Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino spoke to the media following Thursday’s practice, which was held indoors because of the rain. Practice also started early, so the players would have more time to get their legs fresh in time for Saturday’s 11 a.m. game against No. 17 Auburn.

Petrino said wide receiver London Crawford has been cleared to play Saturday after being sidelined since breaking a collarbone in the Sept. 5 season opener against Missouri State. The senior has practiced this week without wearing the yellow jersey reserved for injured players.

Crawford’s return gives the Razorbacks another wide receiver to count on. In addition, he should give sophomore Greg Childs a much-needed break during games, allowing him to stay fresh.

“London is ready to play. He had a good week,” Petrino said Thursday evening. “He practiced a lot yesterday and today, caught the ball well, understands what he’s going to do. So he should be available to play. How much he plays is yet to be seen. It will be great to have him back because now he can keep Greg fresh and keep his legs fresh. You know, London’s been very productive for us.”

Petrino said there wasn’t any discussion about redshirting Crawford, who has played every season since arriving at Arkansas as a highly touted freshman in 2006.

“We feel like he’s ready to go, and he wants to play,” Petrino said. “And he’s not interested in a redshirt.”

The status of freshman cornerback Darius Winston, meanwhile, is more uncertain. He has been bothered since tweaking his ankle in a practice last Thursday. Winston is a backup who could give the Razorbacks some help in the secondary.

“Darius did all right today. He’s still limping a little bit at times on his changing directions,” Petrino said. “We’ll really have to see how he does tomorrow.”

Finally, Petrino was asked for his opinion on recent comments by former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville that Arkansas will lose by three touchdowns on Saturday. Coincidentally, Petrino worked as Tuberville’s offensive coordinator at Auburn for one season.

But Petrino wasn’t interested in getting into a war of words.

“I don’t have any thoughts on that,” Petrino said.

That’s it for now, but check back later on the blog and on Twitter (@NWAAlex) for more updates on the Razorbacks.

What do Bobby Petrino and Houston Nutt have in common?

Oh, right, they both coach or coached at Arkansas.

Could this guy replace this guy?

But there’s one more thing in common after looking at The Birmingham News this morning. Both have had their names involved in Auburn’s search for Tommy Tuberville’s replacement. Check out the story The Birmingham News wrote this morning that says the school is looking at Nutt as a potential replacement.

May not be so surprising considering Nutt and Tuberville have the same agent. But interesting nonetheless to consider the possibility of Nutt moving on to another SEC West school after one year at Ole Miss. Especially since the last time Auburn was searching for a football coach, it grabbed Tuberville from Ole Miss. You think that would make Ole Miss even more mad?

We’re just playing “what ifs” here, but if the Tigers hired Nutt that would be Arkansas, Ole Miss and Auburn within a 13-month span for the coach.

Wow. That would be interesting.

As if the week wasn’t interesting enough, here’s this:

Auburn has fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin, according to several reports in Alabama. Here’s one from The Birmingham News. And one from the Opelika-Auburn News.

Auburn has been struggling offensively and Franklin’s Spread system has come into question. I’m a little amazed that he was fired after just six games at the helm. You’d figure Tuberville would give the new coach a chance to get things worked out after deciding in the offseason he wanted to go to the Spread.

Here is what he said about the offense during his Tuesday press conference.

“It’s a tough transition,” Tuberville said. “It’s been tough but again we are not abandoning it. I’m sold on it. Our recruits are sold on it. Our players like it. It’s going to be a lot better obviously and help a lot of people when it starts working a lot better because we are just absolutely sick about what has happened about putting our defense out there in tough situations.”

No word on who is going to call the plays against Arkansas. But we’re hoping to get some reaction from Arkansas’ defensive coaches and players tonight as we follow up on this development