FAYETTEVILLE — UA tries to learn from loss
Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett took Saturday’s 24-20 loss to No. 1 Alabama hard.
In fact, he took it so hard he could hardly stop watching it.
So how much did he watch the game?
“All day. For two days,” Mallett said. “I think it makes you work harder when you watch it and you see the pain you went through after you had them by the throat and you just didn’t finish it.”
Offensive coordinator Garrick McGee brought an upbeat vibe into his media conference Tuesday.
“We’re going to use what happened to us on Saturday to push us forward,” McGee said.
McGee said the biggest thing he’ll take from the game, in which Arkansas lost a 20-7 lead in the last 16 minutes, is that the Razorbacks have a good ball club.
“We can challenge anybody,” he said. “We don’t have to shy away from anybody in the country.
... The second thing is we didn’t quite finish the way we wanted to finish.”
Tough Tuesday
Arkansas’ coaches were prepared to make sure the Razorbacks didn’t slog through a sloppy practice Tuesday, but they said the players were kicking themselves into gear, determined not to let a gloom settle in following the loss to Alabama.
“You couldn’t have asked for a better practice from a team coming off a loss like that,” receiver Jarius Wright said. “It’s a bye week. You’d think your players would be a little woozy, drowsy, wouldn’t want to practice, but we came out and practiced hard.”
Said offensive coordinator Garrick McGee: “We wanted to have a real good, tough, hard-nosed, grind-it-out practice today.
We thought that would be our best way to get it out of them, but they showed up with a better attitude than we thought. This team’s got really good leadership.”Media barred
Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino cut off the normal 20-minute window for media viewing at practice Tuesday and today without explanation.
Petrino is scheduled to have a media briefing after today’s workout.
Asked why the practice was closed to the media, offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said: “My job is to coach the offense, man. I don’t make any of those decisions.”
The Razorbacks might have had more nicked up players than Petrino wanted the media to see.
Receiver Greg Childs, who returned to the game after having his leg bent back awkwardly on a second-quarter catch, reportedly took it easy Tuesday.
“He stayed off of it today, but he’s fine,” McGee said.
No go Wingo
Tailback Ronnie Wingo Jr. scored a receiving touchdown for a second consecutive game but did not have a carry against Alabama.
It marked just the third game of his Arkansas career without a carry, and the first since last year’s 30-17 loss at Ole Miss.
“Ronnie maybe didn’t run as well against Georgia as we had hoped,” running backs coach Tim Horton said. “That’s really about all I can say about it.”
Horton predicted Wingo would not go another game without a rushing attempt.
Offensive coordinator Garrick McGee said Wingo at practice Tuesday “was different today with his tracks, his footwork, hitting the ball in the holes.” Heisman fall
Arkansas quarterback Ryan Mallett fell out of the Heisman Trophy poll at heismanpundit.com that he led just last week.
Mallett completed 25 of 38 passes for 357 yards and 1 touchdown in Saturday’s loss to No. 1 Alabama.
But it was his three interceptions, including two on the Razorbacks’ last two possessions, that left a lasting impression with the 13 panelists at the Heisman Pundit site.
While Mallett’s standing took a hit, the Razorbacks weren’t punished so badly at that Web site, which ranked the Hogs No. 8 after the loss. Arkansas fell to No. 15 in the Associated Press and USA Today coaches polls.
Tide-Hogs soar
TV ratings for No. 1 Alabama’s 24-20 victory at No. 10 Arkansas were the best for an afternoon game on CBS in nearly seven years, the network announced Tuesday.
The preliminary national rating for the game was 5.2 and the share was a 12, which was up 117 percent from last year’s Arkansas at Alabama game. The numbers were the highest for a regular-season afternoon game on CBS since Nov. 29, 2003, when a game between No. 9 Florida State and No. 11 Florida drew a 5.7 rating and a 13 share.
CBS also announced its SEC games through the first two weeks of the season drew a 4.2 rating and a 10 share, which is up 27 percent from last year and is the highest rating at this point of a season since 1999.
Sports, Pages 26 on 09/29/2010