Just walked back in the door from Arkansas’ press conference. Bobby Petrino, QB Ryan Mallett, WR Greg Childs and DE Jake Bequette were selected to participate today. Here are the biggest things we learned:

1. LB Jerry Franklin, indeed, will be back on the field Saturday. Petrino confirmed what the SEC office told us earlier today, saying Franklin won’t be suspended for his ejection. However, Petrino said reviewing the film showed that Franklin did bump an official and deserved to be ejected. He said it will serve as a lesson to Franklin and anybody else who was watching. Franklin will be disciplined in house according to Petrino, but will be back in his starting spot Saturday.

2. Arkansas’ WRs will get some help Saturday from senior Lucas Miller. The senior will be back on the field after missing the first two games with a broken collarbone. It should help, considering Petrino believed his sophomore trio of Greg Childs, Joe Adams and Jarius Wright were worn down in the second half. The Razorbacks plan to get Miller and freshman Cobi Hamilton more work, giving them at least five receivers they can count on against the Crimson Tide.

3. Petrino said there are a handful of players that need more playing time. The three he mentioned — freshman running back Ronnie Wingo, freshman offensive tackle Greg Oden, and junior safety Anthony Leon. Not sure if it means those three will find their way into starting roles (OK, not Wingo). But we’ll know more when we take a look at the first 20 minutes of practice. Petrino did say that Wingo’s lack of playing time is on him. He just didn’t want to put a freshman in a game like that and in a situation like that. Instantly, I thought of Houston Nutt’s decision not to play Darren McFadden and Felix Jones vs. Vanderbilt in 2005.

4. Speaking of running backs, Petrino was asked about Broderick Green and the goal line. He put the blame on the offensive line for not opening any sort of path for Green to run. Remember, the big back was stuffed a couple of times in the second half. Arkansas eventually scored on the drive, but the inability to run the ball into the end zone remains obvious.

It’s Friday. You know what that means, right?

Only one more day until the season opener against Missouri State in Little Rock.

Are you getting as excited as this guy?

Friday means something else, too. My notebook is loaded with news, quotes and nuggets that haven’t been used. I’ve got leftovers that need a home. So the plan is to start a weekly feature here on the blog that we’ll call, “Cleaning out the Notepad.”

Granted, none of this will be earth-shattering news, but it will help pack your brain with info before gameday. So let’s get going:

1. This didn’t make it in our notes today, which you can find by clicking this link. But Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino was asked if he told his players to watch the college football games on ESPN on Thursday night. He didn’t. Instead, he was hoping all of them were all in bed. The Razorbacks had an 11 p.m. curfew.

“The biggest thing is that this is the night that you need to get great sleep and make sure that we do a great job of hydrating and getting fluids in us and getting the sleep that we need,” Petrino said.

2. I really wanted to get this in my Michael Smith story earlier this week, but didn’t have room. Did you know Smith was ill during preseason practices? He told us that Monday and said he had dropped some weight because of it.

Smith lost weight in preseason

“I’m gaining it back now,” Smith said. “I got sick during camp. A lot of players got sick during camp. That knocked off quite a few pounds, but I’m slowly gaining it back now and it’s fine.”

Smith entered preseason camp listed at 180 pounds. We’re wondering what he REALLY weighs right now after a month of practice.

3. Keeping on the subject of running backs and illnesses, offensive coordinator Paul Petrino was asked earlier this week about Broderick Green and his performance in last Friday’s scrimmage. Petrino said Green looked pretty good.

“He did a nice job,” Petrino said. “He had some real nice runs in the critical zone. Had a couple nice runs in short yardage and ran with his pads down and was falling forward and looked very powerful. We were real happy with the way he ran the ball.”

Green should get carries in the opener behind Smith and Dennis Johnson. We’ll find out tomorrow how he performs after missing time in the preseason because of pneumonia.

4. There apparently won’t be any suspensions (as of Wednesday) for the opener. Petrino was asked about it on the SEC Teleconference and said there weren’t any. A handful of players couldn’t play in the opener last season for various reasons, including linebacker Freddy Burton (two-game suspension) and Smith (NCAA violation suspension).

5. Arkansas’ defense will be expecting some trickery tomorrow night. Apparently, Missouri State isn’t shy about trying a few things out of its spread offense. So the Razorbacks practiced on defending trick plays this week, but Petrino doesn’t want his team to get caught up in looking for them on every snap.

“The main thing is you have to react to them,” Petrino said. “We don’t want to sit around and look for them.”

6. Alex got a lot of this in the notebook today, but it’s worth bringing up again: Will the Razorbacks shake hands with the Bears before kickoff Saturday night? The American Football Coaches Association has encouraged teams to do so as a sign of sportsmanship. Petrino said he hasn’t been able to make contact with Missouri State about it. Even more, he’s not sure if it’s necessary.

Petrino: "I'm not sure what the point is."

“I feel like there’s been great sportsmanship in college football,” Petrino said. “I’m not sure what the point is.”

7.  Petrino was asked an interesting question on his radio show the other night about how many plays he scripts to open a game. He didn’t give exact details, but gave some insight into what the Razorbacks were planning to do in the opener.

He said roughly 8 to 15 plays are scripted every week. The goal is to get some formations and personnel groups out on the field to see exactly how the defense reacts to them. Arkansas will practice that script all week with the intent of gaining confidence in what they’re running to start the game. Ultimately, Petrino said the goal is simple: “What we need to do is score on it.”

8. Lastly, we’ll have plenty to say from Little Rock tomorrow night. We’ll be blogging some news and notes before, during and after the game here on the Hog Blog. Make sure you follow us on Twitter, too, for all kinds of news and notes.

You can check us out at three places (@NWAAlex, @NWARobbie, and @NWAOnlineHogs).

We know that Arkansas running back Michael Smith is going to be a very important piece in Arkansas’ offense.

But we also know that Smith won’t be the Razorbacks’ only weapon, which is what it looked like last season when he carried the offense and, in the process, ran his 5-foot-9, 165-pound body into the ground.

Arkansas is planning to take some of the load off Smith this season and we should get our first look at how much beginning with Saturday’s opener against Missouri State. It’s something I explored in the story I wrote for this morning’s paper. You can find it by clicking this link. We don’t know how many carries Smith will get, but it’s clear he will have more help with Dennis Johnson, Broderick Green, Ronnie Wingo, Knile Davis and De’Anthony Curtis all looking for opportunities this season.

I didn’t have space for everything in the story, but wanted to explore how the other backs could be used.

It’s actually something Smith described during Monday’s press conference.

“Our coach, he’s a situational-type coach,” Smith said. “Whatever situation we’re in may call for a different type of back. If I’m tired, we need a long one or a draw or something like that, Dennis would be in. If we need two or three yards, Broderick would be in. If we need somebody to hit the corner fast, Ronnie would be in.

“So there’s a lot of room for everybody to play in different situations. He’s just going to put the backs in whatever situation that they could probably produce the best results.”

Bobby Petrino talked about it last night, telling us he’s not sharing his plan. I wasn’t able to use the entire quote in the story, but here is some that was left out. You can get a feel for what Petrino is thinking as Arkansas closes in on the opener.

“We have different personnel groups that we can call out to get Broderick Green at tailback, to get Knile at tailback or to get Ronnie Wingo at tailback,” Petrino said. “Dennis, I just put him in. He’s a guy that I can just throw in there because he knows everything, so there’s times when I put him in.

“And that’s what we really did the last two weeks, what we worked hard on the last two weeks. That’s why the coaches were off the field, on the sideline in the scrimmages and really worked on how we’re going to substitute, what the process is going to be.”

So with that said, any guesses on who will have the most carries and rushing yards during the opener?

If it was Georgia week the answer is easy: Smith. But what happens if Arkansas jumps out to a big lead in the first half against Missouri State? Does Smith take a seat to rest for Georgia? And if he does, he gets the bulk of the carries behind him?

Should be interesting to watch the game and see the boxscore when it’s all over.

  Turns out, Arkansas running back Broderick Green had more than a high fever last week. He had pneumonia that knocked him out of practice for around four days.

  Green said he didn’t go to the hospital, but that was only because he detected the pneumonia early on.

  ”If I wouldn’t have detected it a little earlier, I would’ve been in the hospital because it was right around that time that I was close,” Green said. “But luckily, I caught it on time and I just had to get a couple of shots and take some medicine.”

  Green said he noticed after Arkansas’ first full scrimmage on Aug. 15 that he wasn’t feeling well. That’s when he knew something was wrong.

  ”I don’t know what happened. It was after practice one day. My head was hurting, and I didn’t feel good,” Green said. “I felt hot … and I couldn’t sleep at night. I was sweating, and I knew it was something. And when I said something about it, I found out I had pneumonia.”

  Green said he went from around 242 pounds to 234 pounds because of the pneumonia, and he admitted he felt a bit out-of-shape during Tuesday’s practice.

  ”I didn’t have the energy at all. Of course, it’s from missing a couple of days,” Green said. “I’m getting back into the motions, but it was pretty tough.”

  Since two-a-days are over with, the media is allowed to watch the first 20 minutes of Arkansas practice. That said, here are a few things I noticed during my time on the practice.

  Running back Broderick Green has returned to practice after missing a week with a high fever that reached 103 degrees. He was taking part in position drills with the rest of the tailbacks. Meanwhile, wide receiver London Crawford is back at practice after being held out of Saturday’s scrimmage with a leg injury. And finally, cornerback David Gordon practiced without the yellow jersey today, a sign that’s not injured.

  Meanwhile, Arkansas has picked up several players since the start of the fall semester. Among the newcomers is a quarterback wearing No. 5 and a running back wearing No. 26. The offensive line appears to be deeper as well. As soon as I get the players’ names, I’ll post them. 

  There’ll be more information after practice wraps up around 6 p.m. In the meantime, you can follow me on Twitter (@NWAAlex).

  Where have you gone, Broderick Green?

  That seemed to be the question that everyone kept asking at Tuesday’s afternoon practice. The running back was noticeably missing. He took part in Arkansas’ first practice of the day on Tuesday morning, but he wasn’t among the tailbacks inside Reynolds Razorback Stadium later on.

  Only Arkansas special teams coordinator John L. Smith and defensive players spoke following the afternoon practice, so we never got an answer on Green’s whereabouts. But we did learn some other things, such as:

  • For starters, wide receiver London Crawford and tight end Joseph Henry continue to miss practice because of injuries. Crawford started limping following a play in Saturday’s scrimmage. Offensive lineman Kareem Crowell was also absent.

  • Practically all of Arkansas’ defensive backs spoke after practice. Sophomore Greg Gatson talked at length about moving up into the first-team cornerback spot that was vacated when Isaac Madison tore his left anterior cruciate ligament in the scrimmage. I will some of what Gatson said in tomorrow’s newspaper.

  • . Junior Jerell Norton said he’s healthier than he’s been in awhile and is enjoying his recent move to free safety. He said it gives him a chance to make plays. 

  • Freshman cornerback David Gordon, who’s now working with the second-team defense, said the biggest thing he’s struggling with is his technique. He said he learned some bad habits in high school, and now he’s just trying to correct those flaws in his technique. But he seems excited about the possibility of playing this season.

  • Fellow freshman cornerback Darius Winston said he’s still coming along, though it’s apparent at practice that he’s working with the scout-team defense. But it’s still early, so there’s a chance he could eventually work his way up the depth chart.

  That’s it for now. I will have a lot more in tomorrow’s newspaper. In the meantime, back to writing for me.

There were a lot of topics to explore after today’s scrimmage. Things like:

• The first-team defense and why it was sliced up by the second-team offense

• The play of Ryan Mallett and Tyler Wilson, which was much improved

• The steady performance of an offensive line missing two starters

But one thing worth diving into more detail tonight was the play of running back Broderick Green, who finally showed some ability to run with strength, power and speed.

Green had been criticized a couple days ago by Bobby Petrino, who said the big back wasn’t acting like it during preseason camp. To his defense, Green was nursing a bit of a hamstring injury, but the Razorbacks don’t exactly want to hear about it. They just want to see players perform.

Green did so in a big way today, turning in a 39-yard run on one drive. A couple plays later, he finished the drive by running through a gaping hole for a 25-yard touchdown run.

“It was good to see him hit it and not hesitate,” Petrino said. “He’s got to keep working on that. That he hits it hard, he uses his size and strength. He doesn’t hesitate and look for holes. He makes the holes if it’s not there. I thought he did that real well today. He ran through some tackles. When you have big hips like that guys bounce off you, that’s when you can get big runs. So I was happy to see the way he ran the ball.”

We weren’t able to catch up with Green today, but did visit with running back Michael Smith.

The senior said he enjoyed watching Green and the other backs make plays during the scrimmage. It’s a sign he won’t be counted on to carry the load. But he was particularly impressed with Green’s play.

“I’m glad he’s back feeling better right now,” Smith said. “He wasn’t too happy about being slowed up or not being able to practice. We talked. He said no matter what he was goig to go out there and prove to coach today that he could be tough. He did a good job of that.”

It’s one scrimmage, but Arkansas surely hopes the performance will build Green’s confidence.

We’ll see how he handles it throughout the rest of the preseason.

  The past two days have not been good to the Razorbacks. Injuries are beginning to add up, and it has been apparent that several offensive playmakers aren’t at practice.

  I posted a blog earlier about tight end Chris Gragg suffering a likely season-ending ankle injury during Wednesday morning’s practice, but there was some other news to come out of the 2 1/2-hour session. Here is what we learned:

  • For starters, we saw a scene early in practice that I can’t recall seeing before. Safety Elton Ford, who’s returning from cracked vertebrae in his neck, had a scary moment when he went down after colliding with a wide receiver during a pass play in 7-on-7 drills. He took off his helmet, and an Arkansas athletic trainer came out to check on him.

  Here is where it got unusual.

  When Ford stood and walked off the field, a number of players began clapping for him. It’s not often that players clap for one of their teammates, even when one of them gets up after an injury. Ford walked to the sidelines, had a trainer check his neck, and after a few minutes, he returned to practice. He participated in 11-on-11 drills, so he appeared to be fine.

  • Not every Arkansas player, however, was able to come back from an injury. As I mentioned in the previous blog on Gragg, tight end D.J. Williams continued to miss practice with a minor ankle injury. Meanwhile, wide receiver Lucas Miller (knee), offensive tackle DeMarcus Love and offensive guard Grant Cook (knee) were held out of practice.

  • There was some bright spots from practice. In fact, Arkansas spent the last part of practice going through a short full-contact scrimmage. The offense got the best of the defense, and quarterback Ryan Mallett looked good under center. He found freshman wide receiver Cobi Hamilton, who had beaten cornerback Isaac Madison on a deep pass. Hamilton was ruled down at the 1-yard line, though Mallett said it should have been a touchdown.

  Later, Mallett connected with wide receiver Jarius Wright on a 32-yard touchdown pass.

  Second-team quarterback Tyler Wilson drove the offense downfield as well. He found tight end Joseph Henry on a 17-yard touchdown pass, and on the next series, he handed the ball off three straight time to running back Broderick Green. Green gained 40 yards on the first two carries before breaking off a 25-yard score that looked way too easy.

  There was more from practice, but this was just the Cliffnotes version. Check out the blog later today or The Morning News on Thursday for more.

It’s Tuesday. You know what that means? One day closer to Arkansas football practice.

Remember, players report Wednesday. Practice begins Thursday at 3 p.m.

So as we go from counting down the days to counting down the hours, how about a few links?

• Normally, I wouldn’t lead with briefs that appeared in the paper, but the top one is newsworthy. We found out yesterday that incoming defensive tackle Robert Thomas isn’t expected to be eligible. We also found out that the Razorbacks – officially – signed defensive end Caleb Evans. The JUCO transfer should come in and help immediatley.

• In addition, we continued our tour of the SEC. This time, Alex wrote about South Carolina. Up next: Tennessee

•We know Urban Meyer was paid yesterday, agreeing to a contract extension that will give him $4 million annually. The Orlando Sentinel posted a list of coaching salaries it got from CoachesHotSeat.com in Football Bowl Subdivision. Meyer is now the third-highest paid coach in the country according to the list. But look who is No. 10: Arkansas’ Bobby Petrino with his $2.9 million.

• This is a day old, but Tony Barnhart reeled off five burning questions for the SEC West yesterday. One of the topics was Broderick Green’s immediate eligibility. In Barnhart’s opinion, this development is “huge” for the Razorbacks.

I’m close to polishing off some notes that will appear in Sunday’s paper (or online at RazorbackCentral.com a little later today).

Lots of stuff to try to fit in, but can’t get it all. Much of the space I have was devoted to AD Jeff Long’s comments about the Razorback Foundation and future plans for facilities at Arkansas. So that’s what brings me to the blog.

One thing that stuck out that won’t be used in the notebook is something running backs coach Tim Horton said Thursday.

We all know Arkansas is going to be loaded at running back. Broderick Green is eligible and will compete for playing time with Michael Smith, Dennis Johnson, De’Anthony Curtis, Knile Davis and Ronnie Wingo. There won’t be enough footballs to go around. We know this. That’s what makes the preseason so critical for most of these running backs.

But Horton said there will be other ways for these guys to get on the field this fall: Special teams.

“One thing we’d like to see the running back role expand is in the special teams,” Horton said. “Those are some key plays that the running backs need to be on the field and making them. Whether they’re return guys or protecting on punt (team) or covering a kickoff. If you produce, you’re going to get on the field.”

Johnson obviously held the biggest role on special teams last season, averaging 22.1 yards and scoring one touchdown on kickoff returns. Smith returned five punts for 44 yards last year as well, but I’m guessing he won’t be used in that capacity this year. Is there a chance Wingo could be used as a kick returner, too, because of his size and speed.

Most of these guys won’t carry the football as much as they want in Arkansas’ crowded backfield.

But, according to Horton, they will have opportunities to make an impact. Will they make Arkansas’ special teams — special?