Expectations are high at Arkansas, sure, but huge questions remain. Obviously, most of the attention and need for improvement resides with Arkansas’ defense in 2010, and perhaps none will require more work than the holes at linebacker.
Depth looks to be an issue for inside linebackers coach Reggie Johnson, but he feels confident younger players can be adequate backups.
Johnson spoke with members of the media Thursday before hitting the golf course at Paradise Valley Country Club. The audio and transcript from our discussion is below:
AUDIO
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TRANSCRIPT
Practice is just one week away. You’re excited about that.
I am excited about that. A lot of high expectations and a lot of guys back, so it should be good.
Talk to us about your group, what you expect of them coming into practice and the stuff you’ve heard over the summer of how hard they’ve worked.
A lot of veteran guys coming back with Franklin, Burton, Nelson. From what I understand they’ve been doing well, so there’s a lot of leadership. From a leadership standpoint, you can’t beat it with those guys coming back with a lot of ball the last two years. We’re pretty healthy and guys are anxious to go out and prove that we can be a solid defense in the SEC.
How’s the depth? Are you comfortable with the second group?
I am. I think with Jermaine Love, Ryan Powers, who has been here awhile and is an athletic kid who can run. We’re expecting him to finally do something. And we still have the young kids with Terrell Williams and Austin Moss here. We’re pleased. We have some kids that are athletic and can run, and as long as they can do that we just have to do a good job of getting them in a position and the defenses that they can go contribute.
A lot of those names you listed off do have some experience. Do you approach summer practice any differently knowing they’ve got some experience? Maybe expect a little more?
Absolutely. That goes with each year you’re with a group of young men. They know what we expect. They understand and they should know the defense, the schemes and we just continue to build on it. Yes, we expect a lot from those guys as well.
Expect any newcomers to come in and really challenge to get on the field?
We prepare the young guys just like we prepare our old. We expect them to come in and compete to play. For kids like Braylon Mitchell, if he can come in and show us he can go and compete, learn the information, he’ll work his way on the field.
What kind of things have you heard about the new guys in all these voluntary workouts?
They all work hard, very positive kids, very coachable kids. It’s just a matter of us getting with them and seeing how they really respond.
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