Chemistry on football team appears good this season

By Jerry Meadows

FAYETTEVILLE — This year’s Arkansas Razorbacks football team has added several new parts, both in coaching and players, in being more than competitive; they want to win.

With the addition of Bobby Petrino as Offensive Coordinator, Sam Pittman believes that Coach Petrino was the best fit in turning last year’s lackluster offense into a scoring machine. Assisting Coach Petrino will be the new offensive line coach, Eric Mateos. With the additions of wide receivers coach Ronnie Fouch and running backs coach Kolby Smith, Coach Petrino will have familiar faces to instill his offensive scheme. Both have worked with Coach Petrino in the past.

Coach Smith was asked if Petrino has mellowed out?

“Not at all, not at all, not at all,” Smith said. “That fire would never leave, that’s who he is. That’s how he’s been able to coach for a long time at a high level and have some of the best offenses in the country and how some of the best players really shine under him. You don’t want that passion to go away.”

The influence of Coach Petrino’s offensive philosophy is beginning to be witnessed from the stable of quarterbacks he has available.

“Growing up from Arkansas, you’ve seen his offense since you were young,” Criswell said. “You didn’t really know, but you knew it was explosive. Now, since I’m in it, his offense is probably one of the most explosive offenses I’ve been in. It’s not hard on the quarterback, but you have to know the details of the quarterback for his offense. With that being said, the quarterback has all the tools. He’s going to give you everything you need. You just go out there and perform, which as a quarterback, you love.”

Taylen Green also commented on Petrino.

“Just knowing football and knowing the ins and outs and knowing the whys,” Green said. “Why concepts work against what coverage. Just going through my reads, and the big thing is just being consistent with that and being consistent with my footwork and what he harps on with me and us, is having an expectation of every single drive our goal is to score, and we’re going to score. If we don’t score, you know, he’s going to get on us. That’s what I like. He definitely keeps it real. Sometimes you don’t wanna hear it, but you need to hear it. You need that info.”

“I love how he wants us to be explosive in the run game, as well as in the passing game,” Malachi Singleton said. “He just wants us to be smart football players. He gives us the keys to the offense, like Jacolby was saying earlier. It’s on us to get us in the right play, get us in the right run checks. Really just having the keys to the offense and being able to play my game and our game, just really been grateful for it.”

As we left the press conference, Otis Kirk and I walked down the sidelines in Razorback Stadium and I noticed Taylon, Jacoby, and Malachi walking together. My immediate observation of these three young men was they were friends. Yet, they were all vying for the same position. How is that possible? Chemistry.