FAYETTEVILLE - Arkansas cornerback Will Hines had surgery Sunday to place two plates in his broken right arm - suffered in Saturday night’s 30-10 loss at Florida - and will miss six weeks at a minimum, Coach Bret Bielema said Monday.

The Razorbacks will be coming off an open date in preparation for their Nov.

23 game against Mississippi State in Little Rock at the end of six weeks.

“I know he Tweeted out - Will’s a tremendous Tweeter - I know he said his season was done, but he was informed today that there was a very good chance he could make it back for the last two regular season games, if all goes according to plan,” Bielema said.

“I know the doctors were very excited, just the way the bone set, and the way that it all kind of aligned.

Hopefully he’ll come back sooner than later, and … he was playing really good football.”

Hines, who had his arm set late Saturday in Gainesville, Fla., before joining the team flight home, wrote on his Twitter account, “Can’t believe my season ended this early man. … Can’t do anything else but stay positive and have faith.

… Trouble for y’all next year!”

Hines’ injury thrust redshirt freshman Jared Collins into the starting lineup with junior Tevin Mitchel at corner.

Defensive coordinator Chris Ash said Collins and junior Carroll Washington would compete this week for the second cornerback position. True freshman D.J. Dean, who has drawn spot duty at nickel back, would be next in line.

Injury report

Center Travis Swanson’s availability will be day-to-day this week after injuring his left knee at Florida.

“He came back, was a little bit tender on Sunday, but was walking around pretty good by the end of the day,” Coach Bret Bielema said Monday. “Saw him again today and he’s made improvement. I don’t know if we’ll have him in [today’s] practice. Might hold him out of [today] to get to Wednesday, and of course he’d be ready to go on Saturday.”

Swanson has started all 44 games of his career.

Bielema and offensive line coach Sam Pittman said Luke Charpentier played well at center for the final 30-plus snaps against the Gators.

Bielema said tailback Jonathan Williams, quarterback Brandon Allen and tight end Hunter Henry should all be OK after being dinged up at Florida.

Tube talk

Arkansas’ road game at No. 1 Alabama on Oct. 19 has been chosen for a 6 p.m.

broadcast on either ESPN or ESPN2 from Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The game is paired with LSU at Ole Miss on the ESPN networks, while Georgia at Vanderbilt and Auburn at Texas A&M were selected by CBS for its doubleheader with kickoffs at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on that date. South Carolina at Tennessee and Florida at Missouri have pre-noon kickoffs on ESPN and the SEC Network, respectively.

Clowney’s condition

The Arkansas staff expects South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney to return from the rib cage muscle injury that kept him out of Saturday’s 35-28 victory over Kentucky and play against the Razorbacks.

Clowney surprised the South Carolina coaches with his pre-game declaration that he was too injured to play.

On Monday, Gil Brandt, the former Dallas Cowboys executive who now writes for NFL.com, questioned if Clowney is getting bad advice from people who might not know how the NFL evaluates players with injuries.

Brandt wrote that Clowney is “not playing poorly this season, but he’s certainly not living up to the huge expectations.” Missed stops

Bret Bielema called missed tackling and free yardage on Solomon Patton’s touchdown catch and runs of 51 and 38 yards the most disappointing aspect of Saturday’s loss to Florida.

Defensive coordinator Chris Ash added, “Yeah, the most disappointing part of the whole night was just tackling in general in the open field. But I thought we did a lot of really good things. I thought we did show a lot of improvement in a lot of areas. But the No. 1 thing that concerned me was our tackling in the open field - at all positions.” The drops

Bret Bielema bemoaned the numerous dropped passes the Razorbacks had Saturday, noting that some of the throws were slightly off-target on still-catchable throws.

“I think most of those drops are me not putting it where it needed to be,” quarterback Brandon Allen said. “They were tough catches, would have been great catches if they could have made them.”

Allen completed 17 of 41 passes for 164 yards, and the receivers dropped a handful of catchable throws.

“I thought the kids played hard. I think it’s just a lack of focus,” receivers coach Michael Smith said. “When you have those opportunities, you have to take advantage of them, and our kids didn’t, obviously.”

Purifoy honored

Florida cornerback Loucheiz Purifoy won the Walter Camp defensive player of the week award for his performance in the Gators’ victory over Arkansas.

Purifoy forced a first-quarter fumble and returned an interception 42 yards for a second-quarter touchdown that put the Gators ahead to stay. The junior finished with four tackles and three pass breakups in addition to the two takeaways.

SIH shines

Arkansas punter Sam Irwin-Hill had his best game Saturday, averaging 45.7 yards on seven punts and putting three inside the Florida 20-yard line. Irwin-Hill’s career best 60-yard punt rolled dead at the Gators’ 8.

Worth noting

Arkansas kicker Zach Hocker moved into 11th place on the SEC’s alltime scoring list with 328 points, passing kickers James Wilhoit of Tennessee (325 points, 2003-2006) and Michael Proctor of Alabama (326, 1992-1995).

Sports, Pages 20 on 10/08/2013