In  case you missed it, running back Michael Smith practiced for the first time this spring Tuesday.

The senior, who had been held out because of his offseason hamstring injury, went through several portions of practice and felt pretty good. But he hated watching from the sideline for three weeks.

Smith feels like he has missed out on important timing with the offense. It’s been said he’s the one player who can probably miss the spring and be all right because of his experience and knowledge of the offense, but Smith didn’t agree.

“Any time you’re not practicing, you’re not getting the timing reps for quarterbacks and the O-line and just learning the tendency of your team,” Smith said. “There will be a slight timing drop-off. That’s where the mental factor comes in of me being there, making sure I’m watching, not losing much of anything with the O-line and the quarterback. I think that’s about all I can do at the moment.”

He also hated watching several teammates go down with injuries. Knile Davis, Dennis Johnson and Brandon Barnett have all missed time with injuries. Davis and Barnett suffered severe, spring-ending injuries.

“It’s a horrible feeling,” Smith said. “I’m not even going to lie. When they rushed Brandon Barnett off, I wasn’t excited the rest of the day. That was a hard feeling — especially with him being with me and I’ve known him for awhile. that was hard to stomach with him.

“Knile, he’ll be OK. I think that was pretty tough on him because I’m sure he was like, ‘Man, I could be in high school living it up right now,’ and he didn’t account for the injury. Dennis Johnson, I think he’ll be all right.

“It’s growing pains. Running back is a tough position. You’re going to get banged up. They’re living and learning.”

Just got home after spending the afternoon at practice. For spring football, it was kind of an informative day.

• First of all, the Razorbacks were wearing helmets, shoulder pads and shorts and guess who was with them? Running back Michael Smith. The senior got his first work of the spring today after missing three weeks because of his offseason hamstring surgery. He said it felt pretty good, but he’s not sure how much he’ll be able to practice the rest of the week. He will not play in the spring game, but he’s back and running anyway.

• Bobby Petrino filled us in on Brandon Barnett’s injury, which he suffered last Friday during the scrimmage. Barnett actually broke his tibia and underwent surgery to install a rod in it late Friday night. He is out of the hospital and doing well. In fact, Petrino believes Barnett could be back for practice in August. That’s good news for Barnett, who has had a difficult, difficult spring.

• Petrino was not happy with the practice today. If you were out there, you could tell. He was yelling quite a bit at his players. He thought three days off would’ve been good for the group and expected them to be crisp and sharp. That wasn’t the case and he let them know it.

• Running back Dennis Johnson was also back in some capacity Tuesday. He went through part of the workout (although he left the field for several minutes early on). Petrino said Johnson’s foot got sore on him and he didn’t finish full speed. His availability for the spring game is up in the air right now. We do know that tight end Chris Gragg, who missed practice again Tuesday, won’t play in the spring game. He is still in a boot after suffering a high ankle sprain.

• Oh yeah, one more thing. Ryan Mallett’s non-throwing shoulder is fine. He went through the entire practice today and afterward told Alex: “It’s just a little bruised up.”

  I just came back from Arkansas’ two-hour scrimmage, which was overshadowed by injuries.

  Running back Brandon Barnett had to be helped off the field after he appeared to break a bone in his leg when he was hit at the end of a play. Arkansas trainers put an air cast on the senior’s right leg, and coach Bobby Petrino said afterward that Barnett possibly suffered a broken shin.

  If that’s the case, Barnett will miss the remainder of the spring and need plenty of time for the injury to heal.

  “I’m a little bit concerned about that. It’s his shin, it’s not his knee,” Petrino said of Barnett’s injury. “When he first went down, he was yelling about his knee, but it’s his shin. They had to put an air cast on it, which is always a concern. (He) possibly has a broken shin. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

  Barnett was having a breakout scrimmage before getting injured when he was tackled after gaining 16 yards on a screen play. The senior had missed most of spring practice to head home because of the death of his stepfather.

  Quarterback Ryan Mallett also got injured, though it doesn’t appear to be as severe. He injured his left arm when he got hit while diving for a fumble.

  Mallett returned later, only to miss the end of the scrimmage because of the injury. An Arkansas trainer examined the quarterback’s arm, but Mallett said afterward that he should be fine.

  “I just banged it up a little bit, a little sore and they just held me out for precautionary reasons,” Mallett said.

Arkansas gets a chance to take a breath and heal some wounds after playing eight straight weeks. However, it’s not going to be a good week after the 34-21 loss to South Carolina. How bad was the performance? Well, let’s review the five keys and find out.

1. Protect the Football: Arkansas committed three turnovers against South Carolina. All three were Casey Dick interceptions. Two of them led to 10 points for the Gamecocks. The biggest blow came in the third quarter when Arkansas had the ball trailing 20-14. Dick threw an interception and things unraveled for the Razorbacks after that. So KEY NOT ACCOMPLISHED

2. Cover Up Cook: Midway through the second quarter, with Arkansas trailing 10-7, I realized South Carolina tight end Jared Cook had been relatively quiet. Then he caught a pass and took off running, beating some bad tackling en route to a 66-yard touchdown. Cook finished with just two catches for 82 yards, but the score was big for the Gamecocks. So KEY NOT ACCOMPLISHED

3. Rekindle the Run Game: For the second straight week Arkansas had trouble running the football. The Hogs finished with 54 rushing yards on 31 attempts. That’s 1.7 yards a carry. Part of the trouble had to do with Michael Smith’s untimely exit in the second quarter with a shoulder injury. But that wasn’t it. There was good news: Backups Brandon Barnett and Dennis Johnson had some success. But KEY NOT ACCOMPLISHED.

4. Put Pressure on Garcia: The Razorbacks sacked South Carolina’s quarterbacks twice on Saturday. Both were by defensive tackle Malcolm Sheppard. But overall, the Razorbacks didn’t put much pressure on Chris Smelley and Stephen Garcia. The quarterbacks had ample time to throw the ball and, if they weren’t off most of the day, had chances to tear up the Razorbacks’ secondary. So KEY NOT ACCOMPLISHED.

5. Succeed in Short Yardage: Arkansas may have found its answer to short-yardage problems Saturday when Michael Smith left the game. Brandon Barnett stepped on the field and helped the Razorbacks pick up some big third downs in the second half. In fact, Arkansas was 3-for-4 on third-and-short on its 15-play touchdown drive. The one they didn’t get, they converted on fourth down. So KEY ACCOMPLISHED.

Guess who just contributed to Arkansas’ scoring drive?

Running back Brandon Barnett and fullback Mitchell Bailey.

That’s right. Bailey just caught a four-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Casey Dick, while Barnett handled the ball in some short-yardage situations to help the Razorbacks pull to within 20-14. It was an impressive drive by the Hogs — 15 plays, 62 yards, 8:12 — and has given them some hope.

Arkansas converted on third down three times on the drive. And fourth down once. Interestingly, there were four, third-and-one situations. The Razorbacks got those three times. The one time they didn’t make it, they got the first down on fourth down.

Like I said, it was a big drive for the Razorbacks