Offensive line continues to show improvement with newcomers

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas’ offensive line returned some key players from last season, but also went to the transfer portal and high school ranks to boost the talent level.

Sam Pittman met with the media on Thursday prior to the sixth spring practice. One of the players he talked about was redshirt junior E’Marion Harris who has been working at both right tackle and right guard.

“Well it gave us an opportunity with Kobe Branham having surgery on his pec, that gave us the opportunity to move E’Marion is so valuable because he can play so many positions for us,” Pittman said. “Obviously he wants to start wherever. Right now, it’s right tackle. But when Kobe had his surgery — which is unfortunate because he’s one of the best offensive linemen we have, I mean, he’s a good player — but we can develop somebody else and he’ll be back for fall and all those things. It allowed us to move Harris inside a little bit and it allowed us to have Shaq (McRoy) be a 1, because certainly he has the talent to start for us. But to answer your question, that’s why we did it. And we’ll probably move him a little bit to left guard as well at some point.”

McRoy is one of the five portal additions to the offensive line. The Oregon transfer is 6-8, 362, and appears even taller than that.

“He’s not Dan Skipper height, but he’s close,” Pittman said. “I mean, he is. Dan, when he was here — now, Dan’s a huge man now — but when he was here, he was a big guy but he looked tall because he wasn’t thick. You know, thick thick. That’s where Shaq doesn’t look so tall because he’s so big, as well. But yeah, I think he’s every bit of that 6-8 or more. Now he can move. He’s not a freshman, which was your question, but he’s as impressive of a newcomer. I think him and Mike (Washington) on offense would be the two guys that are — well, you have (Raylen) Sharpe, too, (Kam) Shanks, those guys. But on the O-line, he’s been really impressive for a young guy. Corey Robinson obviously has been playing well, too, but I’m real happy with him.”

McRoy was a four-star recruit out of high school and the Razorbacks worked hard at the time to land him, but he opted for Oregon. The second time around Pittman and Eric Mateos got their man. Robinson, a transfer from Georgia Tech, praised McRoy recently as well and admitted never had a teammate on the offensive line as large as McRoy.

“No, never in my life,” Robinson said. “Shaq is huge. He’s every bit of 6-9. Even though he’s really big, he moves really well. Most people his size you don’t really see be able to move as fluid as he can. And he works hard. Some people who are big, that’s a lot of God given talent already that doesn’t have to be taught and they kind of just rely on that. But Shaq works real hard.”

A returning player who appears to have settled into the right guard is Keyshawn Blackstock.

“Well I think we finally found his place,” Pittman said. “I think right guard is where he can… We moved him a lot last year. I was watching all the tape from last year and trying to… You know, he played several positions for us last year. I don’t know — he had to. He’s playing right tackle against Tennessee and he played guard and I believe he played some left tackle for us, as well. I think putting him at one spot, I think we found his spot where he can have success. He’s still got… He’s not stepping well to his left. We’ve got to get that figured out. But his pass protection has been as good as it’s been since he’s been here at right guard.”

The Hogs also enrolled two offensive linemen at midterm. Blake Cherry, 6-5, 309, and Kash Courtney, 6-4, 285. Pittman praised both when asked which freshmen newcomers have caught his attention through five practices.

“Offensively, I like those two linemen that we brought in — Blake Cherry and Kash Courtney,” Pittman said.

Arkansas will hold its spring game on Saturday, April 19, at 1 p.m.