FAYETTEVILLE — A junior college transfer and a true freshman immediately thrust on to a major college offensive line share one plight.
Bewilderment.
Jason Peacock and Mitch Smothers can concur from last August. The junior college transfer and true freshman found themselves trying to be the Arkansas Razorbacks’ first-team weakside tackle.
Peacock, the junior transfer from Milledgeville, Ga., via Citrus Junior College in Azuza, Calif., was no less boggled than Smothers, who went to Springdale High.
They didn’t so much compete for the same spot as they did find themselves lost in the same maze.
“In a sense I kind of feel that we both did,” Peacock said when asked if both felt lost. “It was just something we had to grow over time and learn. I feel we are on the right path of knowing what we have got to do now.”
Their mutual bewilderment didn’t surprise offensive line coach Chris Klenakis.
While junior college transfers can make an immediate impact at most positions, a junior college transfer offensive lineman generally begins struggling like a rookie freshman.
“There is a big transition at this level,” Klenakis said. “The speed of the game is the biggest transition, and the complexity of the defenses and speed of the defenses. There is a lot of transition.”
While the junior college transfer has played a faster game than his high school counterpart, those junior college years can put him behind while trying to transition to a new system.
“Yeah, no question, coming from a different system with different techniques and different habits,” Klenakis said.
It’s not just different habits, Peacock said, but habits that often become handicaps.
“You learn some bad habits that we don’t use here,” Peacock said. “I can’t use some of the schemesand techniques that I did at [junior college]. I can’t use that here.”
So while the 6-4, 334-pound Peacock’s size and strength eventually vaulted him ahead of Smothers, 6-4, 295, it took the FBI for Peacock to assert himself as the midseason starter.
The FBI?
“The first thing he improved is what we call FBI,” Klenakis said. “Football intelligence. It’s just learning the game and learning the structure of our offense and, more importantly, learning the structure of defenses. It helps him anticipate what is going to happen on the play.”
Peacock said the process hit home as he realized he drew upon his spring practices after transferring last January to the UA.
“I know if I hadn’t come in until the summer I would have been really behind,” Peacock said. “What Coach K told me in the spring is starting to pay off right now.”
Peacock’s precocity has coincided with the Hogs’ recent improvement on the line, senior starting guard Grant Cook said.
“Peacock is coming along just fine,” Cook said. “He’s learned the offense, and he’s always had the great athletic ability to be a great offensive tackle in the SEC and he’s starting to perform to that level.
“We are all picking up our game, and with Jason unequivocally knowing what he’s doing every single play and exactly what’s going on, that’s huge for us.”
Sports, Pages 22 on 10/29/2011