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HawgBeat's coverage of Arkansas' spring practice is presented by Wright's Barbecue. Already serving up the best meats in Arkansas, you can now also find Wright's meat rub and sauces at Walmart and Walmart.com.

FAYETTEVILLE — For the first time since the end of the 2020 season, Arkansas was back in front of a crowd inside Reynolds Razorback Stadium on Saturday.

Head coach Sam Pittman opened up the Razorbacks’ first scrimmage of the spring to the public and a couple thousand fans took in about 120 plays on a sunshine-filled afternoon.

“I think we saw enough good on both sides of the ball to be encouraged and I think we saw enough things certainly that we need to improve on and work on,” Pittman said. “But I was proud on the organization of the scrimmage and the way our kids competed.”

Doors opened at 10:30 a.m. and - after some warmups and one-on-one competitions - the scrimmage portion of the practice began around 11. It lasted about 1.5 hours.

The Razorbacks had some traditional move-the-ball periods, including some “good on good,” as well as situational work like third downs, red zone, goal line and two-minute drill.

“We were very meticulous in the way that we went about it, trying to go through it with a fine-tooth comb,” Pittman said. “We knew we were going to have people in the stands. We didn’t want to look unorganized out there.”

Neither the offense nor the defense “won” the day, as each side had their moments, which was particularly pleasing to Arkansas’ second-year coach.

“There was some good and bad, I think on both sides,” Pittman said. “It wasn’t a scrimmage that was dominated by one side. And to be honest with you, as a head coach that’s a scrimmage you like.”

Here are HawgBeat’s biggest takeaways from the scrimmage…

Quarterback Play

This is the topic on the front of everyone’s mind with Feleipe Franks moving on to the NFL. Pittman already acknowledged that KJ Jefferson was the starter going into the spring, but he didn’t rule out the possibility of him getting beat out by Malik Hornsby.

It wasn’t a great day for either quarterback Saturday, as both of them missed some open throws and struggled with accuracy. Jefferson had some overthrows early and Hornsby had some later in the scrimmage.

The only official interception of the day was thrown by Jefferson, as he tried throwing a deep ball to Tyson Morris and Malik Chavis - playing safety - made a really nice play on the ball. (Walk-on Jacob Switzer also threw one to Darrell Wilson, but the play was blown dead for a sack before he threw the ball.)

“Honestly, we missed too many balls,” Pittman said. “We had some of the same things happening in practice. We’re holding on to the ball too long. … We’re either not getting open or we’re not understanding the defensive coverage. We just missed too many open receivers at the quarterback spots.”