Week Three Of Practice Big For Establishing Offensive Line

One of the more important parts of any team is establishing your starters in the trenches. For much of the previous four years without Sam Pittman running the offensive line at Arkansas it has been a revolving door of starting offensive line sets. Cohesion is a big deal for any offensive line. The ability to find trust in the man to either side of you, knowing what makes your partner tick and being able to solidify a unit for the whole season will payoff for a team looking to rebuild themselves as a competitor in their conference again.

Three of the offensive line positions are spoken for with Myron Cunningham working at left tackle, Ricky Stromberg at center and redshirt freshman Beaux Limmer as the starting right tackle heading into this crucial week of practice. Who is competing for the position at left tackle?

“We moved (Brady) Lathan a little bit in there at left guard,” said Pittman. “Obviously, we’ve had (Shane) Clenin and (Ty) Clary. You know, if one guy misses a block you look terrible. He may have played really well but the results weren’t good. You have to look at maybe who is the problem with the results and i don’t know how he did. I know (Lathan) did play with the ones at left guard because I think (Lathan) has been playing well.”

Two year starter, Dalton Wagner is a physical specimen but has played both tackle positions the previous two seasons but the majority of snaps were played at right tackle. With Pittman confirming that Limmer has pushed his way to start at right tackle, Wagner has been playing with the twos behind Cunningham at left tackle.

Another offensive lineman who was highly recruited with the 2020 class was Marcus Henderson. Usually, it is tough for true freshmen offensive lineman to make it to the top of the depth chart as they make it to campus. A good example of that could be Henderson who has the size to play right away but it usually takes time for them to be ready.

“Henderson had a much better scrimmage this week,” said Pittman.

In his first year as offensive line coach, Pittman started two true freshmen in the starting lineup in game five versus Texas A&M at home. Both Denver Kirkland and Dan Skipper would start that day and never miss a start again for their Razorback careers. If something does go wrong you can surely expect to see Henderson rise quickly.

As he was rounding out his talk about the offensive line, he mentioned that there is still some uncertainty as it comes to the offensive line. “We will find out but I don’t know who the guy will be at left guard or for that matter right tackle right now.”