Now, those lessons ignored came home to roost.

"It hurt us all," Jim Mallett said.

"It wasn't a fun time, I'll tell you that," Ryan Mallett said. "All the ridicule and all that ... but I did something wrong, and I took it in my own hands."

Mallett spent part of the spring waking up early and going through special conditioning drills made especially for him.

He said he learned his lesson.

"It's not going to happen again," he said. "If it does, then something's really wrong."

TEARING UP GLOVES

Now, the Razorbacks and their fans are pinning high hopes on their big quarterback, who separated himself from redshirt freshman Tyler Wilson as the No. 1quarterback by the second week of fall camp.

"That kid believes he's one of the best players in the nation," said McGee, the quarterbacks coach. "There's a lot of expectations he puts on himself. I think he'll handle it fine."

The idea of pairing Mallett's arm at quarterback with Bobby Petrino's brain has made some Arkansas fans downright giddy.

Arkansas' receivers have had to gear up, developing callouses on their hands, to grab Mallett's hardest throws, and they all have stories about dealing with the Mallett fastball.

"Ryan Mallett has the strongest arm in college football," said All-SEC tight end D.J. Williams. "I've caught some balls that I had to take my gloves off because he ripped all the sticky stuff off of them."

Williams said the Razorbacks have timed Mallett's throws at 115 mph with a Juggs gun.

"Imagine what he could do with a baseball," Williams said.

"Last year I was running a little slant inside," receiver Carlton Salters said. "This was when he was still trying to gauge his arm strength and stuff. He threw it so hard it almost broke my visor right down the middle. I barely got my hands on it and I caught it, but it knocked me backwards."

Mallett said he knows the hype is running hot regarding the fans' expectations for his debut.

"I know as a quarterback, whatever team you play for, the fans look at the quarterback to make plays and lead the team," he said. "Just being able to do that in my home state is a great honor, and I have a lot of pride in doing that."

What Mallett can't do is try to be a superman on every play.

"He just has to make sure he executes, settles down and just won't try to be the quarterback that everybody wants him to be,just be the quarterback that he is," Smith said.

Mallett's parents are excited for their son but understand the move back to Arkansas also comes with complications.

"It's nerve-wracking with Ryan playing in the state because we know so many more people here," Debbie Mallett said. "We didn't know a lot of people in Michigan."

Bobby Petrino noted that Mallett's play in camp, helped by continued emphasis on his footwork and fundamentals, was on a steady rise.

"He's got a lot of talent and a lot of ability, but quarterbacks need to get out there and show it," Petrino said. "One of the things I truly believe in is it's a show-me world.

"He needs to prove it: Play well, take care of the ball, lead the football team, win games, get some come-from-behind victories. That's how you prove yourself as a quarterback."

Sports, Pages 22, 23, 26, 27 on 08/30/2009

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