FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino gave a tentative thumbsup Thursday to his team’s turnaround since a sluggish Tuesday practice.

“I liked the way we practiced the last two days,” Petrino said. “I think we should show improvement on Saturday night.”

The Razorbacks take on Louisiana-Monroe at 6 p. m. Saturday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. Last Saturday, Arkansas fell behind Western Illinois by 10 points on two occasions before riding the arm and legs of quarterback Casey Dick to a 28-24 victory to spoil the upset bid.

“I think we practiced more physical, did a better job in our meetings,” Petrino said. “I’m really looking forward to getting back out on the field. You know, it’s time for us to start defining what our strengths are, so we can play to our strengths.”

The Razorbacks practiced indoors for three consecutive days because of week-long rain from a weather system created by Hurricane Gustav. All of Arkansas’ special teams practiced outside Thursday after being limited to catching punts and kickoffs outside on Tuesday and Wednesday.

ADVERTISEMENT

Arkansas will load buses and leave campus at 10: 25 a. m. today to go through its work at War Memorial Stadium in the afternoon. “We’ll go to the stadium, go in the locker room, do our walk-through and preparations that we do on a Friday, things we’d normally do here,” Petrino said. “So all the freshmen, all the coaches, all us new guys can get to know [War Memorial ] a little bit.”

Personnel report Coach Bobby Petrino said receiver London Crawford (concussion ) looks to be ready to start Saturday after missing part of the second half last week.

“I’d anticipate starting him unless some setback happens overnight or in the morning,” Petrino said. “He looked good running full speed and catching the ball. He had no headaches or anything after [Wednesday’s ] practice.”

Linebackers Wendel Davis (knee, hand ) and Elston Forte (knee ) will make the trip, but Petrino said he is unsure how much action either will see. Cornerback Jerell Norton (hernia ) is expected to contribute against Louisiana-Monroe, but offensive guard Mitch Petrus apparently won’t.

Petrus has been ruled ineligible, school officials said, but they have maintained the issue does not involve a violation of NCAA rules and they have hope he’ll regain his eligibility. Petrus practiced Tuesday and Wednesday but missed Thursday’s workout. A Freedom of Information request made by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this week turned up nothing related to Petrus and only two secondary violations in football since Jan. 1.

Stat chatter The caretaker of the Arkansas offense in 2007 is now the SEC’s total offense leader after one week in 2008. Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick sits atop the SEC total offense chart with 330 total yards in the opening weekend. Dick passed for a career-high 318 yards, ran for 12 yards and 2 touchdowns and accounted for all four of the Razorbacks’ touchdowns in the 28-24 victory over Western Illinois.

Dick is also the conference leader in passing yards per game with 43 more yards than Georgia’s Matthew Stafford.

Freshman Greg Childs leads the SEC with 88 receiving yards per game and is tied for second with six catches per game, while sophomore tight end D. J. Williams is tied for fifth with five catches per game.

The Razorbacks rank seventh in total offense (394 yards per game ) and total defense (262 yards per game ).

Arkansas ranks last in the conference in time of possession (23: 17 ) and turnover margin (-3. 0 ).

Lots of freshmen Louisiana-Monroe played 15 true and redshirt freshmen in last week’s season-opening loss at Auburn, but the Razorbacks can trump that rookie stat. Arkansas played 15 true freshmen against Western Illinois, and 20 freshmen combined. Some of the Hogs’ true freshmen were obvious to the crowd, such as receivers Joe Adams and Greg Childs, who each caught touchdown passes. Others weren’t so obvious, such as Hunter Miller, a walkon safety from Sylvan Hills who drew praise from Coach Bobby Petrino for his play on kickoff coverage. Arkansas figures to play at least 16 true freshmen this season, including linebacker Tenarius Wright, who missed the opener because he is slowed by an ankle injury. Petrino said the coaches looked at Wright early last week in hopes of including him in the game plan but decided it was better to hold him out. “We’ll have to decide this week where he’s at physically and if he’s ready to go,” Petrino said. “Being young and not being full speed is not a good combination.”

Arkansas Warhawk Second-team cornerback Alex Blake is Louisiana-Monroe’s lone player from Arkansas. Blake, a redshirt sophomore, was a standout at Little Rock Central. He played last week in the Warhawks’ 34-0 loss at Auburn, but didn’t record any statistics. Young quarterbacks

Ideally, Arkansas would have gotten its backup quarterbacks some snaps against Western Illinois. But senior starter Casey Dick had to take every snap and rally the Razorbacks from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter.

It won’t be a surprise if Dick has to play the entire game against Louisiana-Monroe as well.

“We’ll probably be in another battle to find a way to win the game,” Coach Bobby Petrino said. “That’s the most important thing, to get the ‘W’ on the board.”

Redshirt freshman Nathan Dick is the No. 2 quarterback with true freshman Tyler Wilson No. 3, but Petrino hasn’t revealed whether the plan is to get Wilson some playing time or to redshirt him.

“We still have that question to be answered,” Petrino said.