Scrimmage shows wide receiver room has depth

By Jason Pattyson

FAYETTEVILLE — Thursday’s scrimmage provided new insight to the coaching staff that the wide receiver’s room might be deeper in talent than previously thought. 

The Razorback receiver corps has lacked depth with previous regimes and ever since the day’s Bobby Petrino patrolled the sidelines as head coach. Thursday’s scrimmage provided new insight to the coaching staff that the wide receiver’s room might be deeper in talent than previously thought. That room will need that depth for starting quarterback Taylen Green to be successful heading into the 2024 football season. 

There was a trio of Razorbacks that were held out of the first scrimmage of the fall camp. Kafre Brown, precautions from knee surgery over the offseason, Tyrone Broden, turf toe, and Andrew Armstrong, hamstring. Head Coach Sam Pittman didn’t think there were any long-term problems in severity. 

“No, none of these guys are long-term. I’m not worried about any of those guys,” Pittman said. “I’ll be honest with you, sometimes in these first scrimmages, you can hold guys… I think if we forced half of that group to play today I think they could have.”

Thursday’s scrimmage gave a couple of receivers a chance to stand out. There were eight chunk plays of 20-yards or more and half of those resulted in scores with the longest score coming from a 65-yard pitch and catch from Green to sophomore Isiah Sategna. Below are all the chunk plays provided by the Razorback Comms staff from Thursday’s scrimmage.

Isaiah Sategna had a 45-yard catch from Green on first play of scrimmage, Sategna had a 65-yard touchdown catch from Green, Davion Dozier had a 35-yard touchdown from Malachi Singleton, Rodney Hill had a 45-yard catch from Singleton on a wheel route, Dozier had 12-yard touchdown from Singleton, Kamron Bibby had 60-yard touchdown from KJ with the threes., Andreas Paaske had a 6-yard touchdown catch from Blake Boda with the threes., Sategna had a 20-yard catch late from Taylen, Singleton threw a 55-yard touchdown to Monte Harrison on a busted play.

Details in the work make the product shine and getting receivers open at the 15-25-yard range is what Petrino has made his living off of with the receivers. That was evident the last time he visited Razorback Stadium when he was at Missouri State. Coach (Ronnie) Fouch sees what this room needs to win each play.

“The system we have in place is very detail-oriented on their routes. So they have to get their depth,” Fouch said. “You know, if they cut their route short it affects the whole play. So really I think we’ll get the separation we need if we just trust the details, our alignment is correct and we get our depth right and we’re going to have guys running wide open.”

The depth in previous Petrino receiver rooms has Razorback fans longing for excitement and anticipation that he can make this 2024 receiver corp explosive with Green running the offense. Just remember, the potential is there, Razorback Nation just might have to be patient to see the full results. Regardless of time, Pittman, Petrino and the rest of the staff will need this group to produce and start fast for prolonged success in 2024.