Nutt Annoyed By 'Worst Practice' This Year

FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas' coaches weren't pleased with the effort they saw during Tuesday's practice, and they were brutally honest with their assessment of how things went.

"Just to be real blunt, that was the worst practice we had probably this year," Arkansas offensive coordinator David Lee said. "Definitely the worst Tuesday (practice)."

Arkansas coach Houston Nutt said he was particularly disappointed with the effort considering that he was able to give his starters some rest during last Saturday's 66-7 win over North Texas.

"They should be very fresh," Nutt said. "We didn't play that much Saturday."

The Razorbacks (2-2, 0-2 Southeastern Conference) will again be heavy favorites when they host Division I-AA's Tennessee-Chattanooga (1-3) in Little Rock on Saturday night.

Nutt admitted that perhaps his players got caught taking this week's opponent lightly, and that led to the lackadaisical practice Tuesday afternoon.

"Maybe they're looking ahead, I don't know," Lee said. "I'm 54 (years old), and they're 21 and 19 and 18. They've been there with us, and they weren't there today."

Nutt insisted that his players would show much improvement when they returned to the practice field this afternoon.

"We acted like we were too sore today," Nutt said. "We've got to come out here with a much better frame of mind."

Like last week, Nutt has divided the practices so that each day represents one quarter in a football game. Sunday's practice represented the first quarter, and Tuesday's practice was the second quarter.

Nutt said his team must rebound by having a "better second half" in practices today and Thursday.

"It was a rough day. We didn't come out here and exactly take care of business like we needed to," Arkansas quarterback Casey Dick said. "We'll have to go in and regroup and come out here tomorrow and get better and make some strides right where we left off today."