We were not disappointed.  What a pleasure it is to watch a Bobby Petrino team practice.  Organized, fast-paced, attention to detail…it was all there.

Here are a few of our casual observations made while watching the two hour practice:

– Freshman wide receiver Jarius Wright and running back De’Anthony Curtis were expected to impress…and did not disappoint.  Both look like major contributors.

The newcomer that really surprised me, though, was freshman running back Dennis Johnson of Texarkana.  Johnson (5-7, 195) is cat quick and showed an elusive burst that is going to make him hard to bring down.  For those who have not seen him, just imagine a younger, less experienced version of Maurice Jones-Drew of the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Chip Gregory also looked much improved at running back after his injury-hampered spring.  Running hard and breaking tackles with strength is not a problem.  Hanging onto the ball, however, continues to be as Gregory fumbled again during one of the Hogs tackling drills.

– As for the quarterbacks, Tyler Wilson and Jim Youngblood are good prospects.  Both have strong arms and showed flashes.  But both probably need to redshirt if the Hogs can get by without playing them.

Wilson needs to improve his strength (especially in his lower body) and Youngblood needs to improve his mechanics.  Both of those deficiencies, of course, are pretty typical for most incoming freshman quarterbacks.

Ryan Mallett is just off the charts.  He will be a superstar when his time comes.

Finally, while other units were running their drills, quarterbacks coach Garrick McGee was taking two five-minute periods to work with all the quarterbacks on making the proper pre-snap check (audible) after a defensive shift.  Very interesting and fun to watch.

– On the defensive side, I felt a little better about the linebackers after getting a closeup view of Ryan Powers, Jermaine Love, Jerry Franklin, and Freddy Burton.  These four along with senior captain Elston Forte might be okay as a group, but they are so ‘smallish’ by SEC standards that it’s still an area of concern.

Some of the tackling drills on Saturday seemed to indicate that true freshman Tenarius Wright (6-2, 230) was taking a small step back for the moment.  It’s obvious that junior Wendel Davis needs to get healthy again over the next few weeks.

Heavy rains in the Fayetteville area forced the Hogs inside for the second practice on Saturday.  Expect some shakeups (like the move of Wade Grayson to first team) after the coaches review the film of Sunday’s scrimmage.  It should be a fun week to watch the depth chart.

I suspect that thought will cross the mind of new Arkansas Head Coach Bobby Petrino a few times over the next three weeks.

After much anticipation, Petrino’s Razorbacks will kick off spring football practice later today.  And after holding 15 sessions over the next 23 days, the spring season will culminate with the EAS RazorFest Spring Game on Saturday, April 26.

During a media briefing on Monday, a couple of Petrino’s comments caught my attention.  First, it sounds like the Hogs are going to be a little more physical as they install new offensive and defensive schemes:

“We need to find out a lot about ourselves” Petrino said. “We need to hit.  I think that is the one thing that, from my understanding, will be different for our players.  They haven’t done a lot of live tackling, live hitting.

“I’ve always had the philosophy that hitting is like tying your shoe.  It’s just something you do everyday and you get used to it and you stay healthy because of it.  So you have to do some hitting every day.”

That’s certainly a stark contrast from past scrimmages, which were little more than a glorified game of touch football.  Oh yeah…the coach would make it sound good by telling his players to ‘thud them up,’ but then complain afterwards when they lacked intensity.

The other surprising change mentioned by Petrino was that sophomore linebacker Chip Gregory is moving to tailback.  Gregory (6-3, 225) played a little running back in high school, rushing for 503 yards on 35 carries and 7 TDs as a senior.  But wow…who saw this coming?

If you go back and look, though, Petrino has a history of having big backs in his ‘Power Spread’ offensive attack.  Former Louisville stars Eric Shelton (6-1, 246) and Michael Bush (6-1, 245) are making a nice living in the NFL now after toting the load for Petrino.  Who knows…Gregory might find a home there…we’ll see.

From a fan’s perspective, it’s great to see that all spring practices will remain open to the public.  As always, we’re planning to make as many as we can and then bring our ‘observational commentary’ back here to RBN.  (Keeping in mind, of course, that Coach Petrino is not a big fan of the ‘Internets.’)

In particular, we’re looking forward to seeing the new offense and how well the players are adapting to it.  But for those of you who can’t go, what else do you want us to keep an eye on?