I haven’t had the opportunity to blog much today. Been working on several things trying to get caught up for the week. But before I go out for post-practice interviews, I wanted to post a Q&A with D.J. Williams from Tuesday’s practice.

Williams, who 8 catches for 104 yards and a touchdown this season, spoke to us about a variety of topics. Here are some of the highlights:

Q: What is it going to take to get the offense back on track against Texas A&M?
A: “We understand it’s a Big 12 team. They’re known for being physical and big and so we’re going to come out here and try to represent the SEC. Not just the sec, this whole state of Arkansas. We have something – not to prove to anyone else – but to prove to ourselves, that we can go out and play with big-time teams. I know we’re capable of that. We just have to go out on the field and show it.”

Q: A lot has been made of the team’s confidence, how important is it to get that back?
“It’s huge. I would say we’re not going to try to get that back by having a win, we’re going to try to get that back here in practice. Having good repetition in practice and showing ourselves we can make big-time plays. We had a lot of drops against Alabama, very uncharacteristic of our whole team. Some miscues on the line. Little quarterback misreads. That’s just not like us. So we’re going to have to get our swagger back. That’s what we call our confidence. We need to get our swagger back here in practice.”

Q: How much are penalties killing you?
“It just hurts. If you go back and look at the film, I’d say most of them are stupid penalties. Mental mistakes. I don’t know if it’s from being tired or anything like that. But having a good drive, being stopped by penalties, just haunts you at night because that’s stopping yourself. We want to be our last enemy on the field.”

Q: How hard are they to eliminate?
A: “It’s just a mental aspect of the game. You have to block out on the crowd, focus in on what you’re doing, listen to the quarterback’s lips in the huddle because you can’t hear anything out there. I think coaches did a great job of having the volume out here in practice doing that. It’s a different story when you get out on the field. That’s just something we have to get used to and it starts with leadership. The leaders demanding it from the players and not just the coaches demanding it.”

Q: Georgia and Alabama were different games. Is it difficult to refocus?
A: “It’s vital to just throw it out of your mind. We came in here and Alabama was over. We watched film on Sunday and we learned from it. Now we’re putting it behind us and moving on to A&M. They’re a good defense. They have great leaders on defense. We know their offense is very fast tempo, so we’re going to have to help our offense out to give them a breather. I think the offense is going to do a whole lot better because we started off really good here with the Tuesday practice.”

Q: The running game is still waiting to get going. Do you see that happening soon?
A: “I see that. … I know it’s going to come around. We’ve got too many backs not to have more rushing yards. It’s not all on them. It’s on the tight ends and the offensive line to move the line of scrimmage. We need to take more pride in that, not just throw the ball every down. So that’s something coach has told us and we’re going to take as a challenge to help our running backs out.”