A dirty dozen days of contact await the Razorbacks and any fan who wants to watch them practice football this spring.

Barring inclement weather forcing drills inside the Walker Pavilion where spectator space is limited, new Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino has extended an open invitation for fans to watch the 15 days of spring drills beginning Thursday.

NCAA rules mandate three of the 15 practices, including the first two workouts 4 p. m. Thursday and Friday, be non-contact.

Otherwise, Petrino wants his Hogs bumping heads with 10: 30 a. m. practices Saturday and Sunday and full scrimmages April 11, 19 and in the April 26 spring game.

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With no need to protect All-American running backs as former coach Houston Nutt did in the springs with future pros Darren McFadden and Felix Jones, and young running backs and a young defense to evaluate, Petrino declares he can’t gauge without pads popping.

“ As much as they allow us, ” Petrino said Monday, “ we need to hit. I think that’s the one thing from my understanding will be different for our players, they haven’t done a lot of live tackling, live hitting. We need to do that. ”

Petrino explained his reasoning.

“ I’ve always had the philosophy that hitting is like tying your shoe. It’s just something you do every day and you get used to it and you stay healthy because of it. So, you have to do some hitting every day. There’s no question about that. We will need the live tackling. We need to find out a lot about ourselves. We need to find out about our running backs, and that’s what we’re going to do on Saturday. This spring will be very physical. ”

And it will end, he promised, with a true spring game even if injuries mount.

“ Yeah, it’s a concern, ” Petrino said, “ but you just go out and practice. You move on and you don’t worry about it. We’ll get better with the guys that are out there practicing. We’re not going to take a step backwards because of injuries or guys that aren’t able to go full speed. ”

That said, Petrino did say the quarterbacks will get a quick whistle and not be hit live.

He also acknowledged several players will miss or be limited in spring drills as they rehab from surgeries.

Out for the spring — but expected by Petrino to be full speed for the fall — are senior incumbent starting defensive tackle Ernest Mitchell (offseason knee injury ) Wendel Davis (knee surgery ), who did not participate in offseason drills and was last year’s backup to middle linebacker Weston Dacus.

Linebacker is especially thin because incumbent starting outside linebacker Freddie Fairchild has been suspended indefinitely by Petrino from team participation. Fairchild was charged last week with third degree battery and second degree false imprisonment.

“ There’s no change in his status, ” Petrino said Monday. “ He’s been suspended indefinitely until something else happens in the situation that he’s in. ”

Recent back surgery compounded with past injuries has squadman offensive lineman Jim Hart of Pocahontas out for the spring and casts doubt on his future availability.

Joey Crossland of Russellville, another squadman offensive lineman, has discontinued playing football at Arkansas.

Offseason surgeries will restrict to non-contact drills defensive tackle Marcus Shavers and safety Walner Leandre, Petrino said.

Tight end Ben Cleveland of Springdale and Crosby Tuck of Shiloh Christian haven’t fully recovered, Petrino said, from injuries that caused them to redshirt (actually hardship in Tuck’s case as he played three games with three touchdowns before breaking his elbow ) but are sufficiently recovered to participate.

Surprisingly for a new regime, there aren’t a lot of position switches from last season.

Malcolm Sheppard, starting defensive end to starting defensive tackle, reserve defensive end Van Stumon to nose tackle, Chip Gregory from linebacker to running back and walkon linebacker Robert Salinas from fullback to linebacker.

The Gregory and Salinas moves smack of robbing Peter to pay Paul, as running back and linebacker seem the thinnest positions compared to last year.

However, Petrino thinks he’s got a good fit with Gregory, a 6-3, 218-pound sophomore letterman from Allen, Texas, at tailback and Salinas, a 6-1, 239-pound junior transfer from La Joya, Texas and Wabash College, at fullback, contrasting to compact tailbacks Michael Smith and Texarkana’s Brandon Barnett.

Of Gregory, Petrino said, “ At running back I like his size, I like his strength. I think the game changes a little bit in the fourth quarter when you can throw some big backs at a defense. ”

As for Salinas, Petrino said, “ He was lining up at fullback and then we found out he was one of the sack leaders in the state of Texas in high school. And because of our depth at linebacker we moved him. I think that might be a pretty good fit for him. ”