Football practice report

The University of Arkansas football team continued spring workouts Friday with a scrimmage inside Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium. Following the two-hour session, Razorback head coach Bobby Petrino spoke with the media. "I was happy with things we did out there," said Petrino. "We’ve still got a lot of work to do and we’ve got a lot of things to clean up. The thing that showed out there today was the physicalness of the scrimmage. It was probably the most physical scrimmage that we’ve had. The defense was running around making hits and plays on the ball. The offense got off to a fast start, which is different because in this scrimmage we started off with pressure right off the bat with the defense blitzing coming out. The offense made some big plays and we had some guys make some nice runs. Defensively, I thought they competed hard and were flying better to the ball. I didn’t think we had the errors we’ve had in the previous scrimmage as far as assignments and therefore it was a much more competitive day and hard for the offense to get the ball in the end zone. I’m encouraged by what we see, but we still have a long way to go. The team was led in rushing by Ronnie Wingo Jr. who had 12 carries for 70 yards and one touchdown and the longest run of the day (29 yards). "I think that’s a good group of running backs," said Petrino. "The emphasis today was yards after contact and they were competing trying to finish runs and falling forward. Coach (Tim) Horton was really on them about how great backs fall forward. You could see they were working hard at it." The quarterbacks had a solid day and all had good moments throughout the scrimmage. Although Ryan Mallett has not been able to practice this spring due to injury, he has also shown leadership. "I think Ryan has done an excellent job all spring," said Petrino. "I think he’s helped the other quarterbacks and I’m impressed when I turn around and they are talking about the previous play. I think Ryan mentally has got a lot outof spring ball. It’s nice to see him out there now being able to throw the ball a little bit."