HOG CALLS : Williams seeks ‘bigger’ role for Razorbacks
Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Razorbacks want D. J. Williams a little bigger for the much bigger role planned for him this season.
Former Arkansas coach Houston Nutt and his regime obviously thought highly of the tight end from Central Arkansas Christian or they wouldn’t have signed him last year a true freshman.
However, with an attack geared around now NFL tailbacks Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, that staff had the luxury of gradually working Williams into the offense.
There’s nothing gradual that new coach Bobby Petrino and his staff project for Williams.
They want a big-time, spread offense passing attack, and Williams proved last spring he’s the best receiver they’ve got.
And they still want to run the ball.
As a tight end / H-back / fullback, Williams is a key to that, too, springing scatbacks Michael Smith and Texarkana’s Brandon Barnett.
To take the pounding Williams is going to take, Petrino and strength coach Jason Veltkamp apparently want him bigger than the 240 pounds he was listed last year.
It hasn’t been as easy to oblige picking up weight with all the running he’s doing in the summer heat to get prepared.
“ They are stressing about my weight, ” Williams said earlier this summer. “ I lost a couple of pounds and they are getting on me every day. I understand their philosophy. People are pretty big in the SEC so they want me to bulk up. ”
Why not drink milkshakes morning to night ?
“ I wish I could, ” Williams said, “ but it would be out here on the field the next morning. So I usually try and eat healthy but eat as much as I can. ”
Even the really in shape sometimes can’t stomach all that Veltkamp’s summer workouts entail.
“ We usually get about 10 a day, ” Williams said of those involuntarily emptying their stomachs during a belly full of conditioning. “ But the thing about it is they can throw up and stand right back up and keep going. So as long as they are doing the work, it really doesn’t matter. ”
The Razorbacks are feeling better about themselves enduring Veltkamp’s hard workouts which in turn will have many fans feeling better about them.
Just don’t feel too good. Because while these Razorbacks work hard in the summer, you can bet every other team on their schedule is, too.
Anymore in the SEC, improvements in conditioning and facilities don’t get you ahead. They keep you even. And more importantly, from falling dreadfully behind.
The facilities part of the SEC arm’s race may be in for a change.
Our nation’s sagging economy and soaring energy costs likely will cast a real shadow on even the conference’s unreal zeal to lavish stadiums like palaces and build practice facilities on budgets that are nearly used to fund where the games are actually played.
Fortunately for the University of Arkansas, Frank Broyles ’ 35 year reign as athletics director before his retirement last January leaves the entire Razorbacks program in great facilities shape for economic times when what you have is likely what you’ve got for a long, long spell. New UA athletics director Jeff Long faces plenty of challenges, but major additions to the UA’s major facilities aren’t apt to be among them for awhile. Long’s first challenge is the ongoing combining of the UA’s men’s and women’s programs that retires Lady Razorbacks from the UA vocabulary. It’s all Razorbacks now, Long said last Friday while announcing Robert Pulliza as the UA’s women’s volleyball coach.
(Nate Allen covers the Arkansas Razorbacks football team for the Northwest Arkansas Times. )
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