Ricky Stromberg was ‘voice of reason’ on Arkansas offensive line

Stromberg was already an established player by the time Kennedy took over the offensive line room. He started 20 games in 2019 and 2020 combined, allowing only one sack on 722 pass blocking plays, according to Pro Football Focus.

Calling a player a sponge can be cliché, but there’s no other way for Kennedy to describe Stromberg. He’s constantly absorbing information, Kennedy said of Stromberg, but he also does a good job of looking for the next step.

“He’s really good at getting baseline concepts, and then he’ll pick it apart. He’s very mechanic in the way of, ‘What if this happens, of if this happens, then what call do we make?’ …He’s looking for the why in everything.”

Stromberg was almost like a coach with the way he dissects plays. He absorbs as much information as possible in meetings, but he isn’t the type of person who boisterously lets everyone in the room know how in tune he is with the scheme. Instead, he asks one question after another about every possible scenario and how the offensive line should respond to it.

He also knew when to dive deeper into a play and when to simply do the task that Kennedy would assign him.

“Ricky was really good about knowing when there was a time to converse…and then the time to just do it,” Kennedy said. “I think he was very mature in the way he went about it and handled his business.”