Hugh Freeze was tight-lipped on Wednesday when it came to the injury report. Freeze didn’t comment on the status of Demarquis Gates, Fadol Brown or D’Vaughn Pennamon for Saturday’s game against Arkansas.
Gates was suspended for the Rebels’ last game against Memphis for a violation of team standards. Fadol Brown has been out with a lingering foot injury from last year and has not played since the season opener in Orlando against Florida State.
“I am not going to talk about injuries. After Monday I do not want to talk about it anymore,” Freeze said.
Freeze did note that Pennamon looked good in practice on Wednesday and Gates was “on track” to being reinstated and playing in Fayetteville on Saturday.
He said the team looked and felt fresh, and it will need every bit of energy at it goes on the road for the first time in more than a month against a Razorback team has beaten them the last two years.
“Good energy. Got a lot to clean up still. They throw a lot at you for sure, and we just have to make sure we can do what we are calling,” Freeze said. “Everything looks good on the board. But you go out there and do it at the pace you have to do it at; you have to make sure you can execute it.”
It was seemingly a perfectly timed bye week for a team that endured a tough month of September with a young defense. Freeze said a couple of weeks ago that he has been more involved on the defensive side of the ball this season and likes the trajectory of his young group.
“Everything is slowed down a little bit in practice, so it is kind of hard to tell. I still think we are a work in progress for sure, but young kids in the back end are getting better. Linebackers are trying hard. We are trying to ask them to do what they can do for sure,” Freeze said. “We still have a ways to go for sure.”
He knows they’ll be facing a tough task against an offense that is averaging 35 points per game.
“(Arkansas is) scoring a lot of points; they certainly are. Even in their sets they are, and they’ve been very efficient,” Freeze said.
Freeze said last year’s game hasn’t lingered on his mind much at all this week, but the feeling of sickness is still there as the Rebels try to reverse their fortunes in Fayetteville this weekend.
“I haven’t even thought about it this week until I was asked about it today on the SEC conference call,” Freeze said. “If I ever see the end of the game, of course it will make me sick, and it should. You’re a competitor and want to finish the game, and we didn’t, but I don’t think about it.”
