Razorbacks Football Spring Practice Q&A with Bret Bielema – Part 1

Arkansas Razorbacks football head coach Bret Bielema concluded the spring practice season meeting the press. Below is Part 1 of Bielema’s press conference. In Part 1, Bielema provides an overview of his thoughts on spring practices, where his Razorbacks football team stands at this point and his thoughts on quarterbacks Brandon Allen and Brandon Mitchell.

Bret Bielema: I was excited after the game, then I get to watch film Sunday and visit with my staff this morning – just really excited about the growth on that day, in particular. Just a chance to be in front of, obviously, a record-setting crowd, but to kind of see how guys play when the bullets are flying  as close as we can get it to next fall in our opener.

Just starting off on the offensive side of the ball – I really liked the fact that we were pretty clean. Obviously we had a couple of penalties, but for us to play the way we were at the beginning of spring to where that is – full-circle – is really, really good. Just guys lining up, doing what we’re supposed to do. We didn’t have any turnovers – fumbling the ball. Obviously a pick, a couple of picks, and some things that could have been there. But I was very, very with the way we have respected the football in every way possible.

And I think, really (this a) group that has grown as much as anybody, and it’s just how we want to run the football offensive line-wise, tight end-wise, fullbacks, using all those guys together and was particularly excited about that.

I think on defense, the linebackers really came in strong here, as of late and did a couple of nice things they haven’t necessarily been doing all spring and flashed, for sure.

So excited about that group.

And probably the biggest thing that I was really excited about was just the way we kicked the football. Not just the field goals and the PATs, but just how we struck the ball in the punt game and covered it, as well. Those three things are definitely bright spots.

I know we gave you a two-deep there, and that’s kind of been an evolution from that first practice to where we are today. And we’ve got some other guys that I think of the incoming freshmen that will help us maybe get into to the two-deep, as well, early, but other than than, everything was pretty upbeat.

Q: Who was Hocker’s holder?

Bielema: He is actually a walk on. A snapper that joined us in January. I know Zack (Hocker) has felt good about him all the way through and obviously he was really good on Saturday.

Q: How do you feel about how [the team] has taken to what you’re doing?

Bielema: Well, you know, the only two guys that didn’t join us, Austin Flynn and Defonta Lowe, those two guys, obviously, weren’t there. There were actually two guys that I suspended from the game. I just wanted them to concentrate on academics that weren’t there. But other than that the guys have been buying in. I don’t think anybody was looking to run out of the door. I do think over the course of the summer there are some guys that have got to get right academically, otherwise they put the decision in their own hands.

I think just overall, the way everybody just kinda of rallied around the situation, and again, we don’t want to really talk about what we weren’t really a part of, but whatever happened in the past was going to be left in the past. I didn’t want to dwell on it or speak about it – really, other than acknowledging that it happened, and I have to answer a question here or there, but the positive energy and the excitement has been really evident to us.

Q: Thoughts on Brandon Allen (quarterback)

Bielema: Yeah, and again, you guys saw limited practices, but really, Brandon Allen, from the first week until the game that you saw on Saturday, made progress all of the way along, but just really, the last two weeks, have been exceptional. Just continued to make strides.

Brandon Mitchell (quarterback) does a lot of really good things, as well. On thing we can’t do is we can’t turn the football over. We can’t create negative plays on our own. I think Brandon Allen did a lot better job of that, overall. And has progressed in a way that has put him in that position.

Editor’s note: Part 2 of this Q&A with Bret Bielema is available here.