Arkansas fans what's the word on your secondary?

motivated.

Hard to say right now. Our new DC is over the secondary and we brought in Jennings from TCU who is now the position coach over all DBs.

I expect Tevin Mitchell and Carrol Washington to start at CB.

Returning starter Alan Turner and former freshman all American Rohan Gains should start at S.

Expect RS sophomore DJ Dean to get plenty of minutes as he is the most athletic.

2 freshman are pushing the starters, one being Henre Tolliver from LA

I certainly feel a lot better, completely disregarding the players even. The philosophy is much more aggressive. I saw our CBs lining up in bump & run coverage more in our spring game than I've seen in the preceding 2 seasons. Seriously go back and watch our games. 3rd and 8? Better line up 10 yards off the WR.

Jennings seems to have instilled the mindset of being physical, too. Once again, I saw more big hits in the spring game than I've seen from our secondary in years.

So culture wise, I feel good.

Player wise, they should be better. Carroll Washington was a top JUCO CB last season who played sparingly. Come to find out he was only about 165 pounds last season. He's up to 190 and they say he's now playing lights out, physical CB. "Top CB on the team" is the general consensus I've read coming out of practice reports/press conferences.

Tevin Mitchel has been pretty disappointing since his freshmen year when he was so good. But they seem to have put more weight on him and he's projected to start. That would mean we're rolling with 2 senior CB's at least, both of which have put on weight to compete with beastly SEC receivers.

DJ Dean, IMO, will end up being the best player in our secondary - just maybe not this year. Incredibly athletic and fearless. Probably nickel back.

Some of the freshmen (Joshua Liddell) have been standing out, as have some of our other sophomores (Jared Collins had a couple of interceptions during yesterday's practice).

We won't be in the top half of the conference or anything, but I could definitely see it being the most improved unit on the team (echoing a sentiment of Bielema's).

OP,

Overall, our style has changed with new DC. We will now play more bump coverage vs. last year's 8 yard cushion. Therefore, we will be much more aggressive in not allowing short dump off passes (killed is last 2 years) but will more than likely give up some big plays over the top due to less than stellar athleticism.

The hope is to create more negative plays/turnovers than giving up big plays/scores. We will see how it turns out.