Sam Pittman discusses his decision to move 4-star freshman Marcus Henderson to new position
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Sam Pittman has been very transparent when it comes to his affinity for big players. In fact, that’s one of the first things the Arkansas coach looks for in a prospect, especially on the offensive line.
Case in point, Marcus Henderson, one of Pittman’s first offensive line signees at Arkansas, measures in at 6-foot-5, 300-pounds.
While the freshman from Memphis has been holding his own at offensive tackle during his first college camp, the Razorbacks have moved the former four-star recruit to a new position recently in practice. The 300-pounder is now taking reps at tight end.
Told you Pittman likes big-bodied players.
During his most recent media availability, Pittman discussed the decision to try Henderson at tight end.
“Yeah, he caught a couple balls tonight,” Pittman said on Thursday evening. “We are trying to get some depth there, wherever he ends up on the depth chart – the bottom line is, he was doing really well at tackle but I sat down with (tight ends) Coach (Jon) Cooper and (offensive line) Coach (Brad) Davis and said, ‘Hey, look. We have tackles, several, three to four tackles in there, let’s move him over to tight end and see if we can have a physical blocker in there.’
“He actually did that some in high school. So we moved him over there. We have to get him ready and obviously, he knows the offense – very, very easy transition for him as far as the blocking goes, certainly, the routes and things of that nature we are going to have to do a full fledge charge getting him ready mentally to run routes.”
While moving a player this late into camp is unusual, Pittman gave the example of flipping Georgia lineman Andrew Thomas from left tackle to right tackle during his time in Athens.
How well did that go over?
“He started on the national runner-up team, so it can be done,” Pittman said.
One thing is for sure, the Arkansas tight end room just got bigger.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
