ARKANSAS SPRING FOOTBALL

Offense shines live

Wilson’s 4 TDs top scrimmage

Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson said the Razorbacks’ first-team offense looked good in the first spring scrimmage Friday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. “It’s good to come out and be live,” said Wilson, who completed 19 of 28 passes for 320 yards and 4 touchdowns.
Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson said the Razorbacks’ first-team offense looked good in the first spring scrimmage Friday at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. “It’s good to come out and be live,” said Wilson, who completed 19 of 28 passes for 320 yards and 4 touchdowns.

— Tyler Wilson passed for 320 yards and four touchdowns and Dennis Johnson ran for three scores as Arkansas held its first scrimmage Friday, going for 145 plays at Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Cobi Hamilton and Marquel Wade each caught two touchdown passes from Wilson as the first unit quickly found its rhythm with touchdowns on seven of its 10 possessions.

“Right now, offense has been throughout the entire week probably a little ahead of the defense, which was probably the opposite last year when we got started in spring ball,” Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino said.

Wilson connected on 19 of 28 passes and completed 10 in a row in one stretch that included touchdown throws of 58 yards to Wade, 25 yards to Hamilton and 23 yards to Wade, who also caught a third touchdown pass from Brandon Mitchell.

“It’s good to come out and be live,” Wilson said. “I think the first offense showed some good things. ... I obviously have to look at film, but I feel like I completed more than not and we had a lot of big plays and thought we had a pretty good day.”

With lead tailback Knile Davis held out of the contact work, Johnson rushed for 80 yards and took runs of 15 and 11 yards off left tackle into the end zone on the first unit’s fourth and fifth possessions.

The first defense is undergoing key position changes like Tenarius Wright moving from end to linebacker. The unit was also without starting linebacker Alonzo Highsmith and starting cornerback Tevin Mitchel, who tweaked a hamstring during individual drills before the scrimmage.

“We have a lot of young guys that haven’t got a lot of reps,” safety Eric Bennett said. “All they need is more reps and they’ll be fine.”

Ross Rasner and Chris Smith had sacks for the starters, and the defense posted five sacks overall.

“Defensively, I thought we played better today than we have the two previous practices,” Petrino said. “I thought they flew around, tackled well at times. When you get to the last part of the scrimmage and it’s run, run, run, you’ve got to be able to stop the run on defense ... and we weren’t able to do that.”

Wright went through his first scrimmage at linebacker since signing with the Razorbacks.

“I feel like it was up and down,” Wright said. “I felt like I could have done a little better. ... Overall, I think the defense came out with a good mind-set to stop the run.That’s what really disappointed, that we didn’t stop the run the way I wanted to.”

Wilson capped a 75-yard drive with a 55-yard touchdown pass to Hamilton on the first series. Hamilton got beyond freshman cornerback Davyon McKinney, who was playing in Mitchel’s spot.

“The coaches call the play and you just have to go out there and make a play, whoever’s out there,” Hamilton said. “It was fun to get back out there.”

The second-team quarterback duel between Brandon Allen and Mitchell was pretty much a draw.

Allen went 4 of 4 for 42 yards to open the unit’s first possession, then Mitchell entered and drove the final 28 yards, finding Wade for a 17-yard scoring pass.

Allen cooled off after that, finishing 10 of 22 for 110 yards, while Mitchell went 7 of 13 for 97 yards. Mitchell threw one interception on a quick slant for Maudrecus Humphrey against early pressure on which cornerback Kelvin Fisher Jr. jumped the route and might have been headed for the end zone.

The second offense scored on just 2 of 12 possessions and had a turnover on a muffed snap that was recovered by Terrell Williams. Defensive end Trey Flowers ended two second-unit possessions in the early going with a third-down sack and a fourth-down pass breakup - both involving Mitchell.

The first-team offensive line was shuffled a bit, with Luke Charpentier taking over at tackle for junior Alvin Bailey, joining center Travis Swanson, guard Tyler Deacon and tackles Brey Cook and David Hurd.

The unit’s two sacks allowed were two more than Petrino wanted to see.

“I didn’t like some of the pressure that we had,” Petrino said. “We had some errors when they blitzed, coming off our guy when we weren’t supposed to.”

The Razorbacks will resume practices Tuesday with their sixth workout of the spring.

Scrimmage statistics Friday Reynolds Razorback Stadium Fayetteville OFFENSE SCORING Cobi Hamilton 55 pass from Tyler Wilson (Zach Hocker kick) Marquel Wade 17 pass from Brandon Mitchell (John Henson kick) Dennis Johnson 15 run (Hocker kick) Johnson 11 run (Hocker kick) Wade 58 pass from Wilson (Hocker kick failed; Hocker kick) Johnson 12 run (Hocker kick) Jimmy Gross 1 run Hamilton 25 pass from Wilson Wade 23 pass from Wilson (Hocker kick) Ronnie Wingo 1 run FG 35 Hocker PASSING Wilson 19-28-0, 320 yards, 4 TDs; Allen 10-22-0, 110 yards; Bran.Mitchell 7-13-1, 97 yards, 1 TD; Buehner 6-13-1, 70 yards RUSHING Johnson 13-80, 3 TDs; Walker 17-61;

Wingo 12-29, 1 TD; Gross 8-29, 1 TD;

Small 2-17; Cruz 3-12, 1 TD; Buehner 4-10; Allen 1-(-7); Wilson 3-(-8); Mitchell 3-(-11) RECEIVING Wade 7-153, 2 TDs; Hamilton 4-91, 2 TDs; Wingo 5-66; Gragg 4-46; Minor 3-39; Herndon 2-37; Horton 2-34; Humphrey 3-33; Dean 3-21; Walker 1-23;

Small 2-17; Farr 1-17; Tate 2-12; Voelzke 1-6; Whitehurst 1-6; Johnson 1-0;

DEFENSE TACKLES Williams 7, Bennett 6, Bray. Mitchell 6, Mitchell 6, T.Wright 6, Flynn 5, Green 5, A.Jones 5, Kelleybrew 4, Rasner 4, Turner 4 SACKS-YARDS Smith 1-7, Kelleybrew 1-7, Flowers 1-6, Rasner 1-4, Askew 1-3 TACKLES FOR LOSS Askew 2-8, Green 2-4, B.Jones 1-4, A.Jones 1-3, Flowers 1-2, Bennett 1-1 INTERCEPTIONS Fisher, Holmes PASS BREAKUPS Fisher 3, Kelleybrew 3, T.Wright 2, Flowers 2, Arkadie, Baggett, Marshall FORCED FUMBLE Rasner FUMBLE RECOVERY Williams

Sports, Pages 20 on 03/31/2012

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