When Drew Amman, Alyssa Orange and I ranked the nine positions on Arkansas’ football team for the upcoming season we didn’t agree on much but all three of us identified the same problem area: The offensive line.

Not exactly brain surgery. O-line coach Dustin Fry lost his top three linemen from a 2018 Razorback team that gave up gobs of lost yardage plays and quarterback sacks. So how is the situation going to get better in year two for Chad Morris and his staff?

“Last year those three guys knew they probably weren’t going to get beat out. Our competition’s a lot better this year,” Fry told reporters just before the start of Monday’s media/coaches golf outing. “Better competition could help us a lot.”

The competition Fry was referring to starts at left tackle where senior Colton Jackson will begin fall camp as the starter after having a good spring and summer. But breathing down his neck is JUCO transfer Myron Cunningham who arrived in time to go through spring football. Cunningham’s only issue was a need to get stronger in order to make the jump to the SEC level. Fry said he’s done that this summer.

“I wish we could release the before and after photos of him,” Fry said of Cunningham. “It’s freaky how much he’s changed his body. I think he can be a special player at guard or tackle. I think he can play both and be very efficient at both.”

As it turned out I was paired with Fry in the golf outing which allowed me to spend the better part of four hours talking football with the former Clemson offensive lineman. If he was feeling pressure with the start of fall camp closing in he sure didn’t show it.

“You got a center?” I jokingly asked as we headed out to number four at Paradise Valley, our first hole of the day. “Because when fans are bending my ear about this season that’s probably the number one thing they want to know.”

“I didn’t last year,” Fry answered with a grin. “But yeah, I think Ty (Clary) is gonna do alright this season. He’s come a long way in a short time.”

Fry emphasized the added depth he’s seeing this summer with 16 scholarship offensive linemen as opposed to the eight or nine available a season ago. That’s the main reason why he’s sleeping better these days. That and the fact that he can name all five players who will begin fall camp on Friday as a starter along the offensive front. That’s something else he couldn’t do a year ago at this time.

In addition to Jackson at left tackle senior Austin Capps will start number one at left guard. Beside Clary at center will be sophomore Shane Clenin at right guard. Dalton Wagner, also a sophomore, rounds out the starting five at right tackle.

Capps will be making a bid to become the next Hjalte Froholdt at Arkansas. A four-star defensive lineman from Star City, Arkansas Capps made the switch to offense two weeks into fall camp a season ago.

“He had a crash course in O-line play,” Fry noted. “I played him in some early games to get him some experience and if you look back at some of that film I know he was upset because he didn’t always know, ‘How do I step?’ when teams would go odd on him. He wasn’t quite sure. So now we’re a year into it and I think he’s just in a better place mentally knowing, ‘This is my spot to lose and now I just need to focus on the finer details.’ “

In the weight room Capps is what Fry refers to as, “country strong.” A player who can “squat the house and bench the house.” Of his quiet nature Fry said he calls Capps, “the silent assassin,” adding, “I’m excited to see his development as to where he ends up.”

On hole number nine we came across Morris who was hitting drives for each of the groups. “If my drive’s the best, you men can use it. If not, use what you got,” he said with a grin. Probably noting my advanced age Morris asked me how many coaches I had covered in my years in Arkansas. “Eight or nine,” I answered. “Coach Broyles was the best,” I continued, “but Danny Ford was the most interesting.”

I then told Morris the story of how Nate Allen, Bob Holt and I talked Ford into letting the media attend his practices when they had been shut out at Clemson.

Ford greeted us in his office with his bare feet propped up on his desk. “Why do ya’ll need to see what we’re doin’ in practice?” he began.

After we each made our best pitch Ford went into full horse trading mode. “If I let ya’ll in, what are ya’ll gonna do for me?” he quizzed.

“Uh, whatever would you want from us?” I responded, somewhat astonished.

“Well,” he said, “I got bad knees. Had bad knees since my playing days. I can’t stand up on no practice field for two hours. I gotta sit down. I’ll let you in but the first one of you #*%*# that shows me sittin’ on my a$$ on TV or in a newspaper, it’s over.”

That was it. Problem solved.

Morris laughed and then told me his Danny Ford story.

“I was in a staff meeting at Clemson one day when there was a knock on the door,” he began. “It was coach Ford. He came in the room, looked at Coach (Dabo) Swinney and said, ‘Where’s the Texas boy? I heard you got a Texas boy on your staff.’ ”

“I raised my hand from the back of the room,” Morris continued, “and said, ‘Coach Ford it’s me, Chad Morris. I’m from Texas.’ “

” ‘You got any cows?’ he asked and I said, ‘Yes sir, I do.’ At that point he turned to coach Swinney and said, ‘You need to keep this one. A coach that has cows knows what he’s doin.’ “

“I think he’s doing more than raising cows these days,” another member of our golfing foursome blurted out. “Somebody said he got a permit to grow marijuana on his farm.”

Actually Ford did receive one of the first permits in South Carolina to grow hemp, not marijuana on his farm. Unlike pot you cannot get high on hemp which supposedly has various medical benefits.

There were other things I learned while golfing with Coach Fry. Like that he snapped the ball for Clemson on the last play of Lou Holtz’ career as a head coach and how he’s been able to handle the fallout from Arkansas’ offensive line problems in 2018. His girlfriend (and future wife) during his playing days at Clemson was a student at South Carolina. Considering how fans of those two schools feel about each other, “that was real pressure,” Fry noted with a wry grin.

Like a lot of guys his size Fry hits the golf ball a country mile but not always straight. I had the impression that if he had more time to play the game he could likely solve that problem. He’s also an excellent putter but suffered near miss after near miss to the point where I was starting to think he was destined to head home shaking his head over what might have been. But he never displayed any frustration and indeed, toward the end of the round his patience paid off and those putts began to fall.

As we said our good byes, he said, “I had fun and I think you guys will have better news to report on us this season. Maybe we can play again, hopefully after a bowl game and after signing day is in the books.”

I hope so too. Whatever happens this season Dustin Fry really is a nice guy just like all of the other coaches on Chad Morris’ staff. I’m hoping that this season they can prove wrong that old saying that, “nice guys finish last.”