Key players excited about Dan Enos’ offense

FAYETTEVILLE — Dan Enos is making his second return to Arkansas and he has certainly received very good endorsements from three key players as well as obviously Sam Pittman.

Enos was at Arkansas from 2015-17 with Bret Bielema. When Kendal Briles left for TCU Pittman wasted no time in bringing Enos back from Maryland. Enos and Pittman were on the same Arkansas staff in 2015.

Running back Rocket Sanders, offensive lineman Brady Latham and quarterback KJ Jefferson have all given strong endorsements to Enos. Sanders talked about the offense following Thursday’s seventh spring practice.

“I feel like we’re going to be able to complete the third downs,” Sanders said. “I feel like we’re going to be more consistent — consistent throwing the ball and running the ball — and I feel like he’s going to use a lot of people, to the tight ends to the running backs to the receivers. And I feel like being under center, as well, is going to be a different type of thing for me and the running backs, but I feel like it’s going to help me in the long run.”

The Razorbacks were an up-tempo offense under Briles. Will that be the case in 2023?

“So we do a little bit of everything,” Latham said. “We do fast tempo, we do slow it down, we huddle some. I think you’ll see a mix of all of it.”

Sanders also chimed in on the up-tempo offense and what Enos is doing in that regard.

“Yeah what he was saying,” Sanders said. “I feel like it’s going to be a mix of all of it. And like I said we are going to be ready for third down type of deals. I feel like we are going to be comfortable as a team.”

Latham has worked at left guard and both tackles this spring. He and Beaux Limmer are the only returning starters on the offensive line. He’s having fun in the spring drills under Enos.

“I’ve really enjoyed it so far,” Latham said. “It is different than our last offense, but it’s still football and things are still similar. We’ve been working on it and running it really well and it’s been working really good out at practice. It’s still inside zone, outside zone, stuff like that, but just a little bit different twist.”

Jefferson is regarded as one of the top returning quarterbacks in the SEC. In practice he has taken more snaps under center than under the previous offensive coordinator.

“We do various amounts,” Jefferson said. “We’ll be under center, Shotgun, Pistol. We switch it up all the time. So Coach Enos also has just told us he wants us to get comfortable starting off under center and just mixing up different things, different footwork and things trying to get us comfortable for this upcoming season. We’ve all bought into it. We’re all enjoying it. It’s going great.”

Jefferson talked about how the offense might look different other than the quarterback under center.

“Just our schemes,” Jefferson said. “Our main thing is to look complex but remain simple. So I mean we want to do a lot of different shifts. We want to line up many different ways but still running the same plays. I would just say our main thing is to look complex but remain simple.”

Arkansas will hold a closed scrimmage on Saturday. There will be no media access during or after the scrimmage.