Razorbacks run through typical Thursday practice

FAYETTEVILLE – The Arkansas football team went through what is going to be its typical Thursday practice routine for the fall on the fields behind Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium as it prepares for its mock game on Friday night.

“We took a lot of time off the last two days to recover and came out today and did what we would do on a normal Thursday practice,” Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino said. “We took about 20 minutes and hit all phases of the special teams and then we work offense and defense on all situations of the game, it’s really a situational practice. We finish up with two minute against each other and it was good. I think that our players learned a lot, learned how we want to prepare on Thursday, what we expect out of them. We are trying to get the idea that this is that last part of the week as we put in the game.”

Thursday’s session lasted a roughly 80 minutes as a sweltering heat bore down on the squad for the first time in several days. The storm clouds that had covered the Fayetteville area for several days parted ways just prior to the Razorbacks taking the field making for a humid practice session.

“It was good to get the sun out with the two minute being able to execute, run full speed when they are tired, hot,” Petrino said. “We haven’t had enough sun lately, but it certainly helped today.”

Arkansas now prepares for its mock game on Friday night which gives the Razorback players, coaches and staff an opportunity to test every facet of the game including communications from the coaches’ boxes, sideline demeanor and pregame routines.

When asked about how much contact will be involved in the scrimmage portion of Friday night, Petrino grinned and said, “We’ll be hitting, we like to hit.”

He also explained what he expects out of his team.

“We’ll definitely be hitting but we want to make it as much like the game,” Petrino commented. “How we go to pregame meal, we have our walkthrough during the day, how we approach the locker room and training room. We’ll take the field and go through our routine on the field and then try to hit all the situations of the kicking game that will come up and then basically scrimmage our ones versus the twos and threes and some scouts and get the looks that Western Illinois is going to give us.”

Coach Petrino was also asked about Arkansas’ depth chart and how it might be altered by Friday night’s scrimmage.

“It impacts it,” Petrino said. “We really haven’t finished any depth chart at all. We talk about depth every day but we’ll probably sit down Sunday night and really talk about what we have going into next week.”

The Razorbacks have a final scrimmage scheduled for Friday night before getting the weekend off in preparation for their first game of the season, Aug. 30. For more information regarding Razorback football or University of Arkansas athletics please visit ArkansasRazorbacks.com.