Hogs lose lineman with season-ending injury
FAYETTEVILLE - Deion Malone’s season-ending knee surgery became the latest in Arkansas’ 2018 offensive linemen felled by injury.
Malone, the, 6-3, 293, senior who transferred from Northwest (Miss.) Community College, “is out and will be out the rest of the year,” Arkansas Coach Chad Morris said after Tuesday’s practice.
“He had season-ending surgery last night on his knee. It (the injury) was in a pass-rush drill in practice.”
The Razorbacks don’t start practicing in full pads until today but during the summer on the offensive line already have lost incumbent fourth-year junior left tackle Colton Jackson of Conway at least until midseason and likely will redshirt true freshman lineman Ryan Winkel of Memphis (injured pectoral muscle lifting weights) and currently have third-year sophomore starting center Dylan Hays idled by a back injury while reserve junior guard Jalen Merrick appears to be under concussion protocol.
“It’s an area we are already struggling with a little bit in some depth issues,” Morris said. “But again that’s why they call it coaching. We’ll continue to bring guys along.”
Redshirt freshman Shane Clenin, previously a tackle or guard, and sophomore Ty Clary, lettering at guard last year as a true freshman moved to center last spring, respectively have worked on the first and second units shot-gun snapping in Morris’ Spread offense with Hays out.
Both were involved in a planned wet ball drill Monday and a natural one Tuesday as it rained during a portion of practice.
“We try to put them in a wet ball situation quite a bit to see how that works,” Morris said. “We have been inconsistent in snapping the ball. We’ve been good, we just haven’t had the consistency where we want it. Some are here, some are here, some are low. We want that consistent right in the numbers. We are woking on that and moving guys around, but you expected that and is not really a concern of mine right now.”
Backup defensive tackle Briston Guidry (knee) also has not been practicing.
“We hope to get Jalen back hopefully in the next few days, early next week,” Morris said. “Briston is still kind of day-to-day right now with his knee. We anticipate he will be back, hopefully before the end of next week. As far as center right now, Dylan (strained back) is a guy that has been day-to-day as well. He started out the first few practices and we kept him out
the last two so hopefully we can get him back in and get him going the last part of this week.”
Junior receiver Deon Stewart (hamstring) also didn’t practice Tuesday.
During the first 20 minutes of practice available for media to watch, outside linebacker Derrick Munson stripped the ball from running back T.J. Hammonds, and backup safety Montaric Brown broke up a pass he nearly tabbed for what would have been a pick-six touchdown.
“He (Brown) is actually having a really good camp through four practices,” Morris said. “The play you’re referring to early on in practice, just reaffirms the type of camp that he’s having. Obviously there’s things you’ve got to do to continue to get better and improve, but he’s having a good camp so far. We’ll see how it goes.”
The Razorbacks now have fulfilled their NCAA mandated two practices in helmets and shorts and two practices in helmets and shoulders. Hard full-pads practices loom today and Thursday and a tapered practice Friday lightened to lead into Saturday’s closed scrimmage.
“We’ll get out there and see what our young guys got,” Morris said. “We know the guys that will get out there that are experienced and have played and hit. I want to see a lot of competition going on tomorrow. I want to see a lot of excitement, guys flying around. A lot of energy is really what I’m looking for.”