Michael Smith Back in Action at Tuesday?s Practice

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Arkansas Razorback football continued spring practice under sunny Fayetteville skies on Tuesday. The team worked for two hours in full pads on the practice fields just south of Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

“It was good to get back here and work on things we needed to work on coming off the scrimmage,” head coach Bobby Petrino said. “We had a good, long scrimmage on Friday and our video session went well. We learned a lot. The good thing about the number of plays we ran is that everyone got better as the scrimmage went on. We were able to learn and study from the video.”

The offensive and defensive sides of the ball continue to impress Petrino as spring practice continues. Petrino is happy to see that the plays executed during practice are carrying over to scrimmages.

“I still think our offensive front is going to be very good,” Petrino said. “They are learning more and more about pass protection. Defensively, our defensive ends provide a good pass rush. The linebackers are running to the ball and hitting. Now we just have to make sure they are running in the right direction all the time. They certainly are improving which is good to see.”

Michael Smith is back in the rotation at running back after seeing a decrease in reps during Friday’s scrimmage and Petrino is confident in abilities to earn more reps.

“We want to run the ball better than we did at Friday’s scrimmage,” Petrino said. “Michael Smith didn’t get any reps on Friday and that didn’t help us. Brandon Barnett got some and he has to take care of the ball. They are making some nice runs.”

Smith’s decrease in reps was due to a slight injury prior to Friday’s practice.

“Right before the scrimmage, he got hit on the hip,” Petrino said. “He was moving around well today. He had a hip pointer and sometimes those things get really sore really quickly.”

Petrino was slightly disappointed in his team’s sharpness after a three-day break from practice.

“We weren’t sharp enough,” Petrino said. “We need to learn that when we have three days off we have to come back and immediately get going at the tempo and speed we need to work at.”

Arkansas will return to practice Thursday. It will be open to the public unless the workout is moved indoors. Log on to www.hogwired.com for an up-to-date schedule of Razorback spring football.