The seventh in a series profiling the newcomers on the 2016 Arkansas Razorbacks football team

FAYETTEVILLE -- Offensive lineman Deion Malone found out during his official recruiting visit to Arkansas in December that if he signed with the Razorbacks, Sam Pittman wouldn't be his position coach.

Pittman, Arkansas' offensive line coach the previous three seasons, had visited Malone earlier in the week at Northwest Mississippi Community College along with Razorbacks Coach Bret Bielema.

Then the night Malone arrived on the Arkansas campus, Pittman resigned to become Georgia's offensive line coach.

Malone said he learned about Pittman's departure from Bielema.

"I knew Coach B was going to find another good O-line coach," Malone said. "I wasn't worried about it.

"Whoever got the job, it still was going to be a fresh start for me with a new coach."

Malone signed with Arkansas on Dec. 15 -- three days after Pittman resigned -- as an early enrollee.

Mississippi State showed interest in Malone, from Batesville, Miss., after Arkansas' offer, but he was set on being a Razorback.

"Why wouldn't I want to be at Arkansas?" Malone said. "It's Offensive Line U."

Kurt Anderson was hired from the Buffalo Bills, where he was assistant offensive line coach, to replace Pittman at Arkansas.

"I think Coach Anderson has come in and done a really good job," Malone said. "I like playing for him.

"Coming from the NFL, Coach Anderson has a lot of knowledge about everything. He's already taught me a lot.

"He's got a lot of energy and he kept me right in spring practice."

Malone said Anderson yelled at him often in the spring, but he took that as a positive.

"If a coach is yelling at you, that means he sees something good in you that he's going to bring out," Malone said. "But if he lets you keep making the same mistakes over and over again, then you're just out there and you're never going to play."

Anderson said Malone, who played right guard most of the spring and also got some work on the left side, made steady improvement.

"Just watching Deion's tape when I first got here, I knew he was going to be a little bit raw," Anderson said. "But he took well to our techniques. He's a very coachable guy.

"He made huge strides. At the end there, he was doing some stuff that he wasn't earlier."

Such as?

"With his pulling, at the start of the spring he'd drift and get wide," Anderson said. "You'd sit there and say, 'I'm not sure he knows exactly what he's looking at.'

"But towards the end he was finding his linebacker, he was putting his face on him and he was putting guys on the ground and finishing. A lot of that just has to do with being comfortable and knowing the offense and the techniques."

Malone said the first few spring practices were an adjustment.

"It was a big difference going from the junior college level to here, especially at the O-line position, because there's way more you've got to know," he said. "So it was good for me to get in a whole lot of learning and working to get things right.

"I knew what to do, but once I got on the field, it was going so fast. But as practice went on, I picked up on the speed of the game."

Malone, 6-3 and 295 pounds, helped Northwest Mississippi beat Rochester (Minn.) Technical College 66-13 to win the national junior college championship last season.

"He's a winner," Northwest Mississippi offensive line coach Jim Jones said. "He likes coming to work every day.

"Not one time in two years did I ever feel like, 'I've got to come up with some kind of strategy to get Deion going.' He's very self-motivated.

"He always came out with an energy that was infectious to the rest of the guys."

Jones, an offensive lineman at Notre Dame and in the NFL with Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Washington, said he expects Malone to make a smooth transition from tackle to guard for the Razorbacks.

"The reason he played tackle for us is that he was one of our taller guys," Jones said. "But with the giants Arkansas has, it just makes sense for him bodywise to be a guard.

"He's got a natural ability to bend and move and plays with a lot of determination and grit."

Malone said he likes playing inside.

"I think it's better, because you're right there on top of the guy you're blocking," he said. "I'm comfortable in there."

Malone worked primarily on the second-team offense in the spring, but he figures to compete for a starting job in the fall at a position that's unsettled going into fall camp.

During the spring, Brian Wallace, Johnny Gibson, Zach Rogers and Jalen Merrick -- all returning players -- got work as the starting right guard.

"Absolutely Deion can compete for a starting job," Anderson said. "Once we reach fall camp, you never know what's going to happen."

Malone said he it was important for him to enroll at Arkansas in January and go through winter workouts and spring practice rather than waiting to get on campus in the summer.

"Me being a juco guy, I've only got two years, so getting here early really helped," he said. "It was an extra boost I needed.

"Going through spring helped me get a feel for how it is on the field here, how to work with the other O-linemen and knowing what type of talent I'm up against on the D-line.

"When we get to fall camp, I should know everything I need to know about the playbook and my techniques."

Sports on 07/08/2016