Hog O-line ready to make big push in 2019

Splitting the team up on two different fields for approximately half of practice would not have been possible last year due to the low numbers along the offensive line, but the numbers are a lot better now.

Second-year Arkansas head coach Chad Morris chose to use both practice fields with the first and third units on one side and the second and fourth units on the other. This enables all four quarterbacks to see a significant number of reps and for younger players -- especially the highly coveted freshman class -- to show what they can do without ever having to say they did not get enough opportunities.

As for the OL, they are still shuffling and trying to find the right mix. The starting defense has gone virtually unchanged practice after practice, but that has been far from true with the offense. Arkansas opened camp with 16 scholarship offensive linemen, but they lost one on the first day in Noah Gatlin with a torn ACL. Gatlin was competing with sophomore Dalton Wagnerfor the right tackle job.

"I think we’re getting better," Morris said. "I think we’re still, as you would expect in all positions, we’ve still got a long way to go. But we have a lot of guys getting a lot of reps. A year ago, with eight offensive linemen, you couldn’t get 175 snaps in. So we were able to have a lot of guys getting reps, getting better. We’ve got a lot of true freshmen in there, getting to see where they’re going to unfold out of this next week. But again, I think we’ve got some guys challenging each other."

"Coach [Dustin Fry] does a good job of cross-training guys and moving guys around," offensive coordinator Joe Craddock said. "So those guys are getting a lot of reps, and again we couldn’t have done that last year without the depth that we have there."

One of the big questions among fans has been at center, where junior Ty Clary started all of last season but had some issues with snapping the ball. Last year was his first season playing center, but according to those in attendance it has not been an issue for him in camp.

“One hundred percent,” Wagner said. “Ty has been excellent all camp and I am really, really excited about what he is going to do this year. He has completely transformed his body. He has gotten so much stronger and faster. His snaps are clean. He is going to have a great rest of the year.”

True freshman Beaux Limmer has seen a good bit of action with the second group. He's coming into the situation a lot like Clary did last year (aside from being a year younger). Limmer is working at center for the first time after playing tackle in high school, but the word on campus this summer was that if any of the freshmen played this season then Limmer would have the best shot.

"Early on, the snaps were a little off," Craddock said. "We had a couple today, not by Ty, by Beaux. Beaux’s a guy that played tackle in high school. Moved him inside to center. It’s a new position for him, so you’re going to have some snaps occasionally by him, but Ty’s snaps ever since the first couple of days have been fine."

“Beaux has had an excellent camp,” Wagner said. “He has been one of the guys that has really showed up, too, along with [Myron Cunningham]. Beaux is just, I wouldn’t say I was surprised because I saw him in the spring drills doing his stuff, but he has really stepped up into his position and keeps communicating and keeps leading that two O-line there and he has been doing an excellent job with it.”

Cunningham worked some right guard on Saturday and has worked at every position up front but center. Shane Clenin is the projected starter at right guard and has also worked some at right tackle.

“He has been working his tail off for it,” Wagner said of Clenin. “He stays low, he really posts up. He really is in the game plan. He is dialed into what he does. He understands the job with what he does. He is one of the guys that is in the film room with me, he is trying to get better every day, helping with work sets and stuff. Definitely a hard worker.”

In addition to Cunningham and four true freshmen, the Razorbacks also brought in junior college transfer Chibueze Nwanna to compete this season. Nwanna has also worked at several different positions since arriving in the spring. True freshman Brady Latham has also drawn a good bit of early praise and has even seen some work at backup left tackle behind starter Colton Jackson.

“It has been really nice because now that he is back in it out there on the field, especially with me being a younger guy with a little less experienced as he has, he is able to communicate with me, able to talk me through it,” Wagner said of Jackson. “It is like having a coach out there without having a coach out there and he really helps out. Especially with the O-line, he really takes charge of it.”

"We’re moving a couple of different guys around," Craddock said. "We’ll move Chibueze over there some at right tackle. We’ll also, when we do that, Brady Latham goes in there as well at the other tackle, so we’ve been cross-training those guys a little bit. Fry has put a lot of different guys out there. I’ll need to go back and really look at the film to see who all played right tackle today. But again, we’re moving a lot of guys around."

Senior Austin Capps moved from defensive tackle to offensive line in the 2018 spring and has been working as the starting left guard since the 2019 spring. For the most part when healthy, he has started out there every day.

"Capps, Wagner and Colton and Ty Clary. So many of those guys have come a long way," senior defensive tackle T.J. Smith said. "I saw Myron get in there a little bit today and he did some disruptive things. Shane always does a great job. It's a battle every day. Both sides bring it. It's real competitive."

https://247sports.com/college/arkansas/Article/Colton-Jackson-Arkansas-Razorbacks-offensive-line-2019-preview-134351621/