Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Arkansas State players thought they knew what an up-tempo practice was.

Then they went through their first spring football practice with Coach Gus Malzahn. Transitioning from the Hugh Freeze era to the Malzahn era figured to be easy because both coaches prefer fast-paced offenses and attacking defenses.

It’s not like players did a lot of standing around in practice under Freeze on the way to a 10-victory 2011. But Malzahn, the former Auburn offensive coordinator, told reporters in Jonesboro the pace of practice was “not even close” to what he expected.

“Pace is a big factor. That’s kind of who we are,” Malzahn said in video available on KAIT8.com. “We’re trying to get our guys to understand when we’re in a team setting we’ve got to run around like our hair is on fire.”

ASU quarterback Ryan Aplin, the returning Sun Belt Conference offensive player of the year, said there was a definite change from last year. Malzahn and his staff pushed for a tempo the Red Wolves weren’t quite expecting.

While the current and former coach prefer no-huddle offenses and have some similarities in their philosophies, Aplin said the team is very much learning a new offense. Aplin graded the day as a “B-minus,” noting some route running and timing issues with the wide receivers.

“We didn’t hop around as much as coach would like today,” Aplin said. “We weren’t as fast. We’ll get there.”

ASU returns to practice Friday. Then the Red Wolves are off for spring break and resume March 26.

Malzahn said much of Friday’s practice will be spent fine-tuning mistakes made in the first session of spring. Specifically, Malzahn said the staff will target the tempo at which the Red Wolves approach workouts, especially the 11-on-11 sessions.

“We weren’t even close. But we’ll get there,” Malzahn said. “They’ll see it on film. We’ve got to set the expectations. They were going about half the speed that we need them to go.”