This week’s candidate is senior safety Anthony ‘Juice’ Leon.  Leon (6-4, 227), who had a reputation as a big hitter before arriving in Fayetteville, might fare better closer to the line of scrimmage.  That’s the thought, at least.  After practicing there for two practices, he’s already found himself working at times as the first-team weakside linebacker.

While we applaud finding a spot for a big hitter, what does that tell you about the Hogs’ linebacking corps at this late stage?  Juice is there less than 48 hours and he might be the starter?

“He really enjoys being at that position,” Robinson said.  “We felt like he was very natural the first day we moved him there as far as his reads.”

Last year around this time, we were writing about the demotion of linebackers Wendel Davis and Jerry Franklin to the second team in the hopes of sending them a message.  Davis completed his eligibility last season, while Franklin was voted one of the defensive captains for 2010.

But this week Franklin, who is a Butkus Award nominee, has again been working some with the second team.  And the senior that apparently needs a message to be sent this year is Freddy Burton, who toiled with the newcomers on Wednesday afternoon while the other veterans got the second practice of the day off.

The signing this spring of Chris Smith, the highly touted freshman from North Carolina, gave a glimmer of hope that the Hogs would be bolstering their linebacker corps.  But now that Smith has found a home as a pass-rushing defensive end, it appears to be the same song, second verse this season at linebacker.

In a year where this team has made obvious improvement on the defensive front and (fingers crossed) in the secondary, the Achilles’ heel of this defensive unit seems even more pronounced now.

Could there be more possibilities out there that Robinson and Petrino haven’t explored?  What’s next…open it up for student body tryouts?

Bobby Petrino enters his third spring practice with the Hogs and, as usual, he’s shooting it to us straight about expectations for 2010.

“I feel good about the expectations of our players, the expectations of our team”, Petrino said.

“That’s the key.  We’re hoping everyone expects us to win, and if the fans do, then obviously that’s great.

“But the best part of it is when our players expect to take the field and win, and I think we’ll be that way this year.”

To get to the top in the fall, the 15 spring practices that begin next Tuesday will be important to this team.  Surprisingly, the absence of starting quarterback Ryan Mallett is not a huge storyline.  Here’s a few things we’ll be eyeing closely when the RBN crew makes it down to watch practice.

How will the three new assistant coaches mesh with the returning staff and players?  Defensive line coach Steve Caldwell, offensive line coach Chris Klenakis, and wide receivers coach Kris Cinkovich all make their debuts.  The SEC veteran Caldwell comes to Fayetteville after 14 seasons in Knoxville.  Klenakis and Cinkovich have coached with the Petrino family before, so expect a smooth transition there.  What’s their coaching style like…their approach?  We’ll find out.

How much more of the Pistol formation will we see in 2010?  Referred to as the “Shot” formation by Petrino, this look was sprinkled in last year and was a good set for the Hogs.  Considering Coach Klenakis was one of the innovators of the Pistol at Nevada (along with Nevada head coach Chris Ault), we’re expecting to see this formation more heavily used this year.

For a quarterback like Tyler Wilson, who has had some troubles under center, this formation might be a godsend.  Also, Nevada was one of the leaders nationally in rushing, much of it out of the Pistol.

Can offensive lineman Alvin Bailey (6-5, 323) and Anthony Oden (6-8, 328) push their way onto the first team?  Bailey and Oden both impressed as freshman a year ago.  The Hogs bit the bullet and redshirted Bailey, while Oden started one game and saw limited action in 2009.  Both are All-SEC type players at some point, and will emerge in due time.  Will that be this spring?

If there’s any linebackers on campus, will they stand up and be counted?  How long has it been since we’ve had a linebacker?  This spring, we trot the same, sad souls out there and try to find somebody, anybody that can make a play at this position.  Bueller….Bueller…anybody?

Off-season workout warrior Jermaine Love (5-11, 230) gets the first shot at middle linebacker, but look for sophomore Terrell Williams (6-3, 237) to emerge.  Regulars Jerry Franklin, Freddy Burton, Jerico Nelson and Bret Harris hold down the fort until incoming freshman Chris Smith (6-2, 230, Mt. Ulla, NC) gets on campus this fall.

ESPN’s Chris Low tabs the Hogs Defense as the unit that has “the most to prove” in the SEC this spring.  We couldn’t agree more.

“With all this talk about the Hogs being ready to contend for a championship next season, you can’t help but wonder how much better they will be on defense.  They were the only team in the SEC last season to give up more than 400 yards an outing in conference games (419.5 yards).”

A lot to solve in 15 practices, huh?  The Razorbacks will play their Spring Game on April 24th.  Here’s hoping the snow is over and warmer weather combines with the sound of popping pads to remove the sting of watching March Madness from afar.

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.