Sam Pittman says Arkansas is ‘a long way out’ on deciding secondary battles

The Arkansas opener against Western Carolina is still three weeks away. Head coach Sam Pittman plans to use the time between now and then to continue to evaluate his options in the secondary.

Dwight McGlothern is set to start at one cornerback spot after earning second-team All-SEC honors in 2022, but the other spots are still being sorted out. Pittman recently spoke about where battles in the secondary stand.

“We’re a long way out. We’re trying to determine that,” Pittman said. “I think that’s why our guys are… sometimes they’ll go with the 1s and some with the 2s.”

Pittman was asked about Georgia transfer Jaheim Singletary and true freshman Jaylon Braxton working with the first team during a portion of practice the media was allowed to view. Pittman then shared another player who is also getting first-team reps, in addition to Singletary, Braxton and McGlothern.

“[LaDarrius Bishop] was going to go with the 1s and he had a little bit of a toe infection and he wasn’t able to go,’ Pittman said. “But I think we do believe that we’ve got four-plus corners that we can win with.”

With some depth at cornerback, Baylor transfer Lorando Johnson should be able to show off his versatility in 2023. Johnson, who is nicknamed Snaxx, has been getting working at corner and nickel, which is what Arkansas refers to as its “hog” position.

“Certainly Snaxx moving into the hog position (at nickel) might be valuable to the team,” Pittman said. “We’ll have to wait and see. I wanna make sure that we have the corners first.”

Deron Wilson updates how Arkansas newcomers fit in secondary

As Pittman mentioned, a couple of newcomers are getting first-team reps at cornerback for the Razorbacks during preseason camp as Arkansas works to fix its issues in the secondary from a season ago.

If there was one thing that derailed the Arkansas football team in 2022, it was injuries in the secondary. They piled up and simply wouldn’t relent, leading to disaster on the back end. Can Arkansas newcomers fix the issue in 2023?

They had better, because Arkansas finished dead last nationally in passing defense.

But the Razorbacks were very intentional about shoring up the secondary this offseason, taking in five transfers, in addition to the normal freshman class. And already the Hogs are seeing the new additions make their mark.

“We’ve got a few new guys,” secondary coach Deron Wilson said. “One of them, Jaheim Singletary, has been really impressive these first four days. Getting the defense down, he’s flying around, communicating, fitting in with the rest of the guys.”

A Georgia transfer and the most high-profile of the Arkansas newcomers, Singletary was one of the top recruits in the 2022 class. He ranked as a five-star prospect and was the No. 26 overall player in the class and the No. 4 cornerback in the class.

He didn’t play a whole lot for the Bulldogs, but that figures to change with the Razorbacks.

Meanwhile, another transfer has also impressed like Singletary so far this offseason and early on in fall camp.

“Same with Keeyon Stewart,” Wilson said. “Another new guy that we have, just getting him acclimated and he’s doing a good job. Impressive player. Both of those guys.”

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