Sam Pittman updates progress through five days of spring practice

Every year in college football, there’s a strong chance of high roster turnover from year to year due to the evolving rules and regulations with the transfer portal. The spring version of the 2022-2023 Arkansas Razorbacks football team is no different, as there are at least 31 new players who have yet to go through a full segment of on-field practices in the Cardinal and Cream. This spring, the Razorbacks have welcomed a school-record 18 early enrollee freshmen to campus, a half-dozen transfers, and a handful of players who earned a spot on the spring roster from a recent tryout. In a recent spring practice press conference on March 31, Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman talked about how he was very pleased with the progress of the group after five days of spring practice.

“Yeah, I don’t know if you’re ever…where you want to be. But I think we started from day one pretty good. I think there’s not a lot of balls on the ground. Not a whole lot of missed assignments and things. And that’s certainly a credit to our coaches and our players for learning. But we just came off another physical practice and I like where my team is through five days,” Pittman said.

Arkansas pulled in six four-star prospects, according to the On3 Team Recruiting Rankings for their 2022 class. The highest rated prospect of the bunch was Isaiah Sategna, an electrifying wide receiver out of Fayetteville High School (Fayetteville, Arkansas). During his storied high school career, he hauled in 172 catches for 3,261 receiving yards and pulled in 25 receiving touchdowns. A dynamic track and field star as well, Sategna was also touted as one of the nation’s top track and field athletes as well.

Sam Pittman recently discussed his dual-threat quarterback that he returns, K.J. Jefferson

The talented head coach is in luck, because the one thing that won’t change for him during the 2022-2023 season is that he returns one of the nation’s most electrifying dual-threat quarterbacks, K.J. Jefferson.

Following their first winning season since 2016 and their first bowl victory since 2015, the Razorbacks have complete faith in the veteran quarterback to continue to make big time plays for them on the field.

“A lot of confidence,” Pittman said of Jefferson in a spring practice press conference. “Throwing the ball with velocity. Throwing the deep ball well. Threw a good one or two to Malik (Hornsby) today actually. That was a nice catch he made on the very first play of team run. Even though the kids believed that he was a captain last year, which I did too, but I was little bit surprised because he hadn’t played before and they voted him team captain. I shouldn’t have been, because I understand how the team feels about him. He’ll be a captain again. He leads the football team. Along with those guys in the secondary. I think they’re very valuable too. All of them are, but those are the older guys that are leading us.”

On3’s Chandler Vessels also contributed to this article.