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UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

August 31, 2017

Bret Bielema

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Florida A&M - 7, Arkansas - 49

COACH BIELEMA: You always say hold your breath. Exciting to see the players that you've seen play in the past, and see the growth that they've made, and also see new guys step into roles. I thought today was kind of a little culmination of all that. I think when we came into the game we obviously had a plan in mind offensively and defensively.

Special teams, when the other quarterback wasn't playing, I think our defense made some adjustments, changed our game plan a little bit based on what they've seen offensively. Had so many new guys, we had a new lineup with Ty Clary in there, trying to get to the right tackle. We had three running backs that really haven't played a lot. Wide receiver, had a lot of new faces. And then obviously Frank and Austin returning playing really good football. It was a little bit of everything.

I think we had some speed bumps in that first half, which was good to overcome, get those out of our way. As coaches we always talk about getting improvement from game one to game two and we're going to need that.

I thought your guys responded really well the second half. We talked about starting fast, starting on kickoff coverage and then follow it up with defense. And a good teaching moment because we got a sideline penalty. So this type of game, it was good to get a lot of real good visual learning. We'll be able to take from the film and teach other guys, and come out relatively healthy. I think Ryan Pulley, obviously damage that hurt his shoulder, so we'll have to wait to get back home to figure out exactly what that is. But other than that, came out pretty clean with everybody else.

Our plan was to get this one out of our way. Most of the guys, the team will fly back tonight. We'll just need to rest tomorrow, watch film. Move into TCU preparation tomorrow night, we've already done a lot, in spring and summer and with fall camps. We'll give players a day off on Saturday. They've earned it. They've had 13 straight days. I'll give them a day off. We'll watch TCU Saturday night, add that to the scouting reports on Sunday morning, and have a significant practice Sunday night, which is a two-day jump, more than what we do for any other games. This is going to benefit us for preparation our next week.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BIELEMA: I kind of reserved saying anything about him. His level of competition in high school was a little bit different. As soon as he came to campus the ability that he has to learn, regurgitate the game and understand the way that we play here was quick. We could see right away, that he was going to have an impact and we were going to play him. I thought he was a little loose on the ball when he first started repping. He can make a lot of things happen in a short amount of space. He's dynamic. I think the combination of him, Devwah and David, really have three unique players at that position, that will present a preparation nightmare.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BIELEMA: You know, Devwah had gotten in, had a little bit of limited prep, the two weeks prior, but was very healthy for game day. So think we just needed to work on some runs that first half. David had never played in our system or scheme. So it was really important to give him a lot of reps and a lot of opportunities. As you can see, he's got great hands. He's a pass threat. He is really a quick learner. And Chase, just kind of wanted to rep him more and more and get him game ready. Obviously David played in the SEC and Devwah has as well. It was important to rep him, that's why we kept him a little longer. T.J. has just got probably basically just started practicing this week. He's been out about two weeks with an injury.

Q. ( Inaudible. )
COACH BIELEMA: You know, really I think after the first week in camp you could see he could do some things, was very impressive. His athleticism, very powerful. I know Kurt came up to me after the first two weeks of summer camp and he says, his lower body strength is unbelievable. He had a third or fourth year player, just strength in his lower body.

Then after that first scrimmage, he kind of showed up on film. We were looking at trying to find our best five combo, we were trying to bring them along a little bit, so we all made a decision and see what Ty can do with a right guard, and he blocked some very good players. And that's why we made the move. Still didn't know if he was going to be a starter. He's obviously a true freshman, in my opinion totally under recruited. And made the decision about ten days out when we made the preparation that he was going to be our starter. I didn't release the two guys because I wanted to protect him a little bit, let him prepare in the way he needed to platy and he'll be a lot better in his preparation for TCU.

Q. Austin Allen has played, did you try to get him out earlier?
COACH BIELEMA: Yes, no matter what happened in the first half, not no matter what, but our goal was to make him play through the third quarter. Today as many reps as we could get, we haven't been able to simulate that in any practice or scrimmage. To get him to work for three-quarters, I think he was good. But he's got some things he needs to work through, especially with new guys in there, new wide receivers, new tight ends, a couple new offensive linemen. So I don't think, although it was played in the first half, those guys need to understand that's not just a dropped pass, that's a dropped possession. So one of the things that we're constantly on our guys about is football IQ, and we have to raise our awareness on third downs, especially offensively.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BIELEMA: David Williams, or Devwah? No, he's not really -- trying to get the backs in here, trying to get rotation. He had taken hits. But they were a big pressure team. You could see that they were bringing a lot of pressure we hadn't seen. And I think blitz pick up is the last thing that a running back that's been very successful at that position, without a blitz it's always -- blitz pick up is usually the last thing the running back -- he doesn't go to college, and say I can't wait to run a blitz pick up. He's running a play. I think he's done really well.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BIELEMA: I was happy with the way the guys ran the ball. They tackled really well. I don't care what level you're at, they had some good players, good athletes over there to tackle as efficiently as we did. And there were a couple great examples that probably go without being noticed to the untrained eye. We leveraged the ball really well. Turned it into pursuit. Case in point, start of the second half, I think that play was created by the leverage that Henre Toliver got to force it in, and I think Henre got the fumble recovery for the touchdown. There was another play I think Josh Paul got a sack for his first sack out there today, Randy flushed the quarterback into him. So there was a lot of really good moving parts on the defense side of the ball. If you fumble the football to get a guy to make at play and it was very, very evident.

Q. (Inaudible.) Is that what you expect out of the kids?
COACH BIELEMA: We ran through quite a few guys. Randy actually plays both, based on the personnel groupings. Randy to me is a guy I've been real quiet about. I think he's got some special skills. He's just beginning to scratch the surface of how good he can be. I give allot of credit to our two defensive coaches, Coach Scott and Coach Walker, really have had a nice impact getting those guys to play. In particular the outside backs, Randy Ramsey and Dwayne Eugene, who have been kind of just role players to this point, I think it showed up today that those are the two guys that belong at this level.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BIELEMA: Gave up minimal points. I don't think they have a lot of big plays. We put it out there to try to get -- I don't think we had any glaring misalignments. A lot of good communication out there, played a lot of different guys at those positions. And you saw Dwayne Eugene get that sack late, I think they thought the rotation was going to be the other way. All of a sudden a guy they think is going to be driving and he's rushing and it brings a lot of problems.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BIELEMA: It was in the locker. I didn't feel like wearing the white one. I've never done what they want.

I was the defensive coordinator against Hawaii was the last time I remember he was the coach.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BIELEMA: Chevin Calloway and Kamren Curl, both of those guys, because of Ryan's situation, we thought both of those guys -- and it's really a three-man rotation, Britto Tutt, Chevin Calloway and Kamren Curl. We kind of wanted to play those guys all equally. Kamren probably took the majority of the reps. But Chevin the last two weeks has come along really good. He's very fast, very athletic, and very conscientious young man, very attention to detail. For a freshman he's very mature. Him and Kamren both are very mature beyond their years.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BIELEMA: I think there's a couple of options. You also have the Swiss Army knife of our defensive, Kevin Richardson, who plays corner, so I think we'll take a step back, take a look at it and see what Ryan's situation is, and come up with our best personnel.

Q. (Inaudible.)
COACH BIELEMA: Two completed passes, one for touchdown. I think they were both screen plays, which we have to remind him of. He's a fun guy. You just saw the way the way the kids reacted and fans reacted. He's got a great personality. He lowered the boom. He's not afraid of much. He realizes he's six-seven, 270, he puts the shoulder down, which I wouldn't recommend. It's his throwing shoulder, too. We'll have some conversation about that. But it was really good to get him in. He goes in to kind of piece that altogether. And I thought he owned the moment and it was good to get him in.

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