FAYETTEVILLE -- It doesn't necessarily take a quarterback to coach a quarterback, although with Brandon Allen it seems to help.
Arkansas' fifth-year senior quarterback appeared to make considerable strides in the Razorbacks' spring drills tutored by new offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Dan Enos.
Enos played quarterback for four years (1987-90) at Michigan State and was the Spartans' starting quarterback in 1989 and 1990.
"Any time you have a guy who has played your position, he knows what you have gone through and are going through because he's gone through it," Allen said after last Saturday's Red-White game wrapped spring practice. "So I think any time you have a situation like that you automatically have a little more respect for the guy in terms of listening to what he said because he knows it's proven to work."
Jim Chaney, Arkansas' offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach in 2012 and 2013, played his college football as a nose guard at Central Missouri State.
As a quarterbacks coach who never played quarterback, Chaney, now the offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for the University of Pittsburgh, joined limited but esteemed company in Arkansas' post Frank Broyles coaching era. College Hall of Fame coach and long ago Georgia Tech quarterback Broyles coached the Razorbacks from 1958-76.
Lou Holtz, succeeding Broyles from 1977-83, coordinated his own offenses and coached his own quarterbacks without ever having played quarterback. At Kent State, Holtz was a linebacker of sorts, among the scrawniest linebackers in the country no doubt.
That didn't stop Holtz from coaching Arkansas Hall of Honor quarterbacks Ron Calcagni and Kevin Scanlon to spectacular success and eventually becoming a national championship coach elected to the College of Fame after coaching Notre Dame.
Jack Crowe as a head coach was thrust into waters over his head from 1990 through 1992. However, as Arkansas' offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach for Ken Hatfield's 1989 Southwest Conference champions and his own coordinator in 1990, Crowe coached quarterback Quinn Grovey to by far the most statistically productive years of Grovey's Arkansas Hall of Honor career.
Crowe not only didn't play quarterback in college football, he didn't even play college football.
Experience and health -- Allen played through a separated throwing shoulder in 2013 but stayed healthy for all but two games last year -- contributed to Allen's improvement in 2014.
But also give old nose guard Chaney credit for his part in improving Allen from 128 for 258 (49.6 percent) for 1,552 yards with 12 touchdowns and 10 interceptions on a 3-9 team in 2013 to 190 of 339 (56.0 percent) for 2,285 yards and 20 touchdowns with 5 interceptions in 2014 while Arkansas improved to 7-6.
That improvement, Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema remarked, should accelerate under Enos. Allen committed zero turnovers in 15 spring practices and at the Red-White game completed 17 of 21 passes for 230 yards and 3 touchdowns.
"Dan has unbelievable street credit with our kids," Bielema said. "B.A. is really taking a big jump with Dan as far as mechanics and throwing the ball with accuracy."
Sports on 05/02/2015