Liberty Bowl report

Crowd won’t be surprise

Arkansas is expected to have more than 50,000 fans at Saturday’s Liberty Bowl compared to about 8,000 for East Carolina.

Pirates Coach Skip Holtz said he’s not surprised considering the close drive Memphis is for many Arkansas fans and the excitement surrounding the program after the team didn’t go to a bowl game last season.

“Arkansas is going to fill the place. There’s no doubt in my mind,” Holtz said. “But we’ve played on the road before.”

East Carolina is 7-6 on the road the past two seasons, including winning at West Virginia and at Tulsa in the Conference USA title game last year and at Marshall and Tulsa this season.

“As long as they don’t let [Arkansas’ fans] out of the stands and let them line up, I think it’s still going to be 11 on 11,” Holtz said. “It will be an issue with crowd noise, but I’m excited about it.

“I kind of like playing on the road.”

Arkansas knows it must stop East Carolina's powerful defensive front if it wants to win the 51st Liberty Bowl. And the Pirates don't hide the fact that they hang their hat on defense.

Winning the trenches

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Shooting stars?

Arkansas’ Adrian Davis and Ryan Mallett downed the East Carolina duo they faced by a score of 15-6 in a shooting contest at the FedEx Forum on Monday night.

The contest featured a layup, jump shots and threepoint attempts and took place after the first quarter of the Memphis Grizzlies’ game against the Washington Wizards.

It was the first matchup between Mallett and his East Carolina quarterback counterpart, Patrick Pinkney, who was one of the Pirates’ shooters in the contest.

Count Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino as mostly unimpressed with the display, however.

“I’m not sure how they counted it up because I wasn’t real impressed with our shooters,” Petrino said, grinning. “There must be something wrong with the ball ... because they really didn’t do a good job of shooting the ball like they normally would.

“Maybe it was stage fright.”

Good Tuesday

After shaking off the rust in its first practice at Rhodes College on Monday, Arkansas looked much sharper Tuesday.

“Our execution was much better today, our speed was much better today,” Coach Bobby Petrino said. “And that’s really the key. We have to practice full speed and be crisp so it doesn’t take us a quarter to get used to the speed again. That was a major emphasis for us today.”

Expecting rain for today’s workout, the Razorbacks have arranged to move indoors for their 9:30 a.m. practice at the Memphis University School, which has a Field Turf surface.

Pre-Christmas spirit

The Arkansas Razorbacks enjoyed perhaps their most spirited practice of the season just prior to departing Fayetteville for their four-day Christmas break.

Several Razorbacks said many team members had watched The U, a documentary about the University of Miami’s football heyday in the 1980s that is part of ESPN’s “30 for 30” series, the night before the practice, which included some scrimmage work.

“We had a lot of fun in practice every time we scored and made big plays,” quarterback Ryan Mallett said. “It was a lot of fun, and we played really well.”

The Miami players had some outlandish celebrations of big plays during that era, acts that are not likely to be repeated by the Hogs.

“We won’t try to get penalties or anything,” tight end D.J. Williams said. “We’ll play hard and go through the dances in our mind, I guess.”

Said Coach Bobby Petrino: “It was nice to get that out of them in practice, because it certainly isn’t going to happen in the game.”

Eye on Wingo

Freshman tailback Ronnie Wingo is in good position to see his carries increase in the Liberty Bowl and in 2010, based on Coach Bobby Petrino’s assessment.

Petrino stayed up Sunday night in The Peabody and watched video of Arkansas’ most productive games and plays this season.

“I spent a lot of time ...just to try to get a sense of making sure you don’t forget what got us here,” Petrino said. “Ronnie really stood out in the way he ran the ball with power in those games.”

Petrino used to it

In the brief period after Florida announced Urban Meyer was stepping down as coach and before that was amended to him taking a leave of absence, Arkansas Coach Bobby Petrino’s name was mentioned by some ESPN analysts as a possible candidate to be the Gators’ next coach.

“I’m used to it by now,” said Petrino, who has a 53-21 record as a college coach at Louisville and Arkansas, including 12-12 in two seasons with the Razorbacks. “There’s times when your name’s thrown out there and you’re definitely not a candidate, and then there’s been a couple of times where I have been.

“When this first came out about Urban, the first thing I think about is, ‘I’m happy I’m healthy, I’ve got a great job at a great school.’ ”

Petrino said he can relate to Meyer’s health concerns because earlier this season Arkansas defensive coordinator Willy Robinson was taken by ambulance from the Broyles Center to the hospital and treated for what turned out to be an infection.

“It was very, very scary ... and something that you’re always concerned about, something that you understand that we don’t do things as football coaches right all the time,” Petrino said. “We don’t sleep enough, we drink too much coffee - as I sit here and drink coffee.

“We don’t take care of our bodies as well as we should.

I’m just hoping that Urban is going to be all right. He’s a great football coach. He’s done an excellent job at Florida.”

Meyer has won two national titles in five seasons at Florida and has a 56-10 record as the Gators’ coach.

“I’m not sure why he has so much stress,” Petrino said, “because he ought to be on this side, where you’re battling every week to win a game.”

Sports, Pages 28 on 12/30/2009

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