True freshman to see first collegiate action Saturday in place of Johnson
By: Brandon Harris, Senior Staff Writer
The redshirt is no more.
Arkansas coach Houston Nutt announced Sunday that freshman quarterback Casey Dick will assume the starting quarterback role for Saturday's Homecoming game against South Carolina.
"'You're always a play away,'" Nutt said. "I've told all the quarterbacks that. You're always a play away, and you never know. But I felt like this time, we needed a little bit of a change. We went to work on it and finally came to this decision."
Dick, originally thought to be redshirting this season, will take the starting quarterback job from sophomore Robert Johnson, who has started each of the Razorbacks' seven games this season.
Dick, however, said he was comfortable with taking off the redshirt.
"I was comfortable with it," he said. "I came to Arkansas to play quarterback. I always knew that when I got my opportunity, I would take advantage of it and see what I could do for the team. I was happy just to see if we could add a new spark or help the team out in any way. That's what I really want to do."
Dick described himself as more of a pocket passer with the ability to scramble out of the pocket to buy time for plays to develop. He said he would run the ball if he had to, but preferred to sit back and throw.
Nutt was quick to clarify that the personnel change was in no way a shot at Johnson.
"This is not a 'blame it on Robert Johnson day,'" Nutt said. "He's done a lot of good things for our program, and I appreciate his attitude and work ethic.
"[...] We're trying to win. But that doesn't mean we've thrown away Robert Johnson, [redshirt freshman] Alex Mortensen or [true freshman] Cole Barthel."
In a season that has Arkansas fans, players and coaches disappointed with a 2-5 record and 0-4 winless mark in the Southeastern Conference, Nutt is digging deep.
"We're trying to win a ball game in a desperate way," Nutt said. "We want everyone to be at their best. We just feel like at this particular time, we've told Casey, 'Hey, you're going to go out there first and go play football.'"
_________________ Something tells me that the first mousetrap wasn't designed to catch mice at all, but to protect little cheese "gems" from burglars.
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