Sam Pittman previews spring, impressed with O-line

FAYETTEVILLE — Sam Pittman obviously has a big place in his heart for the offensive line since he was considered one of the best coaching that unit before Hunter Yurachek hired him as head coach of the Razorbacks.

The Hogs were active recruiting in the transfer portal and high school ranks trying to upgrade the offensive line. The Hogs added Georgia Tech offensive tackle Corey Robinson II, Oregon’s Shaq McRoy, UCF center Caden Kitler, Maryland’s Marcus Dumervil and Ole Miss’ Kavion Broussard from the transfer portal. They also added Bubba Craig from junior college.

“We do have a lot of new offensive linemen,” Pittman said. “I like ‘em, a lot. I think… I got asked a question earlier today about how quickly we’ll know who’s playing what position. I think the answer for that would be, I think we’ll know fairly quickly who our top 10 offensive linemen are. Where they play, per se, it might take a little while.

“But I can tell you, athletically, Corey Robinson is — he can move now. And we got what we wanted there. Carmona, we’re looking at him a little bit more inside, whether that be guard or center. Caden Kitler is a guy that I’ve been real pleased with at center. He was at Central Florida and they’d asked him to go to Florida State when their line coach went down there too. That was a big deal for me, as well. Bubba Craig is a new guy where we don’t know for sure if he’s going to be a guard or a tackle. Broussard is another guy, very athletic, that we got in, that we like a lot. Marcus Dumervil, we’re going to start him out at the right tackle spot. The guy that’s probably been as impressive as any of them in his ability to move is Shaq McRoy. Probably… I don’t know that Shaq’s the fastest lineman that we have, but he’s one of them. Which, I recruited him — we did — here hard out of high school and I just never believed that he could move at 370 pounds like he can. We have depth. You add Brooks Edmonson in there and Kobe Branham.”

Pittman even praised the overall unit and talked about where it stands as far as upgraded from last season.

“I like our young guys with Kash Courtney and Blake Cherry,” Pittman said. “I like those. I think we hit on those guys athletically and knowledge of football. We’ve been able to have some meetings with them. This will be, in my opinion, the most upgraded room that we have, as far as size, speed, physicality. But we’ll have to find out exactly about them all in spring ball. But I really like that group and how they look and how they work.”

The addition of Robinson at left tackle may very well allow Carmona to move inside which is likely what the NFL will have in mind for him.

“He received it great, because I think that’s what they’re going to do with him at the next level,” Pittman said. “I approached him about playing center, because I think he would be outstanding. If it’s the best thing for him and for the team, that’s what we’ll do. I have liked Kitler, I have liked him a lot. 

“If Robinson was your left tackle, Carmona was your left guard, and Kitler and whoever, Kobe, (Keyshawn) Blackstock, whoever at right, and then you got to find, whether it’s McRoy, whether it’s Dumervil, whether it’s E. (E’Marion) Harris, and I don’t mean in that order, then you got to find that. But, I think Carmona’s was honestly, we got Corey Robinson. Then we go, ‘Well, that can allow us to help Junior a little bit more with his future and help the team.’ So, he took it great and we didn’t really say we’re going to move you, we went in there and talked about, what do you think? He said, ‘Well, I think they’re going to move me inside in the league, coach.’ I said, ‘Well, you’re going to want to try it now, you want to try a little center, you want to try guard.’ So, that’s how that went.”

McRoy was heavily recruited by Pittman and his staff out of high school, but he opted for Oregon. The Hogs were able to land him the second time around and Pittman is smiling because of that.

“I think Shaq grew up a lot at Oregon,” Pittman said. “I mean, he had this priority, this priority out of high school, and now it was, ‘I want to play football.’ He did a tremendous job with his body. Now he’s 370 or something, but he’s a monster. I think he’s probably four bills, maybe a little bit, I don’t know, close to that when we recruited him out of high school. His ability to move as he’s moving right now, I did not think out of high school that he could do that as a senior. I’m talking about senior in college. I did not think that that big of a guy could be that athletic. So as you can tell, I’m really high on him. But just from an athletic and the way that he’s matured from high school to now, and of course, like your question was, he went through kind of a similar situation, because Oregon and Dan (Lanning) coming from Kirby (Smart), and Kirby coming from Nick (Saban) and all that.”

Another offensive lineman is redshirt freshman Zuri Madison who missed all of 2024 due to a scooter wreck that required surgery.

“Yeah, he is,” Pittman said. “He got cleared Monday. Full go. Now, he’s been doing a lot of stuff, but in other words, he got cleared for spring practice. He was really athletic, and then unfortunately, he had the-Keiundre Johnson, right? Keiundre Johnson, guys, that’s one I missed. He broke his little toe, so he’ll be out for a little bit, too. But no, he got cleared, and he was so athletic in those stations and all that and I was so excited about him. And then he had the ACL, which is a long time to get back. But he did a good job with his body, and he’s out there and back now. That’s almost like a getting a guy out of the portal type situation. So, yeah, we’re excited to get him back.”

In addition to Johnson, who is a freshman defensive lineman, Pittman also listed the other athletes who are expected to miss some time this spring.

“We’ve had some injuries as far as might hold some guys out for the spring and might hold some out for the first week,” Pittman said. “Okay, I’ll go off the top of my head then… David Oke will probably be out maybe the first week. He’s got a hamstring. Taijh Overton has got a collarbone, or excuse me, a shoulder that he’ll be out for the spring. Jordan Young will be out. He’s got a shoulder, too. He came in with it. Ummm… I think there was one more… Oh, Cam Ball. Cam Ball had elbow surgery from last season. He needed it. It’s great timing to get it and he needs it for us and he needs it for his future. All those surgeries went well, but I believe that’s it.”

Ball is obviously a standout defensive tackle. Young is a transfer defensive back from Cincinnati. Oke is a defensive tackle from Abilene Christian. Overton is a freshman defensive back.