Freshman ‘moving’ up chart

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas freshman quarterback Nathan Dick, who secured the No. 3 spot with a strong scrimmage performance last Saturday, is now battling junior Nathan Emert for the No. 2 spot behind Casey Dick.

Nathan Dick got extra reps in Wednesday’s practice and continued to look sharp.

“He’s come the furthest [of any quarterback in fall camp ],” Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt said. “For everything we’ve thrown at him, boy, his arm looks good. He’s catching on. I’m glad we’ve got him here.”

Nutt didn’t want to answer directly when asked if Nathan Dick is challenging Emert for the backup position but said his stock is on the rise.

“He’s moving, he’s moving,” Nutt said. “Let’s leave it like that — he’s moving.”

Emert, a former Shiloh Christian standout who redshirted last year after transferring from Missouri Southern, missed practice time last week with strep throat and “hasn’t had a really good camp so far,” Arkansas offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach David Lee said.

Casey Dick also has struggled at times, including Wednesday, when he had passes intercepted by cornerback Jerell Norton and linebacker Chip Gregory that likely would have been returned for touchdowns.

“We don’t accept that. That’s very disturbing,” Nutt said of the interceptions. “We don’t do that. You’re under duress, you’ve got to throw the ball away.” Hewitt blew it

Senior starting strong safety Matt Hewitt got a scolding and extra running for throwing a punch at tight end Andrew Davie after a play late in practice.

“That’s stupid, stupid, stupid,” safeties coach Chris Vaughn yelled before sending Hewitt on a jog around the interior of Walker Pavilion.

When practice ended, Hewitt did more running, then had a brief face-to-face with Coach Houston Nutt before heading to the locker room.

“Hewitt blew a fuse and decided he wanted to fight out there,” defensive coordinator Reggie Herring said. “It’s a bad thing in football because it’s a penalty and you can get kicked out of the game.

“ It’s kind of good that things like that happen early so you can make a big deal out of it and emphasize it, because it will kill you in a game.” On the cover

Arkansas All-American tailback Darren McFadden said it’s exciting to be featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the magazine’s college football preview issue.

McFadden, the Doak Walker Award winner and Heisman Trophy runner-up last season, is among the players featured on five regional covers.

“Being on the front of SI is a great feeling,” McFadden said. “There’s not many times you get the chance to do something like that.” Happier Herring

Arkansas defensive coordinator Reggie Herring is happier about how his players are practicing compared to a week ago, but he’s still not happy.

“I don’t know about being happy,” Herring said. “We ain’t happy until we go undefeated and date the prom queen. Right now we’re just taking it day to day.

“ I’m a lot more pleased with the effort, because the intensity and the concentration has elevated. We do have some guys... upgrading their level of play and their consistency. “ We’re not there yet, obviously, but we’ve got time to get there. I’d say we’re back on schedule as far as work habits and intensity.” Injury report

Defensive end Chris Wade (concussion ) was allowed to put on shoulder pads and work individual drills Wednesday.

Players who did not dress out were wide receiver Marcus Monk (knee ), fullback Peyton Hillis (hamstring ), tight end Ben Cleveland (stinger ), cornerback Matterral Richardson (wisdom tooth ), offensive tackle Nate Garner (concussion ) and kicker Jeremy Davis (foot ). K. J. visits

Keith Jackson, the former NFL star who is going into his eighth season as an analyst on Arkansas’ radio broadcasts, attended Wednesday’s practice to get his first look at the Razorbacks this fall.

“I like what I see,” Jackson said. “I like how they’re spreading people out and giving their running backs a lot of room to run.” Interception for Harris

Redshirt sophomore safety Matt Harris made one of the better plays in last Saturday’s scrimmage when he tipped and intercepted a Casey Dick pass intended for tailback Felix Jones.

Harris had coverage on Jones after he went in motion out of the backfield and ran a pattern to the sideline.

“I knew [Jones ] was my man and I ran with him as fast as I could,” Harris said. “As soon as I saw his eyes light up, I turned around and saw the ball.

“ I tried to knock it out of the air, and then I realized I knocked it straight up and I somehow turned around and caught it before I went out of bounds.”

Harris said it was nice to make a big play against the first-team offense.

“When you’re putting in all this hard work in practice and it’s 100 degrees, this is kind of a payoff,” he said. “You make a good play, you can go home and sleep at night.” Fox preview

Fox SportsNet Southwest will air a 30-minute preview on Arkansas football at 12: 30 p. m. today as part of the network’s preseason series on schools around the region. The show will replay at 2 p. m., Aug. 27. Worth noting Junior cornerback Jamar Love got a lot of time with the first-team defense because Matterral Richardson was sitting out. Freshman D. J. Williams, a tight end and H-back, returned to practice after being sidelined with a concussion and made some nice catches. Junior John Aaron Rees, who had been a key special teams player and is hoping to be in the receiver rotation, caught two long passes.

After practicing Wednesday morning in Walker Pavilion, the Razorbacks had the afternoon off and went swimming. They’ll resume practice tonight. Practices this week are open to the media but closed to the public, except for Saturday night’s scrimmage.