FAYETTEVILLE — There aren't too many question marks at the top of Arkansas' pitching staff this fall.
The Razorbacks should field a talented and deep rotation of pitchers in 2016. Back are juniors Zach Jackson, Dominic Taccolini and James Teague, and sophomore Keaton McKinney.
Those four combined for 23 wins and 13 saves last season. They were cornerstones in the Razorbacks' mid-season turnaround, but were largely unavailable by the College World Series because of various injuries.
McKinney (hip) and Taccolini (rib) are recovering well from off-season surgery, while Teague was just recently cleared after suffering a stress reaction in his throwing elbow.
"If we get all these pitchers back healthy, we're going to have a deep pitching staff," Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn said.
Just how deep the Razorbacks are on the mound will depend on the development of pitchers expected to come out of the bullpen. Arkansas struggled on the mound early last season, giving up 87 runs during one 11-game stretch.
Most of the struggles were in midweek nonconference games when inexperienced pitchers recorded an abundance of walks. In one game against Gonzaga, the Razorbacks gave up 12 runs over the final three innings and walked 13 batters.
Cannon Chadwick started that game, walking five batters in three innings. The right-hander only pitched three more times last season, the final of which was in mid-April when he allowed six base runners in less than an inning of work against Stephen F. Austin.
"We didn't give him the ball at the end of the year because we didn't think he could do it," Van Horn said.
But after a strong summer in the California Collegiate League, Chadwick looks like a different pitcher this fall. He was 4-0 while pitching for San Luis Obispo over the summer and had a 1.91 ERA.
Chadwick was a league all-star and struck out 45 batters in 42 1/3 innings. During one game he struck out 12 batters in six innings.
"I started throwing a curveball and a change-up, but a lot of it just came from what (the Arkansas coaches) preached to me last year about getting extension on my fastball," Chadwick said. "When I started slowing things down a little bit, I could think a little more about what I was doing and I got to where I could repeat that delivery, and get my fastball down on both sides of the plate.
"Being more confident in myself has helped me a lot recently."
Chadwick is showing the type of confidence and velocity that caused Arkansas coaches to recruit him out of Paris Junior College in Texas. Van Horn called his low-80s slider "nasty" and said his fastball is over 90 MPH every time.
"It's like he's a different guy," Van Horn said.
At Paris, Chadwick had great credentials. He recorded a 1.14 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 71 innings as a freshman, causing Baseball America to rank him the state's fourth-best prospect.
Chadwick found the competition to be more difficult at Arkansas as a sophomore, recording a 7.04 ERA and walking 17 batters in 15 1/3 innings. As the struggles mounted he said he began to over-think pitches and became stressed out on the mound.
"I'd get so uptight that I couldn't think about what was going on, let alone what I needed to be doing," Chadwick said. "I just let it consume me."
Chadwick said he was able to work out those issues in California and that "getting away definitely helped" to clear his mind. Van Horn called him one of the team's most improved pitchers alongside sophomore left-hander Kyle Pate, whose velocity has increased by about 4 to 5 MPH.
Like Chadwick, Pate was relegated to the dugout for most of the last half of the season because of a high ERA (8.64) and low command.
Both watched from the dugout at the College World Series in June. Now their development could go a long way toward whether the Razorbacks compete for a repeat trip to Omaha.
"Now that I got a taste of it, I can't wait to get back there," Chadwick said. "We all want to get back."