First practice in books, Taylen Green among standouts

FAYETTEVILLE — Taylen Green and the Razorbacks held their first preseason practice on Wednesday evening.

Green, the transfer from Boise State, is a redshirt junior, who is one of the talented quarterbacks expected in the SEC this season. Following practice, Sam Pittman was asked how Green’s practice was?

“I thought his leadership was good,” Pittman said. “I don’t know if he threw the ball as well as he would like to today. Lot of times we were offensively going against whatever breeze there was out there. But, I thought Malachi (Singleton) had a good day, I thought Taylen had a good day. You know you get a guy like that, you want him to throw every time a completion, but as a head coach you want the DBs to be all over him too. So, overall I thought they had a good day. I was really impressed with how Malachi played today.”

The talk of the first day was a play that happened very early Wednesday. Green found Tyrone Broden who made an outstanding one-handed catch on the ball.

“Yeah, I saw him in man coverage,” Green said. “You know I love my guys in man coverage and they tell me all the time, ‘Throw it up and I’m going to make a play,” which he did. He made it and it just set the tone for like the whole practice. I had to go celebrate with him in the end zone. That’s what I like, we’re always having fun.”

Safety Hudson Clark was asked about the catch by Broden and he too was impressed.

“You know, I forgot who was in coverage, but I thought he was in a great position, and then Broden went and made that catch,” Clark said. “It’s always a back-and-forth battle, so you’re just kind of in awe of it, but you just try to keep playing to the whistle. He made a great catch, though.”

Broden, who caught 15 passes for 109 yards and three touchdowns in 2023, also had a productive spring and seemed as if he was one of Green’s favorite targets.

“For sure. I mean, that’s one of the things that the receivers and I were talking about,” Green said. “Just carrying over what we did in the spring and carrying over the chemistry that we built in the summer. All the routes on airs and stuff like that, so it’s really cool to see it, all our work come to fruition.”

Singleton is the backup and Green talked about working with him.

“It’s been really cool, just being in that … They remind me all the time that I’m the old head,” Green said. “I don’t think about it like that. But they always remind me and make a little bit of jokes but it’s all good. But he’s done a great job just being a sponge, asking questions. Just asking questions to me or asking Coach (Bobby) Petrino and stuff like that.

“I tell him all the time that anything that I do, good or bad, just learn from it. Because I was in that role too. That’s what I did. Like I said, good or bad, learn from it and apply it to the next series because you know he’s right up and sometimes we have similar plays. That’s what I don’t take for granted. I know that I have, whether it’s Malachi or KJ (Jackson) or Blake (Boda) or Austin (Ledbetter) just looking up, Just looking up to me so I don’t take that leadership role for granted.”

Petrino is the new offensive coordinator for the Hogs. Petrino hand picked Green in recruiting. Green was asked how Petrino was during Wednesday’s practice?

“The way it looked to me, he was barely sweating,” Green said. “He had the shades on and everything. I saw the shades when he walked into the meeting room and made a comment on it. I think they were, like, Ray-Bans or something like that, so I was like ‘Alright.’ big money. He was cool, calm and collected.”

Green and the Hogs will open the season on Thursday, Aug. 29, in Little Rock against UAPB at 6:30 p.m. and televised on ESPNU.