Football ready for trip to Florida

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Razorback football team battled through a the cold front that has engulfed Northwest Arkansas and conducted practice at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Thursday in preparations for Saturday’s contest with No. 1 Florida. The Razorbacks practiced for a little more than one hour on Thursday as it implemented the finals pieces of its game plan for the top-ranked Gators. The following is a brief transcript from head coach Bobby Petrino’s session with the media following the workout.

On Thursday’s Practice"We had a good week of preparation. I think that our players did a great job in the meeting rooms and have a game plan that we feel comfortable with. I know that our players know it and understand it. They did a nice job in practice tonight. We are looking forward to the game. We are anxious to get on the plane tomorrow and go down and perform well. That is what we want to do as a football team is get down there perform well, have an opportunity to win the game in the fourth quarter."

Health of Michael Smith"Michael got out there today and did some work. Right now, I would say right now it will be a game-time decision, but I am encouraged that he did get some work yesterday and more today."

On the other running backs"I feel good. They have been in there and gotten reps. Dennis Johnson played real well against LSU last year when he got the lead role. We’ll just see how it goes. I have confidence in all the other back. I think that they have gotten to the point now that understand our protections, know what they need to do to protect the quarterback and that is a huge key for a running back. All of them are capable of running with the ball."

Do you expect Florida to be more aggressive than they were against LSU"I would bet they would. Just listening to what they are saying and knowing that they have not been that conservative before. I am sure that they were taking care of [Tim] Tebow. I am sure that they would like to throw it around and open it up and we have to be ready for that. Certainly they are capable of that; they did a lot of it last year. We practiced a lot of things that they have done in the past."

On the attitude of the team"We’ve got a good attitude. Our guys are excited to play and the big thing is that we are focused and we know what the task is. We know how we have to go play and how we have to go perform so hopefully the Alabama game will give us some experience in that atmosphere and we’ll play a heck of a lot better than we did there."

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