By FRED CONLEY
T-H Sports Editor
NORTH LITTLE ROCK -- Arkansas defensive coordinator Dave Wommack believes in chemistry. As in the team variety.
Wommack, speaking at the Arkansas Associated Press meeting of sports editors, writers and broadcasters Wednesday at the North Little Rock Wyndham Hotel, said "the key to any successful season is how well a group of athletes come together as a team. I think we have to be smart as coaches."
That will be especially true as Arkansas Razorback football coach Houston Nutt fields what will be a "very young and inexperienced football team in several positions."
Wommack is optimistic and believes the 2004 Razorbacks have a lot of young athletes who can contribute, even though he and the other Razorback coaches have not even seen them in pads yet.
"There is so much change every year in the personality and character of your team, the way it molds and how the team comes together," said Wommack. "Our players are not looking at what the football magazines say, they are concentrating on what they believe they can do as athletes in the SEC and as a team."
Wommack then listed the incoming freshmen and other new players expected to make a difference over the course of a 2004 schedule which is quite possibly the toughest in the SEC. It is surely the toughest in school history.
"We have high hopes for the upcoming season," Wommack said. "We're not being over-positive but we're not being negative either."
The Razorbacks are trying to put things back together after losing 29 players from last year's squad, including five underclassmen to the NFL ranks.
Wommack said he felt the juniors who made the jump to the NFL were ready to move on.
"You can see it in their actions and in their eyes," Wommack said. "They wanted to be somewhere else and that somewhere else was the next level of football -- the NFL."
Prominent among the new Razorbacks this season is Searcy linebacker/fullback Weston Dacus, who should be familiar to Forrest City fans.
"Weston has put on 11 pounds, he runs well and he has already shown that mentality and toughness needed at the linebacker position," Wommack said.
Dacus is expected to play behind returnees Clarke Moore and Sam Olajubutu at middle linebacker.
Another Searcy product -- ex-Harding Academy defensive end Jeb Huckeba -- will also be called on to help the hogs this season.
Wommack took several minutes to run down the lost of players on both sides of the football saying that defensive line returns just enough experience, coupled with some younger players to be a solid unit.
On the topic of returning quarterback Matt Jones, Wommack said he felt Jones has been "under rated as a thrower."
Jones ran for more than 700 yards during the 2003 season, averaging more than eight yards per play. As a passer, Jones improved his completion percentage from 52 to 57 percent and had just seven interceptions, the least among starting SEC quarterbacks.
Backing up Jones is Robert Johnson, who Wommack called "very athletic with a lot of composure but has very little experience."
Wommack said the Hogs' offensive line lot a lot of starters but as a unit this season, could be "more athletic than last year."
To counter Arkansas' youth, Wommack said, several veterans have stepped up as leaders. His list included Jones, tight end Jared Hicks and receiver Stephen Harris on offense and defensive end Jeb Huckeba, defensive tackle Arrion Dixon (Wynne) and linebacker Clarke Moore on defense.
The Razorbacks will open the 2004 season on Sept. 4, when they host New Mexico State.
Arkansas has been picked to finish fourth in the SEC West this season behind LSU, Auburn and Ole Miss.
Following Wommack was National Football League referee Walt Coleman of Little Rock, who will be entering his 17th season next month and seventh as a referee.
"It has been a tremendous experience and opportunity to work with people who are the best in the whole world at what they do," he said.
Coleman spent much of his presentation talking about controversial call incidents during his career as an NFL official.
One pair of such calls in the last 30 seconds of a Buffalo Bills-New England Patriots game eventually led to the Patriots winning on a touchdown with no time left. Coleman, as referee, had to announce the calls -- which were made by his crew, on the field which led to him receiving several heated but hilarious faxes from angry Bills fans.
"One thing I've realized over the years is that you have to learn to laugh at yourself," Coleman said. "When the game is over, we want people talking about the coaches and the players. We also like for that to happen during the game, too. As NFL officials we basically want to be invisible."
Coleman was also the lead official in the 2002 AFC Division Playoff game between the Oakland Raiders and the New England Patriots, which was played in a driving snowstorm and, forever etched the league's "tuck" rule in the minds of fans everywhere -- especially in Oakland.
New England trailed in that game 13-10 with 1:40 left and had no time outs.
At his own 40, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady dropped back to pass as Oakland's Charles Woodson hit Brady behind the line of scrimmage on a corner blitz.
"I'm standing behind Brady while all of this was going on and then I see the ball is laying in the snow," Coleman said. "Well, I've got two choices -- incomplete pass or fumble. I ruled fumble and I gave the ball to Oakland. First down. Game over."
Not quite.
Coleman said the press box official watching the replay called for a second look at the play.
"I go over to the replay monitor and the first shot they give me of the play is from the front... and it clearly showed that Brady had the ball and he loses it about right here," Coleman said, before he has a chance to tuck the ball under his right arm.
"That made it an easy call. In the NFL rulebook, it specifically says when the quarterback starts his arm motion forward it is a forward pass until he brings the ball and tucks it back against his body. If he gets it all the way tucked back against his body and then loses the ball, then it's a fumble. That's why they call it the tuck rule."
The call proved to be hugely valuable for the Patriots, who rallied to tie and then win the game on field goals by Adam Vinatieri. New England went on to defeat Pittsburgh in the AFC title game and St. Louis in the Super Bowl.
"People didn't understand the tuck rule," Coleman said. "It became a controversy. And in Oakland, they thought it was a major controversy."
Coleman has not officiated any Oakland games since that postseason meeting, but he has worked two games involving former Raiders Coach Jon Gruden, who is now at Tampa Bay.
Coleman also went over some of the rule changes which will go into effect this season in the NFL, many of which are not new rules but are changes to the way existing rules are applied on the field, with the intent to make the game safer.
Coleman said there will be a stricter application of the defensive illegal contact rule, which forbids defenders from making contact with a receiver more than five yards past the line of scrimmage, as well as the defensive holding rule.
The Forrest City Mustang coaching staff won't be facing Brice Beck this season.
Beck, who returns to quarterback the Blytheville Chickasaws this fall, will be facing life in Class AAAA.
This week, however, Beck is competing this week in the QB1 Top Gun Challenge at Springdale High School.
Blytheville drops down to the AAAA level this season and out of the AAAAA-East.
The Mustang coaches all agreed that Beck is one of the state's top-rated quarterbacks. That can be underlined by the fact that Beck spends much of an average day sifting through piles of letters from a litany of colleges.
All want him to do what he does best: throw a football.
At 6-foot-3, 221-pounds, Beck is a pure pocket passer who has been plagued by injuries in his career.
Last year, he not only tore ligaments in his neck during the first game, he also dislocated his shoulder weeks later while receiving a blindside hit.
Perhaps Arkansas' best quarterback prospect since Fort Smith Northside and current Razorback Matt Jones, Beck is looking at Ole Miss, Missouri, Memphis, Alabama, East Carolina and Arkansas.
While most Blytheville residents have urged Beck to join the Razorbacks, the Northeast Arkansas town sits in a nexus, where Mississippi, Tennessee and Missouri are no more than an hour away.
Capable of throwing the ball more than 75 yards, Beck hopes to show off his arm this summer and further impress recruiters after his season was cut short in 2003.
Wednesday, Springdale quarterback Mitch Mustain, the lone junior amid nine other seniors, took three of the four events in the Top Gun QB1 Challenge.
Mustain took the Speed Mobility event to begin the Challenge.
His 10.85 scamper in the first round placed him in the finals with Star City's Jon Furneaux and Little Rock Central's Clark Irwin.
The event directed the signal callers around cones, under bars and finished up with a 15-yard sprint before a leap and throw at a stationary target for a halfsecond bonus as the prize for those that were accurate enough to hit the bull's eye.
Mustain ran a slower 10.88 in the final but it was enough for the win. Irwin (11.37) finished second.
Mustain faired well in the On the Move event as well with a first-place conclusion.
The event closely mimics that of the NFL's version where targets of various distances tread across the field while quarterbacks attempt to time their throws.
Mustain scored 48 points in the first round to advance into the finals. He shined when it counted, scoring 52 points in the final, hitting two bull's eyes, to propel him to victory over Irwin, who threw for 44 points.
Mustain tossed a pair of 60-yard bombs to nab the Deep Ball contest.
Beck and Lake Hamilton's Alex Futioo each tossed 60 yarders in Round 1 to advance to the finals.
The one event Mustain failed to win was the Stationary Throw, in which quarterbacks throw at two stationary targets and three moving targets.
Warren's Aaron Rowell took the Stationary Throw with 44 points in the finals to oust Fordyce's Mark Kelley (38), Beck (32), Brewer (30) and Little Rock Catholic's Steven Head (30).
BLYTHEVILLE -- The Jonesboro 11-year-old All-Stars sustained an undefeated season and became Cal Ripken state tournament champions Tuesday at the Blytheville Sportsplex, coming from behind to beat Springdale Red 3-2.
The team now heads to Paragould for the Southwest Regional tournament later this week.
Opening ceremonies begin at 5 p.m. Thursday at Paragould.
*The Jonesboro 8-year old All-Star team forced an "if " game in the championship round of the Southwest Regional baseball tournament Wednesday, but fell 5-2 to Cabot in the winner-take-all final and finished second.
Jonesboro defeated New Orleans 7-6 in the losers' bracket final Wednesday, then knocked off Cabot 5-3 in the championship round.
Jonesboro was one of 25 teams in the tournament.
*Little Rock Junior Deputy 13-year-old All Stars which won the Arkansas South Babe Ruth state title last week at Forrest City, opens play at the Southwest Regional Friday against Wharton, Texas.
The regional includes teams from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Monticello, Paragould, Star City and the Junior Deputy team.
The tournament runs through July 28, at Monticello.
Junior Deputy defeated Clark County in the Babe Ruth state tournament finals.