Football practice report
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Arkansas football team continued practice late Monday morning into the early afternoon. The team worked out inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Following the practice, head coach Bobby Petrino spoke with the media:
On practice:"The preparation has been fun and I’ve been very impressed with our football team. Saturday, we went out and practiced for an hour and 20 minutes and then had some scrimmage work. The player’s attitudes were great. They flew around and played with a lot of intensity and emotion and had a lot of fun out there going against each other. It was great work for us. The ability to get young guys work has been something where we’ve seen tremendous improvement. All the young guys are working together and staying after practice or getting reps with the ones or the twos. They’ll jump in there and it has been very good for them and our football team and will certainly help us when we get to spring ball. We are kind of in a game week mode this week where today was a normal Tuesday practice for us. That went well then we kept the young guys out afterwards and got them some extra work. It has been a balancing act for the coaching staff between bowl preparation and recruiting. I’m sure they are looking forward to the break."
On Paul Petrino:"It was a great seven year run. He is an excellent coach and a great motivator for our players and an excellent recruiter. I miss him not being around here, but I’m excited about Garrick (McGee) and his leadership and what he will do with our offense.
On Arkansas in bowl games:"I’m familiar with the history. We need to learn how to prepare for a big bowl game. That is something we are taking very serious. We want to be in a bowl playing for national rankings and national championships. In all our preparation in everything we do to be like that and our guys learn how you prepare for a bowl game, how you conduct your business, how you travel at the site. That’s what we are trying to work on."
On the break for the holidays:"We always try to do that. Get them home for Christmas and make sure they see their family. They’ll travel and then we will meet Sunday at the site."
On Jerry Franklin:"I think Jerry has had a good season. He’s very physical and makes a lot of tackles for us. I’ve seen him grow tremendously in his knowledge of the game and his understanding of what offenses are going to do. He plays a lot faster in the game because he understands what is going on out there. He’s really become a much better student of the game and that allows his physical attributes to show up better."
