BELLA VISTA -- Linebacker Randy Ramsey likely won't return to Arkansas' football team, Coach Bret Bielema said, but wide receivers Kendrick Edwards and Jojo Robinson are with the Razorbacks this summer.
Ramsey, who played in seven games with one start as a true freshman last season and made eight tackles, missed the latter part of spring practice to focus on his classwork. It doesn't appear he has done enough to remain academically eligible.
"Randy Ramsey is not with us right now and I don't think he'll be with us," Bielema said Friday at the Northwest Arkansas Razorback Club Celebrity Golf Scramble. "There are certain things that happened to him that took it out of my hands, actually.
"It's NCAA and University of Arkansas guidelines that you have to pass a certain number of hours to get where you need to be, and obviously he didn't make that."
Bielema suspended Edwards and Robinson for parts of spring practice but said they are in summer school and taking part in team activities.
"If they're around for the end of the summer is going to be the key," Bielema said. "They're here at the start, but they have zero tolerance. I think they understand where they are and where they need to be."
Edwards caught 4 passes for 70 yards and 1 touchdown as a true freshman last season while Robinson redshirted.
Bielema said sophomore cornerback Cornelius Floyd, who played in nine games last season primarily on special teams, needs to pass some summer school classes to remain eligible.
"If he takes care of what he's supposed to do there, he should be back in good graces," Bielema said.
Newcomers update
Bret Bielema said he expects all of Arkansas' signees to be eligible to play this season.
Eight newcomers have been enrolled since January and went through spring practice. Bielema said the only newcomers who didn't report this week for summer school are receivers Dominique Reed and La'Michael Pettway, linebacker Kendrick Jackson and cornerbacks Nate Dalton and Ryan Pulley, but that they should be on campus by July.
Good Friday
Bret Bielema said he was pleased by the CBS announcement that Arkansas will play Missouri on the Friday after Thanksgiving for the second consecutive year. The teams will play at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 27 in Fayetteville.
Prior to last season's game in Columbia, Mo., which Missouri won 21-14, the Razorbacks regularly played LSU on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
"I love uniqueness," Bielema said of playing on Friday when most of the country is home eating Thanksgiving leftovers. "Before I got here, [Arkansas] shared a history with LSU at the end of the year that was pretty cool. We got to be a part of it for one year."
Last season marked the first time Missouri, coached by Gary Pinkel, and Arkansas met as SEC teams.
"I'd really love to build that Missouri rivalry," Bielema said. "I have the utmost respect for Coach Pinkel and how he's built his program and the maintenance that he has.
"I just think that's a really cool way to end the year."
Neutral sites?
Bret Bielema said he's been approached by coaches at other schools expressing interest in playing the Razorbacks in neutral site nonconference games.
"Big-time opponents on a neutral site, which I don't mind as we get better here at Arkansas," Bielema said. "One of the problems I had at my last institution [Wisconsin] was as we got to be pretty good, people didn't want to play us home and home. They always wanted to have us come play in their back yard, but they didn't want to come play in ours. That to me just doesn't make any sense.
"Now, a neutral one-game shot in an area that's a good recruiting area for us is very intriguing."
Bielema mentioned Miami, New Orleans and "something in the Midwest" as possible neutral sites where he would be interested in playing.
All for one
SEC coaches voted 14-0 at the conference's spring meetings, Bret Bielema said, to support the SEC's stance against having summer camps away from a school's campus. Coaches agree on more things than the rest us might believe, he added.
"I think everybody thinks in those meetings ... that we just argue with one another," Bielema said. "It's all about the SEC, it really is, in those meetings."
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Sports on 05/30/2015