O-Line struggles for Hogs

Arkansas offensive lineman Colton Jackson (74) runs drills Saturday, April 16, 2016, during practice at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.
Arkansas offensive lineman Colton Jackson (74) runs drills Saturday, April 16, 2016, during practice at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The growth of Arkansas' restructured offensive line will go a long way toward determining whether the Razorbacks can compete in the unforgiving SEC West in 2016.

Based on Saturday's half-scrimmage at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, the unit has miles to go.

The Arkansas defensive front took the fight to its counterpart on both the first and second units during the 79-play scrimmage portion of the two-hour practice.

"I thought defensively we did some good stuff," Coach Bret Bielema said.

Defensive linemen Deatrich Wise and Jeremiah Ledbetter set the tone by rampaging frequently across the line of scrimmage, notching two sacks each in addition to other tackles for a loss.

"Yeah, I just had to take him out of there today," Arkansas Coach Bret Bielema said of Wise. "He's so disruptive, and I wanted to get some type of rhythm going."

Ledbetter and Wise powered in for "in-the-area" sacks on consecutive plays against first-team quarterback Austin Allen, then JaMichael Winston and cornerback Henre Toliver reached Allen at the same time on the next play.

When defensive linemen Armon Watts and Derrick Graham got so much penetration that a shove from center Zach Rogers forced Watts into an inadvertent tackle on quarterback Ty Storey a few snaps later, Bielema shouted, "How about we protect the guy?" to the second unit.

The day's best play came when Dominique Reed grabbed a deep pass from Allen down the right sideline with two defenders in the area. The play went for 36 yards during a move-the-ball segment and led to Cole Hedlund's 44-yard field goal after Karl Roesler broke through for a sack on third-and-13.

Because live tackling came in intermittent bursts and was completely outlawed when first-team running back Rawleigh Williams was involved, keeping statistics was difficult.

Allen, officially named the starter by Bielema on Thursday, completed 9 of 13 passes during the scrimmage work, which consisted of widely ranging circumstances, like a series of third downs, second downs and first downs and limited move-the-ball work. Allen completed an 11-yard pass to tight end Jeremy Sprinkle on the first snap of the nontackling scrimmage work, then Williams ran for 10 yards on the next play.

However, on the sixth play of the sequence, safety Josh Liddell had an Allen pass toward the right sideline measured for an interception before Toliver tipped it away from his grasp.

Bielema said Allen had an incredible practice Thursday after he made the announcement.

"He was just lights out, and we're really excited about the growth he took here hopefully," Bielema said.

Bielema used a question about whether the team's spring progress has met his expectations to expound on how he measures growth, using new left guard Hjalte Froholdt as an example.

"We're not anywhere close to competing at the level we need to for the fall," he said. "But we're getting there, baby steps, if we can just keep moving forward. Like Hjalte doing a couple of things today, if that's my starting left guard, my starting left guard has made a huge step this week.

"It's a microwave world. I would say that. Everybody wants it done now. Football ain't that easy. I tried to explain that to the kids."

The centers and quarterbacks had no muffed exchanges, which hampered last week's 100-play scrimmage, but there were a few false-start penalties from the offensive line.

Another rough stretch for the offense occurred when safety De'Andre Coley jumped in front of Cheyenne O'Grady on an intermediate route at the 50-yard line and intercepted a pass from Ricky Town, then Graham batted down a pass from Storey on the next snap as the pocket was collapsing all around the redshirt freshman.

Sports on 04/17/2016

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