Razorbacks don full pads for first time

FAYETTEVILLE – The Razorback football team donned full pads for the first time this season completing the progression of the first four days of practice and the added weight did little to affect the outcome on the field as Arkansas had perhaps its best practice so far.

Arkansas once again began with position drills on the field, but quickly moved to more team oriented training. One of the first team drills the team worked on was passing with quarterbacks and five receivers going against seven defenders. Moving from one end of the field to the other, the drills ended with field goals on the north end of the practice fields behind Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.

“It went well today,” Arkansas head coach Bobby Petrino said. “I thought that we tackled a lot better than we did the first day of spring when we were wearing pads.”

The Razorbacks also worked on running the ball between the offensive tackles for a significant portion of the day and Petrino was pleased with what he saw.

“I didn’t like the way we executed our pass, Petrino said. “We usually do better than that, but we came back and got good work in on our inside run and did a nice job on live third downs.”

After working on the run, the team grouped together to work on the third down plays with a full 11-person lineup on the field until the practice ended just after 5 p.m.

One position that Petrino made comment on was his linebackers where he sees great competition going on between several players.

“Tenarius (Wright) is doing a good job of competing,” Petrino said. “There is good competition between him, Jerry Franklin and Jermaine Love. All three are getting reps with the ones. Tenarius is a man that has great instincts and really knows the game. The best thing is that he came into camp with the attitude that I’m going to play as a freshman and compete for a starting job so I’ve been very impressed with him.”

Petrino also likes what he sees from sophomore wide receiver Carlton Salters.

“Carlton is having a good camp,” Petrino commented. “He has been very reliable on his routes and I think that he’s faster than he was in the spring. He’s been real sharp and I think he’s dropped one ball in five days so I am really happy with the way he’s played.”

The Razorbacks have their first two-a-day practice session on Saturday with the first session beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday’s second session is scheduled for 4 p.m. and should last roughly 90 minutes.

For more information regarding Razorback football or University of Arkansas athletics please visit ArkansasRazorbacks.com.