Coaching Details Now Looks to Be Petrino’s Approach

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Saturday’s practice for Arkansas was moved back a couple of hours to about 7 p.m. to get a safe window to stay outside. Razorbacks coach Sam Pittman prefers that, probably because it gets to spread everybody out and it is better for conditioning.

For offensive-minded folks, it gives an interesting glimpse to watch new offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino and his subtle ways of working with quarterback Taylen Green and the backups. With video being the way everything is broken down these days, he probably doesn’t have to yell as much on the field as he did in histime as head coach from 2008-11.

A lot of people want to see that fire and on-field coaching style the media loves to talk about. With the exception of a normal coaches’ move moving a wide receiver out of a drill that was kinda blown out of proportion, there hasn’t been much to see.

Age also has a little to do with it. Riding around the area around his home in a golf cart with his granddaughter is a side of Petrino most folks couldn’t imagine over a decade ago. On the field, he’s working exclusively with the quarterbacks now and coaching details.

The little nuances he points out to the players in individual drills is interesting. From release point on passes to fine-tuning footwork, he’s working on them being as close to perfect as it can get. It’s probably never perfect, but right now they are doing touch-ups on offensive install and getting the pattern established for the games.

That will start against UAPB at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Ark., on Aug. 29. The offense will be ready for that game. A guess is it will be a chance to get some final evaluations on players working against somebody other than a teammate before taking the trip to Stillwater, Okla., to play Oklahoma State the second week.

Watching Petrino point out to Green one time he needed to throw the ball in a place he didn’t brought back a back a long-ago memory. The pass Green threw was only off maybe six inches or so.

It was almost like watching Bill Walsh coaching the San Francisco 49ers in 1982 and emphasizing Joe Montana needed to throw a pass exactly 6 inches to one side of a receiver on a route. We found out later from Montana that didn’t mean 5 inches, either, which is what he threw.

“I missed it a little,” Montana said with a smile. “He wants it exact.”

Petrino is probably that way, too. He realizes, of course, most of the time he’s not working with the arm of a Hall of Famer that is as accurate. That doesn’t mean he’s not trying to develop that perfection.

Razorback fans are counting on that offensive magic of 2010-11, which was during a 21-5 run.. The problem is there is no evidence the talent is there right now to do that. This roster isn’t as good as what he had in his first season as the Hogs’ head coach in 2008.

This team may have some folks that develop into that, but nobody knows they are going to be there now. They haven’t shown it in years past and you can’t really gauge practices.

Petrino knows all that. He’s just trying to work with what he’s got and make it the best it can be. In today’s world, nobody knows what’s going to happen with the transfer portal, NIL and the mental state of teenagers these days. Every coach knows they could be developing them for somebody else.

It appears to be a much more relaxed Petrino. We saw that in the spring and now in just four practices of fall camp, it looks to be very detailed instruction for the quarterbacks on little things most folks don’t even think about.

Which was probably what Pittman was thinking when he hired him in December. After last year’s problems and having a coordinator that was obviously distracted by things we may not have even known about, getting some attention to detail may go a long way to at least making a bowl game. Or even better.

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