Razorbacks situational work still leaves much to be desired after first scrimmage

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Spring football is for working out the hitches in an offense. With season still over five months away, mistakes can be afforded in situational work.

In Arkansas' first scrimmage in the stadium Saturday, both the first team and second team offense left plenty to be desired.

The coaches put 1:59 on the clock with two timeouts and the offense up two with the ball. After getting a first down on the first play of the drive starting at the 31-yard line.

Green gave up a 4-yard sack before throwing an interception to linebacker Xavian Sorey.

In intrasquad scrimmages, it's always a half-glass full vs. half-glass empty approach.

On the one hand, the leader on defense and the team's returning tackler made one of the defensive highlights of the day. Sorey finished the day with six total tackles, including three tackles for loss and three sacks, according to unofficial stats kept by the media.

It verifies what defensive coordinator Travis Williams said about the redshirt senior Thursday, who led the team with 99 total tackles last year.

"He's become just a student of the game," Williams said. "He's in my office all the time, 'Okay, Coach, let's draw this up. Coach, when you call this, what are you thinking?' So he's kind of getting in my mind a little bit on why we call things in different situations, which is awesome."

Sorey's leadership allowed the defense to shine up and down the page. Charlie Collins also finished with six total tackles and a sack.

"He's actually helping the younger players on the scheme that we have," Williams said. "[That's] always good. So you're seeing that growth, and we have that conversation a lot, like, I just tell him, this time next year, you're going to be in these rooms and these GMs and these coaches are going to be asking you these questions."

On the other hand, the starting quarterback just committed back-to-back cardinal sins in a two-minute drill, wonky play-calling aside given the situation.

Green's day was solid overall, finishing 15-for-21 for 173 yards without a touchdown and the aforementioned interception. Green did have 25 yards on the ground on 13 carries and a touchdown.

When it was the second team's turn to take over in a similar situation, Madden Iamaleava, who split the No. 2 reps at quarterback with KJ Jackson throughout the scrimmage, ran out of bounds after a 16 yard gain when the offense was trying to kill the clock. The coaches voiced their audible displeasure at the error.

Arkansas Razorbacks quarterback Madden Iamaleava during spring practice drills inside Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark. | Nilsen Roman-Hogs on SI Images

Iamaleava finished the day 7-for-12 for 132 yards. Jackson was 13-for-18 for 126 yards and two touchdowns.

The one shining moment during the situational period was a 54-yard field goal from Blake Ford. Kicking with the twos, Ford made the longest field goal of the day in an otherwise unspectacular day for the kicking unit.

Arkansas enters its final week of spring ball with two more practices on Tuesday and Thursday before the annual spring game. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday and is free and open to the public.

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