FAYETTEVILLE — With three practices and almost a full week under their belt, the Razorbacks are about to kick it up a notch in spring ball.

The NCAA requires a couple of days in helmets only, which Arkansas did Friday and Saturday, and it added shoulder pads Tuesday. That means Thursday will be the Razorbacks’ first day in full pads.

Head coach Chad Morris said it will be a “50/50” day where no more than half of the practice will feature live tackling. That will get the team prepared for an important scrimmage inside Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday.

“This Saturday is a big, big scrimmage day, absolutely,” Morris said. “We're going to be obviously simple offensively and defensively, but we want to see these guys compete and we want to see guys tackle in space, how they respond, decision making.”

Only the first 30 minutes of Saturday’s practice will be open to the media and it is closed to the public, so it is likely that there won’t be any first-hand accounts of the scrimmage.

However, it will play a large role in determining some possible position moves that the coaches have discussed amongst themselves. Morris did not mention any Tuesday, but defensive ends Nick Fulwider and David Porter were spotted going through drills with the defensive tackles during the portion of practice open to the media.

As Morris mentioned above, the scrimmage will be pretty basic because Arkansas is taking it slow in terms of installing the playbook. Instead, the primary focus early on this spring has been getting back to the fundamentals.

“We’ve just got to make sure our guys understand why we do what we do,” Morris said. “I anticipate (install) to pick up a little bit on Thursday and a little bit on Monday, but then after that we’ll probably back down just to make sure we’ve got all these young guys on board and fundamentals taught like we want them.”

Arkansas’ spring game is scheduled for April 6 at 3 p.m. and will be televised on ESPNU. For the entire spring practice schedule, click here.

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