FAYETTEVILLE – When Arkansas hit the practice fields Thursday morning, they were greeted with cool temperatures and a slight breeze.

As the day progressed, though, the temperature got up into the mid-80s, the humidity rose and the wind stopped blowing. Head coach Chad Morris finally got his wish: A hot day in full pads.

The change in weather resulted in the Razorbacks tapering off a little bit immediately after their halftime period, but Morris said the team finished strong in line good-on-good goal line situations.

“We needed a little bit of heat,” Morris said. “About midway through practice, the breeze stopped, heat kind of got on them a little bit and they pushed through. Had a little adversity hit us and I wanted to see how those guys responded and they did a real good job responding.”

It was Arkansas’ second day in full pads and Morris is starting to get a feel for how his defense tackles and which players are standing out.

After naming a few starters that you’d expect to be making plays, Morris mentioned a trio of linebackers – Hayden Henry, Dee Walker and Grant Morgan – as well as nickelback D’Vone McClure and defensive end Michael Taylor II as others who have made an impression early on during live tackling sessions.

“We’re a long way from where we want to be,” Morris said. “I know there’ll be a point in time in camp where we’ve got to back out of some live situations, but the only way you get better at tackling is you’ve got to tackle.”

He’ll get an even better look at both sides of the ball Saturday. Morris said the scrimmage will feature about 180 plays inside the stadium.

It will be the first time the Razorbacks have been inside the renovated Reynolds Razorback Stadium during the Morris era and several parents are making the trip to Fayetteville to watch. (The scrimmage is closed to media and fans.)

“I’m really hoping it’ll be somewhere around 100, 101 (degrees) on Saturday,” Morris said. “That would be awesome to see how these guys respond out there on the turf in the stadium.”

Here are a few other notes from Thursday’s practice…