Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino was afraid he may have opened a can of worms when he mentioned his concern with the uneven surface on the practice fields south of Razorback Stadium during his radio show Wednesday.
But it is a big concern for the Razorbacks. It’s so big, in fact, that the Hogs have stopped practicing on the grass and artificial turf fields between the stadium and the Walker Indoor Pavilion. Petrino and his staff noticed the uphill slant on the fields late last season, when the Hogs suddenly looked a bit sluggish.
“We’re normally more fresh,” Petrino said. “We test our guys on vertical jump every Thursday just to see where we’re at, how our legs are and we weren’t going up like we would in most years previously. So they really felt like that had something to do with it — when you’re running up field and how bad that is for you.
“We were real adamant that, as we started the season, we weren’t going to be on the practice fields.”
The Hogs’ vertical jumps have tested out well and improved since last season as a result of Petrino moving practices inside the stadium.
There’s an old story that has been passed around the UA campus that the fields are actually sitting on top of junk cars, buried underneath the dirt. Petrino has heard the story as well and believes the cars are sinking underneath the dirt and causing the slant in the field.
“Just go stand out there. It’s not very hard to understand,” Petrino said.
Petrino said it is an issue he hopes to discuss more with Arkansas officials after the season.
“I didn’t mean to open up a can of worms, but it is important to us that we understood it so we make sure our players weren’t running up hill and wearing out,” Petrino said.
You can watch Petrino’s entire press conference from Thursday below.
STARTING A STREAK
Arkansas has won three straight home games, and Petrino isn’t ready for that to end Saturday when the Hogs play their final home game of the season in Fayetteville against Troy.
“It’s real important to win our home game,” Petrino said. “That’s something I’ve really tried to stress here. We want to win this game so the seniors can start the streak of winning games. I think that’s how you build a program.
“… If we don’t win this one then we’re set back and have to start over, and I don’t want to do that. I want to build on what we’ve done.”
There is something special about playing in Razorback Stadium this season, as we talked about in the Slophouse on Tuesday.
CAMPUS CONNECTION
Ryan Mallett took part in a few quick fire questions recently in ESPNU’s Campus Connection series with a university intern. The short video can be seen below.
It’s good to hear I’m not the only Brett Favre fan in the state of Arkansas.
I’ll be back Friday with our Slophouse Predictions and a live blog from the Arkansas basketball team’s season opener against Alcorn State.
For more updates, follow me (@bmarcello) and WholeHogSports.com (@WholeHogSports) on Twitter and pick up a copy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
keep the cell phones away from the microphone(s).. It made this video almost unwatchable.
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