FAYETTEVILLE — Bobby Petrino’s admission last week that his team lacked punch at South Carolina has turned into the season-ending mantra for the Arkansas football team.

“We need to get our physicality back,” offensive tackle Ray Dominguez said.

Petrino had the Razorbacks dress in full pads and toughened up practices last week with more hitting and more inside runs in an effort to re-institute the physical approach the Petrinos are known for.

The coaching staff had begun to ease off the throttle over the past several weeks with the Razorbacks in the midst of an eightgame stretch without an open date, but Arkansas did not play nearly tough enough in its 34-21 loss at South Carolina.

“As we say all the time, we’ve got to be the hammer and not the nail,” Arkansas cornerbacks coach Lorenzo Ward said. “There were quite a few plays where we were the nail, so that was disappointing.”

Symbolic of Arkansas’ lessthan-imposing presence in that game was a fourth-quarter drive on which South Carolina drove 72 yards in 11 plays, all on the ground, and faced only a pair of third-and-short conversions along the way.

“Us not being able to shut down the run is not a good thing,” Petrino said.

“That’s where it was really disappointing, because we had really loaded up the box to stop the run,” Arkansas defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said.

“They came out and executed and ran it down our throats, and we didn’t answer,” Arkansas safety Dallas Washington said.

Petrino said he believes the Razorbacks have to re-establish a physical presence to have a chance at sweeping Mississippi State and LSU in their final push for a bowl berth.

“We need to come back and rebound from it and play a real hard-fought, physical game on the road,” he said.

The Arkansas players said they benefited from practice work between the starters last week.

“Our scout team is good, but the starters, that’s always a great look,” Dominguez said. “Malcolm Sheppard is a beast. That’s a great look to go up against that guy.”

Said defensive end Jake Bequette: “Oh, yeah, we put the full gear back on and did a lot of middle drill, inside run, just kind of got back to the basics.”

Bequette said Petrino has been consistent all season in his insistence on effort and execution.

“And it just wasn’t there last week,” Bequette said, “so obviously he decided to ratchet up the intensity and put some fire back under us.”