By Nate Allen
Special to the News-Times
FAYETTEVILLE - Of course it’s just the first day NCAA mandated to be in no pads without the defensive backs hitting them.
But the freshmen wide receivers and new junior college transfer receiver Gary Cross impressed Arkansas coach Bret Bielema during Thursday’s opening of preseason drills.
Cross, of Fordyce via Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College, and debuting freshmen Jarrod Barnes of Cabot, Koilan Jackson of Pulaski Robinson and De’Vion Warren of Monroe, La., allegedly so impressed Bielema that he used their performance to hint a fire needs lighting under some current upperclassmen who have spent the last couple of seasons depth chart buried behind current senior leading receiver Jared Cornelius and 2016 departed seniors Keon Hatcher, Drew Morgan, Dominique Reed and Cody Hollister.
“I tell you what, some of these older receivers that haven’t got on the field yet, they had better wake up and smell the coffee,” Bielema said. “Because if they don’t perform right, those younger guys will go right by them. It doesn’t take me long to figure out you’ve been here three years and you can’t get it right and you’ve got a guy who has been here three months and get it right, we’ll make a move in a hurry.”
The rookies have another day likely to excel with no pads today and half pads Saturday and Monday, but the grind accelerates to full pads by Tuesday and a full-scale scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 5, Bielema said.
Bielema announced that redshirt freshman offensive Dylan Hays of Little Rock Christian has moved to defense behind nose tackles Bijhon Jackson of El Dorado and Austin Capps of Star City.
Coaches usually don’t mention sure thing starters the first day of practice other than obvious ones like returning senior quarterback Austin Allen and Rimington Trophy candidate senior center Frank Ragnow or Greenlaw and Cornelius, but Jackson at nose and sophomore defensive end McTelvin “Sosa” Agim of Hope start from the mountain top, too.
“I think Bijhon and Sosa - they’re our guys and the rest of it is kind up in the air,” Bielema said of the first-team defensive line in Arkansas’ new 3-4 defensive scheme.
Sophomore letterman T.J. Smith opened Thursday as the other first-team defensive end.
“T.J. has had a really good summer,” Bielema said. “T.J. is a very productive player.
“He weighs 292 pounds and runs pretty well and is very intelligent. So I think him Briston (Guidry), Jonathan Marshall (both redshirt freshman defensive ends) a little bit and also a couple of other guys could be in that mix.”
Senior first-team outside linebacker Karl Roesler, “kind of tweaked his hammy” during the summer so “we didn’t want to get him in there full throttle,” Bielema said.
Roesler being limited enabled new junior college transfer Gabe Richardson and sophomore walk-on Tyler Phillips of North Little Rock, a special teams letterman last season, to get some second-team work Thursday.
As far as the receiving corps are concerned, Bielema said Cross and the new freshmen have shown up well in a preseason explosion drill over a 60-inch hurdle that strength coach Ben Herbert set up during the summer workouts before Thursday’s official start of practice.
“I tell you what, Jarrod Barnes, he’s another in reference to the 60 and the vertical,” Bielema said after Thursday’s press conference.
“Jarrod is very smooth and very conscientious. De’Vion Warren is probably.
“I know some of those upperclassmen probably don’t want to admit, but he’s one of the top fastest players on our team probably in speed and agility. Very gifted.
“I think Koilan Jackson is a very talented player that has size and maturity and his ability to get going a little bit in the right direction. Gary Cross is a very explosive player.
“I watched one of the in-season testing competitions. He did a one-step jump over a 16-inch hurdle.
“That was pretty impressive. He's very athletic and he can catch the ball.
“I'm excited what he brings to the room."
Cornelius, coming off a hamstring injury last spring, and starting junior linebacker Dre Greenlaw, coming off a twice broken foot that sidelined him from last spring’s drills, were eased into the first day workout.
“We limited them in team a little bit,” Bielema said.
“I saw Dre jumped in there at the end. I think he's tired of that plan. He got in there and mixed it up, but we've got to be smart with the way we rep him.”
Incoming scholarship freshman linebacker Josh Paul is not in the 105 allowed to practice before the roster expands with the first day of UA fall semester classes on Aug. 21, 10 days before the Aug. 31 season-opener in Little Rock against Florida A&M.
“He’s fully qualified. So he can join us at some point,” Bielema said.
“We just need him to focus on academics and just doing things a little bit better. Nothing involved with anything other than the expectations in our program to do them a little bit better. But I think he'll lock in and be good in that regard.”
Since the NCAA has done away with two-a-days, Bielema went longer with developmental and younger players during Thursday’s drills after the first and second-teamers finished the workout.