FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas sophomore punter Blake Johnson hurt his ankle and was sent home for the weekend by coach Bret Bielema after an apparent off-field incident.
"Blake, our punter, unfortunately rolled his ankle in some activities away from football that I'm not very happy about," Bielema said. "So I removed him from the program for a little bit. Let him go home this weekend and celebrate Easter weekend by himself in his apartment. I'll make a decision Monday if I let him back in."
Johnson was arrested for public intoxication on Aug. 29, 2015. He entered the spring as the projected starter at punter, on track to replace the graduated Toby Baker.
When asked, Bielema said the suspension would last "about 24 hours."
"I just told him I didn't wanna see him today," Bielema said. "You know how you have children, right, I don't have children yet but I assume there's some point when you just don't wanna see anybody. Just send them away. Send them in the other room. He's in timeout. He's in extreme timeout."
Jean-Baptiste out with foot injury
Redshirt freshman linebacker Alexy Jean-Baptiste will miss an extended period of time after breaking his foot last week, Bielema said.
The 6-foot-2, 231-pounder had surgery Monday. Bielema called the injury similar to the ones suffered by Jonathan Williams and Cody Hollister.
"He had surgery on Monday," Bielema said. "Probably looking at a 4-month recovery. He's unfortunately out for a pretty significant amount of time."
Injury roundup
Aside from Jean-Baptiste, there were a handful of minor injuries.
Senior receiver Jared Cornelius didn't scrimmage after tweaking his hamstring. Bielema said it isn't serious, but he might not scrimmage again this spring. The staff had already indicated it might limit his scrimmage going forward.
Redshirt freshman linebacker Giovanni LaFrance also didn't scrimmage after suffering a high ankle sprain last week, but Bielema said they might have him "next week or the week after." He said true freshman cornerback Korey Hernandez (hamstring) is also close.
Junior running back Rawleigh Williams tweaked his ankle, but Bielema said it wasn't serious. Sophomore tight end Austin Cantrell was hit on his knee late, but returned later. Sophomore nose tackle Austin Capps "bruised his butt" falling over a pile in practice this week, but scrimmaged.